Got glutened 2 weeks ago, still feel awful

[Noobette]

I got glutened at a restaurant two weeks ago - I ate half a flour tortilla. This was the first time I’ve had a sizable gluten exposure since my diagnosis a couple of years ago. The other times I’ve accidentally eaten gluten (that I know of) was in small amounts (a few baked potato chips one time; salad dressing another time) and I had no symptoms. 

I was fine for the first couple of days, then the symptoms I had for months before my diagnosis came back: chest tightness, stomach tightness, bloating, and my bowels are a bit off. The symptoms are not getting better; if anything, they ate getting a bit worse. I think I’m luckier than most because my symptoms aren’t that bad, but it’s still a drag to feel icky all day.

How long can I expect this to last? Are my symptoms all caused by inflammation? I’ve been drinking bone broth and ginger tea, and will start taking L-glutamine. Any other suggestions?

[cyclinglady]

I am sorry that you are still feeling icky!   

[Victoria1234]

Could you be coming down with the flu instead?

[Celiac4762]

8 hours ago, Victoria1234 said:

Could you be coming down with the flu instead?

Like they said. First, make sure it's not another illness or disease. 

If not, I totally understand you. This happens to me rarely, but it has happened. When you get glutened your Celia in your small intestine die off. It takes about two weeks for them to grow back fully. I am not a gastroenterologist, but I can assume the more gluten you eat, the more damage it will do to your intestinal lining. Because of this damage you are more susceptible to pathogens. Compromised immune system, malnourished, weak, all of the fun stuff. 

 

For me, when I get glutened. I usually get sick soon after. So I am extremely adamant about keeping any microscoping form of gluten away from me. 

 

But it I guess what I'm trying to say is what you are experiencing is quite normal. For a lot of us at least. If you eat a lot of gluten it will do lots of damage, and inevitably cause some inconvenient problems. 

 

Take vitamins, rest, and keep your head up. It will be over soon friend. I believe in you! I hope you feel better and can get back on track soon!

[Victoria1234]

2 hours ago, Celiac4762 said:

When you get glutened your Celia in your small intestine die off. It takes about two weeks for them to grow back fully.

I tried to look up celia in the small intestine and couldn't find it. Not sure what you are talking about? Never heard of this.

[ravenwoodglass]

50 minutes ago, Victoria1234 said:

I tried to look up celia in the small intestine and couldn't find it. Not sure what you are talking about? Never heard of this.

I think what he was referring to was the villi.  Celia are found in the lungs.

[Victoria1234]

1 hour ago, ravenwoodglass said:

I think what he was referring to was the villi.  Celia are found in the lungs.

So with one glutening it kills your villi? And it takes 2 weeks to grow back? I'm confused as I've never heard it quite this way before.

[Ennis-TX]

7 hours ago, Celiac4762 said:

Like they said. First, make sure it's not another illness or disease. 

If not, I totally understand you. This happens to me rarely, but it has happened. When you get glutened your Celia in your small intestine die off. It takes about two weeks for them to grow back fully. I am not a gastroenterologist, but I can assume the more gluten you eat, the more damage it will do to your intestinal lining. Because of this damage you are more susceptible to pathogens. Compromised immune system, malnourished, weak, all of the fun stuff. 

 

For me, when I get glutened. I usually get sick soon after. So I am extremely adamant about keeping any microscoping form of gluten away from me. 

 

But it I guess what I'm trying to say is what you are experiencing is quite normal. For a lot of us at least. If you eat a lot of gluten it will do lots of damage, and inevitably cause some inconvenient problems. 

 

Take vitamins, rest, and keep your head up. It will be over soon friend. I believe in you! I hope you feel better and can get back on track soon!

It takes months to years for the villi to grow back....your antibodies can go back down and stop attacking your insides after 2-6weeks normally for some longer. Were you referring to the antibodies going down after 2 weeks? 
Don't worry about the misstatement, happens to me when I do not get enough coffee.

