Concerning symptoms after diagnosis and changing to gluten-free diet

[Spencer88]

 

I was diagnosed with celiac on October 4th 2016. That day I switched my diet to gluten free everything. For a week or two after the diagnosis I felt alright. Anxiety was my worst symptom until recently. I haven't had a solid stool in about 8 to 10 days. I changed my cookware, sanitized my kitchen throughly, did just about everything I could prior to this cronic diahrrea. I did eat out once the day the symptom started. But it was at a place that claimed everything was gluten-free. (This could be one issue).

Since eating out, for the past 10 days my diet has been boiled chicken and white rice with a little bit of the broth from the chicken and Greek yogurt. Every now and then a small piece of an apple. I did this for about 5 days straight and noticed that I had some hard stools and then it became challenging to go to the bathroom. On day 6 I added a small amount of carrots and spinach to the boiled chicken thinking that might help me go. It did, the next morning my stool was diarrhea again. So now I'm back to white rice and boiled chicken with a little bit of the broth from that. I added Gluten free oats yesterday morning and this morning along with a small slice of an apple. 

My questions are one, is diarrhea just something you are going to experience when you are first diagnosed with celiac and changing your diet? 

Second, is there any way to reduce this? I've been drinking lots of water to stay hydrated and my muscle twitching and cramps have gone up due to all this I believe.

Finally, am I doing the right thing with this simple diet? I'd like to start some vitamin D3 and magnesium since I've heard that helps in the healing/recovery process. But I know magnesium may not be a good idea while having bouts of diarrhea. My first visit with my GI doctor is November the 9th.  

Is there any other foods I could eat right now?

 

Thank you for the support!

[cstark]

51 minutes ago, Spencer88 said:

I've been drinking lots of water to stay hydrated and my muscle twitching and cramps have gone up due to all this I believe.

I am sorry to hear that the muscle twitching and cramps have increased.  It's hard when you see symptoms either persist or increase after going gluten-free.  Your body is adjusting to the change.  Someone in this forum stated it's a form of detoxification, and it's going to take time.  The results to be seen are going to be more long term rather than short term.  So hang in there, it will get better down the road.

As far as my medical knowledge goes, I do not believe there is no correlation between how much water you drink to the increase in muscle twitching and cramps.  It could be your body is depleted in essential trace minerals such as magnesium, sodium, and potassium.  Could be a something to ask your doctor about.  Keeping hydrated as you are having bouts of diarrhea is important, but also drinking something like Gatorade is also something to keep in mind.  Your body could be depleting the minerals and nutrients you so desperately need to function properly.  Gatorade has some of those nutrients being depleted.  I say Gatorade because it does not have the high fructose corn syrup like PowerAde does, but has some of the minerals and electrolytes you may be flushing down the toilet.  If you don't like Gatorade, then Pedialyte is another alternative to try.   

With the simple diet you are on, it could be your body is not able to tolerate the rice as a grain right now.  I don't know if you are a veggie eater, but an idea is to go on a veggie and meat diet short term.  This would mean no diary, no grain, and no sugar.  If you do milk, something to substitute is using Almond milk.  it's not bad.  After a couple months or so, start to reintroduce grain and dairy slowly to see how your body reacts to the new foods.  Something to keep in mind is to take it slowly because your body still changing and systems are sensitive to any change right now.  Any small change may tip the boat so to speak.  Going on this diet may also help with some of the nutrients and trace minerals your body is probably needing right now.

Your appointment with the GI specialist may also shed some light on the situation.  Before you go, write down questions to ask the specialist and take that list of questions with you.

[AmberJ]

You may have a lot of strange symptoms for the first year. Your body is healing! But as for frequent diarrhea, it could be just the detox from gluten. I know it sounds crazy, but I had diarrhea, anxiety, and sleep disturbances often in the first month after going gluten free. If you're anything like me, it'll be a thing where you KNOW you got glutened when it happens. Diarrhea, while still a symptom of it, is in and of itself different than getting glutened. When I get glutened I get what I call "angry bubbly gut", like there's hundreds of loud, aggressive, angry bubbles in my gut. They can be heard from across the room as they round the corners of your intestines. 

Please keep in mind that these first few weeks are going to be different, sometimes uncomfortable, but just overall different.

The body can only really deal with one issue at a time. If your toe is cut off, and you have a large cut on your finger that's healing....you'll feel the toe. If you have a dairy allergy and Celiac Disease, your body will just keep slugging along, and when elimination of gluten eases the body's load, only then can it deal with the dairy allergy. That's just an example but I hope you know what I mean.

