Strategies After Getting Glutened

[Heather22]

Hi,

I was wondering if any of you have any strategies after you get glutened. I know some people go on a clear liquid diet for a week and some just don't eat for 2 days. I have thought about cleansing, smoothie diet, etc.

Any interesting strategies used?

[Lisa]

Heather:

I am certainly not an expert at this, but when I am "glutened" I try to drink plenty of water. What you have ingested is already there. Plenty of water will counter the "Big D" issue that comes for most of us with gluten. It will keep you hydrated. What is going to happen will happen

Some times you just have to let it take it's course. It may take a day or three or even more to feel better and it will be different from one person to the next. Keep Hydrated as that will create other issues.

Hope this will help

[jknnej]

Well it's different for everyone. For me the main issue is nausea so I keep Phenegran in my house and I lay down, take the drug, and sleep for a day! I caution you, though, that Phenegran makes you sleepy so you have to take it with plenty of time for rest. When I'm that sick I can't work anyway so I stay in bed.

[pokerprincess]

Hi,

I was wondering if any of you have any strategies after you get glutened. I know some people go on a clear liquid diet for a week and some just don't eat for 2 days. I have thought about cleansing, smoothie diet, etc.

Any interesting strategies used?

Heather,

I have found that not eating is very effective. It is

a little hard but works. Another thing I do for my

stomach if it is swollen and bloated is to drink

a little potatoe vodka. It kind of acts as a sterilizer,

according to my sisters doctor, and kills the infection.

The sooner after being glutened the better. This works

for me and my sister.

Best regards,

K

[RiceGuy]

I'd try to help the body eliminate the gluten. Apples, dried prunes, etc are good. The soluable fiber might help "capture" the stuff and hopefully keep some of it away from the body, minimizing the reactions. Green leafy veggies are also good for the gut, so I'd be focusing on those too. That's just a guess on my part, but it seems logical.

Fortunately I haven't had any accidental glutenings yet, but the intestinal damage is still quite obvious. The fiber rich foods seem to be particularly helpful. I round out the meals with other types of stuff too, to keep things in balance. I try not to overdo it.

And lots of water is truly a must. Before going totally gluten-free, I couldn't drink enough.

[codetalker]

I usually know within 3-5 minutes that I have consumed gluten. Metamucil has proven very effective for me. Taken immediately, it goes a long way to limit the reaction. When I travel, I always take some pre-measured packets, just in case.

Other than that, I generally opt for high-fiber, bland, easily digested foods. They seem to clean things out after gluten consumption.

[jerseyangel]

I try to drink more water and have hot tea. I pretty much eat normally, if my stomach gets empty, I get nauseous, even when glutened. I feel better if I can lay down on my back--that kind of relaxes my insides. Beyond that, I jut have to wait it out

[Carriefaith]

I was wondering if any of you have any strategies after you get glutened. I know some people go on a clear liquid diet for a week and some just don't eat for 2 days. I have thought about cleansing, smoothie diet, etc.

Any interesting strategies used?

For me it depends on how I feel. If I feel nauseated, I will not eat at all until the nausea goes away, which can be for about 24 hours. If I am not feeling nauseated but am having the opposite problem, I will just eat very lightly for a few days. And if I am not feeling either, I will just eat normally.

[CeliaCruz]

Another thing I do for my stomach if it is swollen and bloated is to drink a little potatoe vodka.

I like that suggestion best of all...for some reason. (By the way, Poker, which vodkas are potato? It seems that the "better brands" are all grainbased.)

Any thoughts on why modern science hasn't invented something (preferably OTC) that will minimize (or totally negate!) the damage that an accidental glutening causes? Like, if you're lactose intolerant, you can take Lactaid, right? Why isn't there a "Glutaid" or something like that? Is there someone -- a drug company or something -- who we could write to/pester about this?

Life would be a hundred times easier for me if something existed that would enable my body to absorb an accidental glutening. Even if I still had to keep a gluten-free diet, that would be fine. But if I could take something before I went out to dinner at a new restaurant or a friend's house that would handle a contamination, my life would rock.

There's probably a really good scientific explanation for why nothing like this exists -- you'd think there'd be a chemist with Celiac who'd make it his/her life mission to invent such a thing.

[tarnalberry]

Any thoughts on why modern science hasn't invented something (preferably OTC) that will minimize (or totally negate!) the damage that an accidental glutening causes? Like, if you're lactose intolerant, you can take Lactaid, right? Why isn't there a "Glutaid" or something like that? Is there someone -- a drug company or something -- who we could write to/pester about this?

It's being worked on, by a number of people, in a number of places. It's HARD.

First, the disease is not *that* well understood - there are a number of theories, but there isn't a "this is the key, and it's proven" bit to attack. Many approaches are being looked at, and some have not paned out.

Second, lactose intolerance is a different ball game. If you miss a bit of lactose - if the enzyme doesn't break up all of it and some goes through the intestines undigested - you won't really notice. Sure, the bacteria in your gut will metabolize it and produce some waste products, but in such small quanitites that you don't notice any symptoms from it at all. In the case of celiac, however, *any* gluten that makes it to the intestine is going to cause an immune reaction to start, which means intestinal damage. The chemical challenge of guaranteeing a reaction is carried to completion in a dynamic environment like the stomach is huge.

Third, there isn't a huge market for it yet (not many diagnosed), so the research is being done by universities and small groups who don't have the funding of major pharmaceutical companies.

Fourth, the actual work being done is on dealing with the gluten before it starts a reaction. You can't do a lot for it afterwards, because the cascade of reactions continues even after the gluten is gone, and consists of chemicals your body makes itself. There's work on blocking some of these chemicals, but the ramifications of doing this aren't fully known yet.

At least one study is in the process of conducting human trials (there's a post on it here somewhere as they're currently taking volunteers), but there's a lot of work to do to get this done, and the mechanism by which researchers believe celiac damage occurs has only been discovered in the past few years.

[RiceGuy]

Any thoughts on why modern science hasn't invented something (preferably OTC) that will minimize (or totally negate!) the damage that an accidental glutening causes? Like, if you're lactose intolerant, you can take Lactaid, right? Why isn't there a "Glutaid" or something like that? Is there someone -- a drug company or something -- who we could write to/pester about this?

I just happened to mention this recently too. My thought is based on the fact that proteins are broken down into simpler structures using enzymes. Therefore, it should be possible to have an enzyme that can break down the gluten protein molecule, right? That's sorta what the immune system is attempting to do anyway, as I understand it. The thing is, you'd probably have to "sprinkle" the antidote on your food, and wait before you eat it. That would make a sandwich quite difficult to entirely "fix", and if you did, it would probably make it fall apart. So you'd essentially end up with a mushy thing on your plate. It might work for soups/liquids, though the consistancy would probably change (thinner most likely), depending on the amount of gluten, and how important it is to the thickness and such.

Taking it internally with the gluten doesn't seem like a good idea since there would still be some gluten left for the body to react to. You'd really have to get all of it, and before consuption I think.

So these problems are my guess as to why it isn't so feasible. Chemically it is, but keeping the food paletable at the same time is another matter.