On 10/4/2017 at 3:30 PM, Noobette said:

I got glutened at a restaurant two weeks ago - I ate half a flour tortilla. This was the first time I’ve had a sizable gluten exposure since my diagnosis a couple of years ago. The other times I’ve accidentally eaten gluten (that I know of) was in small amounts (a few baked potato chips one time; salad dressing another time) and I had no symptoms. 

I was fine for the first couple of days, then the symptoms I had for months before my diagnosis came back: chest tightness, stomach tightness, bloating, and my bowels are a bit off. The symptoms are not getting better; if anything, they ate getting a bit worse. I think I’m luckier than most because my symptoms aren’t that bad, but it’s still a drag to feel icky all day.

How long can I expect this to last? Are my symptoms all caused by inflammation? I’ve been drinking bone broth and ginger tea, and will start taking L-glutamine. Any other suggestions?

Symptoms change constantly with this disease, the amount, form, way it was made, and anything that might have denatured or altered the proteins can effect how severe your reaction is. Last time I had a decent amount of gluten I was on the floor with motor loss vomiting. Another time more recently has been slight CC issues, Even experimented eating a known CCed Hemp protein that had 6ppm for a week. Slowly caused numbness and sick feeling, fatigue, constipation, irritability, brain fog, and the nerve damage by the end of the week had me dropping everything (I have gluten ataxia like reactions with nervous system getting attacked)
Seems like your handling it right, I might suggest perhaps cutting out all grains? Everyone has a different body geared in a different way. For me no/low carb, no grains, or meat is the way. Others thrive on easy to digest carbs, like rice gruel made in a bone broth with minced slow cooked meat and herbs. Find what works for you to make you feel better. Try a low inflammatory diet perhaps? Always keep a food diary and record what you eat and how you feel later, Try changing it up and experiment. Try one day with no carbs, try another removing a certain food for a few days. Find YOUR regime of good foods that work for your fuel.

[Noobette]

I’m pretty sure I don’t have a flu or bug, since I don’t have nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, malaise, or body aches. Just this damn pressure and bloating! I’m feeling quite a bit better the last couple of days, though - maybe it was the L-glutamine I started taking, or just time.

i already eat a low-carb primal (paleo + dairy) diet, so pretty much no grains.

Thanks for all the support and suggestions!

[ravenwoodglass]

9 hours ago, Victoria1234 said:

So with one glutening it kills your villi? And it takes 2 weeks to grow back? I'm confused as I've never heard it quite this way before.

No one glutening isn't going to destroy your villi. If it did we wouldn't need to do gluten challenges for weeks for testing.  When destroyed they do regrow fairly quickly but I think the inflammation and other effects on the GI tract can impact folks for longer. Myself I get a growling tummy within hours and very painful D 3 days later but then the GI issues stop but the skin and neuro problems can last a couple weeks or more. That is because glutening will activate the antibody reaction which can impact pretty much any organ and that takes some time to resolve in most.

[Celiac4762]

 yea sorry I meant villi lol. I'm studying for a test in microbio and we have to know all about the mucociliary elevator and such so Celia is stuck in my head. And yes it takes months for villi to grow back. most friends and family don't understand the concept of antibodies so I just say the villi fall off and grow back for shorthand talk. Yea I typed that at like 2 am and was totally out of it. But ennis is right.

[Courtney33]

My sister and I are both Celiac. We had differing symptoms. Her stomach got way worse than mine. Have you noticed that often products will be gluten free, soy free and dairy free? This is because for some unknown reason, that there is a connection between those three. Presumably, the gluten has ruined the intestines to the point that soy and dairy are hard to digest or process. So I'm thinking that perhaps that gluten exposure temporarily aggravated your dairy tolerance. My sister had to eliminate dairy and soy, after 5 years she can happily add dairy again, but soy is evil - google it, especially soy and stomach enzymes, yikes!