A good idea, endorsed by all my doctors, is to track as much as you can. I opened a new calendar on Google just for health. I'm sure there are apps that will do it for you. I track when I have BM's, any strange symptoms, what I ate before I got sick, etc. On more than one occasion it has helped me individually to track what patterns exists between how I feel and what I eat. Not to mention that it's extremely to doctors.

I wish you luck, the next year will be a journey but you will learn a lot and get better!

Be well! Much love!

[Spencer88]

Thank you all so much for taking the time to respond to me! Really means a lot 

I guess I'm going about this right and wrong. I thought that eating carbs such as rice, something simple like that would help reduce the diarrhea or at least change it to a normal stool. 

I just noticed that when adding veggies like carrots and spinach my stool became loose again. So as for the recommendations to try a veggies and proteins diet for a while...I'm not against trying anything that would help but I don't know if that's wise to do at this point. 

I noticed a few of you mentioned almond milk. Ive been drinking Blue Diamond unsweetened almond milk for years. I love the stuff! The only dairy that I'm intaking right now is the Fage Greek yogurt with active cultures. I know that getting those probiotics from the active cultures helps towards the healing process. So far I haven't noticed any issues with consuming that.  

I guess what I could use are a couple of ideas for some meals/foods to try that I could eat given my current symptom (diarrhea) and since I'm only a few weeks into being diagnosed. 

Any suggestions or links to suggestions would be awesome! 

Thanks again!

Spencer 

[Rowan13]

Be aware Pedialyte has zinc in it and when I was drinking it recently I started feeling ill. I know it's small amounts of zinc but when I looked up people having a reaction to zinc lozenges I had the same kind of symptoms.  But you can purchase powdered unflavored electrolytes in packets that you just add to water or any cold beverage and they only have trace amounts of basic electrolyte salts. When I had diarrhea recently a doctor recommend I add some electrolytes because he said the body gets overly flushed out of these. You can just sip water with it in or any other cold drink throughout the day or a few times a day.

[Rowan13]

I also just wanted to note that Blue Diamond almond milk contains carrageenan which has been linked to gut permeability and inflammation and has been removed in Europe from infant formulas. However there is no conclusive information.   I just wanted to point it out just in case. One study, but it was with animals, showed it caused the animals to have diarrhea and inflamed guts. One idea would be to go without it for a few day or a week and see if there is any difference. It also has "natural flavors" which often means msg. Almond milk can be made at home quite easily with a blender (just water plus almonds) but I totally appreciate you may not have time or energy to do so. I think there are brands without carrageenan but it's hard to find any without some kind of additives. I'm just throwing this in here if you've been consuming more of it lately.

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Best wishes

 

[Rowan13]

Actually just found that this link has a list of carrageenan free products including almond milks.

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But obviously lists can be wrong & just because they are carrageenan free doesn't mean they don't have other additives.  This may have nothing whatsoever to do with any of your issues or concerns, I just wanted to share this just in case. 

Take care ♥

 

[plumbago]

On 10/31/2016 at 3:43 PM, AmberJ said:

A good idea, endorsed by all my doctors, is to track as much as you can. I opened a new calendar on Google just for health. I'm sure there are apps that will do it for you. I track when I have BM's, any strange symptoms, what I ate before I got sick, etc. On more than one occasion it has helped me individually to track what patterns exists between how I feel and what I eat. Not to mention that it's extremely to doctors.

It is good advice to track as much as you can. I try to do this in conjunction with detailed study of the body's anatomy and physiology (GI tract specifically). Both pieces are what I need to know and knowing them works for me, personally. There are other things that could be causing your D, but it's early days yet, and the advice to track is good.

Just a totally blind suggestion, but could you add in the veggies in more micro amounts? For example, not both carrots and spinach, but maybe just a small quantity of chopped up spinach. If it were me, I might go for the less sweet of the veggies (carrots can be sweet) since white rice is kind of sweet.

Keep us posted!

[Ennis-TX]

The harder stool might be a fiber issues along with magnesium. Might try adding a easy to digest seed or a nut butter to your diet. The carrots was starch carb and might have been the trigger to the D(perhaps a unsalted vegetable broth instead for now). My suggestion would be try adding a tsp-2tbsp of almond butter or perhaps make a batch of chia pudding (1:4 ratio chia seeds whipped in with almond milk and allowed to sit a few hours then stirred up well into a pudding sweetener should be avoided for now) This can add some fiber, and some minerals and vitamins to your diet. Start off in moderation and slowly introduce small amounts. After healing I might suggest other seeds or whole nuts but for now you want to be nice to you gut with softer easier to digest forms. There will be a detox/withdrawal like effect for most people for the first 1-6 weeks. Crazy cravings, mood swings, binge urges, was like a drug withdrawal for me, and my digestive system went complete wacko. You might later find you have several intolerance and a bunch of foods no longer settle with you. Few other deficiencies might develop and you need to probably be tested to find out what they might be.  Stay strong with it and feel free to ask question from this community, as always talk with your doctor/dietician and try to work out a diet and lifestyle for you as everyone is different.

[Spencer88]

Thank you all for taking the time to respond to me! Means a lot especially since I got diagnosed with Celiac 5 weeks ago. 

A lot has happened since I posted this. I am a Dad now. My first child was born November 4th. Its been challenging mostly since my energy levels are already depleted from the malabsorption that I continue to experience. 

Good news is, I haven't had a loose stool/diarrhea in about 5 days. Stools are all normal. I took a little bit of what everyone told me to do and applied it day by day.  

I cut out white rice and replaced it with brown rice and noticed that the bloating and gas I was experiencing was reduced. When I felt good about introducing greens, I started in with steam green beans cut up into small pieces and only a hand full of them. Later I tried baked cauliflower with a small amount of olive oil, salt, and a small amount of pepper. Again this was only a few pieces of cauliflower. I also started to bake chicken breast with the same ingredients as the cauliflower, cut that up into small pieces and this has been my staple meal for lunch and dinner. Breakfast the last couple days has been Cream of Brown Rice which is just brown rice blended and dumped into a pot of boiling almond milk. Its almost like grits. I add salt and its amazing. 

I have been snacking on apples, almond butter, almonds, greek yogurt and sweet potatoes cut into wedges, sliced, and fried in a little bit of coconut oil. Everything I have talked about has been sitting will with my stomach. Every now and then I will get this bubble gut sensation going on but nothing more. Stools have been good too! 

Someone mentioned almond milk as being an issue. I switched to almond milk years ago but hardly ever used it. Not really the cereal type of person. Before my symptoms I used to lift weights about 5 days a week so my diet was very strict. I focused on higher protein and lower carbs (not to low). I love eggs! I ate eggs every day the past few years at least 3 every morning. Once I was diagnosed I noticed that eggs made me feel kind of sick so I cut them out of my diet 4 weeks ago and I have been feeling better since. I read somewhere that eggs won't help while you are healing a leaky gut which is one of the main issues of Celiac. It said to cut eggs out for about 6 weeks and try to re-introduce slowly to see how you do.  

Other things I have been doing. I added Vitamin D3 to my diet about a week ago and that has been going well. Its a 400 UI pill made from cod and safflower oil. I also added Licorice Root tea. Plan on adding magnesium probably tomorrow because the muscle twitching is still an issue. I guess it will be for some time. 

Been having a lot of headaches, probably because I haven't been getting much sleep because of the baby. I was wondering what you guys take for headaches. Can I take Ibuprofen? Also what other foods do you guys recommend for right now. Trying to eat a wholesome diet for the next 6 to 12 months. No processed gluten free foods for now lol. 

Thank you guys!

Spencer   

     

[Rowan13]

I have just discovered baby bok choy, lightly boiled and arugula lettuce (Organic Girl brand) and they are both very tender and pretty easy to digest. I just got a bunch of cookbooks from the libray on asian cooking and soups.  I'm especially interested the the more brothy kind of asian dishes. I find pears digest well for me. If you can eat fruit. I think they are lower sugar (not postive about this) and they have loads of fibre. I sometimes use shredded napa cabbage in salads, but kind of in small amounts.

 I'm only begining to learn about cooking gluten free meals but Allrecipes has quite a few recipes to consider if you search gluten free meals.

Congrats on the baby boy!!! xD

[Spencer88]

Thank you Rowan13! My father was telling me that soups are probably the best way to go since you can get so many nutrients out of them quickly. I'm going to look up some Asian soups my self now and see what I can come up with. I love Asian foods, but a lot of those sauces are pumped with gluten. I have had baby bok choy once and I can't remember how it was cooked but it was so good. So you boil yours, I'm guessing just a few minutes to keep it tender? Do you add anything into the water, salt, olive oil? I'm going to try these greens out. What do you do for carbs during the day? I'm mostly brown rice and sweet potatoes along with some apples. Any recommendations? 

[Rowan13]

Yes you have to be really careful because a lot of Asian food (noodles, sauces) does have wheat, but you can use the rice noodles and "glass" noodles. I'm hoping there will be some in the store that are labelled gluten free because you still have to be careful where things are processed. I think on the newbie page there are some food substitution suggestions and there are alternatives to soy and other sauces that contain wheat. I wonder if a gluten free Asian cookbook exists? For the bok choy I brought about 3-4 cups of water just to a boil, put in the bok choy and put the lid on leaving a little askew to let some steam out, and then turned down water to simmer/slight boil for about 5-10 minutes I think. I'm pretty bad for just making things up as I go along. c: That time I kept some of the water and added some rice and ate it as a kind of soup. Cubed sweet potatoes would be nice in it too though. You could just put it over rice with other vegetables. I'm avoiding nightshades right now so sweet potatoes, winter squash and rice are what I prefer. 

I don't know where you live but there's lots of fresh winter squash available right now. I think butternut and acorn are supposed to be the mildest. You can bake it with olive oil drizzled on it and put rice or a rice mixed with nuts or something inside after it bakes. I think your father is spot on about soup. You can also roast pumpkin, sweet potatoes or butternut squash and then puree them into a hot soup you have made. Or just cube them and cook them with the soup.  Wild rice is awesome in soups too because it stays kind of chewy. Wild rice is not really rice but a grass. (I live in Michigan and near Canada so it's kind of popular here!)  Rinse it well though before you cook it. If you try anything new I would just have a little bit, like 1/2 cup and wait like half a day or even 24 hours to see how you feel. I know that sounds extreme but I've realized it's better that rolling on the floor in agony. D: Oh, you could put a splash of olive oil in any of the dishes for a little extra flavor and fat. I like to put a little pink sea salt too. I've had some bad reactions to mushrooms but I'm really hoping I can be able to eat some, maybe I need to wait a few weeks. But they are so nice in asian food and soups and have really good nutrients. I know the Asians also add bean thread noodles (?) and bean sprouts a lot, and I haven't tried them yet. I also for ages have wanted to try home made sprouts that you make in the fridge in a mason jar. You have to be careful to rinse them to keep them fresh and eat them pretty quickly but I just have a feeling they would be good for me. They are really juicy and tender.  I have this theory that it is best to not eat dried out things and to eat only stuff that still has moisture in it. Like I love crackers and chips but I feel like my body is happier eating squash, etc.  Just my weird opinion, lol

I was freaking out for awhile about all this but suddenly had an epiphany the other night that, wait, this is an adventure. I wasn't planning on doing any of this but maybe I'll find out about more really cool foods and ways to eat than if I just got to stay in the convetional "You can eat anything that comes in a box" mindset. Yeah, I've been really sick and that's been horrid but at least my body is saying "Get this stuff the 'ell out of me!!" and maybe I'll be so much healthier for it. I ignore all the articles online and all the statistics that are negative because I also know those studies are always biased and skewed and I'm just me. Also those studies don't account for people's attitudes, outlooks, lifestyle, philosophy, etc. I found a cat who has FIV. He was starving, flea ridden, had a fever and when I found out he had FIV I cried all night thinking Oh My God he's going to die,and why?The horrible vet was like "Well you can have him put down" so I told her NO! and she looked at me like I was crazy & when she left my kitty in the exam room by him self for a few minutes he apparently had to pee and pulled over the garbage can full of paper and peed in there! hahaha! I was so proud of him! but when I calmed down I started reading & lots of people have FIV cats. They can live perfectly healthy happy lives if you feed them really good food, keep them warm at night, cuddle them, play with them, tell them they are the most handsome cat ever. So I decided to ignore any negativitly about it and just treat him as I would any cat - with lots of fun and love and hugs and also a sense of humor. Oh yeah I get worried when he occasionally gets sick but for 95% of the time he's totally good! Sorry, off on a tangent.... :3 Anyway, I forge my own path & I've decided I'm going to be fine. I'm sure I'll still react to stuff but then I'll just fine tune things. My cat didn't ask to be born and abandoned but he just gets on with being a cat, and honestly he's my role model.  c: Very best wishes to you and your family. I'm sorry for this short novel. :/ If  I think of any recipes or ideas I'll msg you.  ♥

[squirmingitch]

I make this & can tell you it's fabulous!!!! Eat what you want, freeze the rest for future meals. I put a dollop of sour cream in the center of mine. YUM!

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