Gluten or lactose

[Emily45]

Hi im new here. Couple years ago began having symptoms, stomach pain, gas, bloating, diarrhoea occasionally and recently feeling sick, dizziness. And I thought it might be lactose so cut out lactose. symptoms didn't  go away completely but they were better. But I think I was wrong I was getting confused symptoms are similar. Everytime I eat bread I get very bad stomach pains and gas when the bread said it was vegan friendly. Sometimes I will be really bad overnight when I haven't eaten any lactose. Took me a while to work it out but think my problem is with gluten not lactose. I've heard that gluten intolerance can mess up your bowls and stop u producing enough lactose ? Is this true and has anyone else had this problem confused over which is making me bad I'm now leaning towards gluten but would like people's thoughts. 

[GFinDC]

Hi Emily45,

Welcome to the forum!

There is an enzyme called lactase produced by the gut lining cells (villi).  This enzyme breaks down lactose, a sugar in milk.  Without the villi the enzyme isn't produced and the dairy sugar can cause digestive problems.  Bacteria love to eat sugar.  So people can get gas and diarrhea.  So, lactose intolerance is a common problem for people with celiac disease.  Lactose intolerance sometimes goes away after being on the gluten-free diet for several months.

If you suspect celiac disease (like I do in your case), then you should keep eating gluten and get tested.  You have to be consistently eating gluten for the celiac tests to work.  It is possible, though very unpleasant, to go off gluten and then go back on it for testing later.  But people who do that seem to have worse symptoms than before stopping gluten.  Sometimes people can't even finish the 8 weeks of gluten eating for the blood tests or 2 weeks of eating gluten for the endoscopy test.

There is a "Newbie 101" thread stickied in the "Coping With Celiac" section.  It has more info on testing and such.

In the meantime you can try lactase enzyme pills, but it is better to just go dairy free for a while IMHO.

Edited June 16, 2018 by GFinDC

[Emily45]

Thanks for the advice :-) 

[PK-432]

As still you are on gluten free diet.  You should go for gene test of celiac disease; HLA Typing Class II. Because for gene test it is not required to be on gluten diet. If you test come back positive then you should go on gluten diet for at least 8 weeks to go for blood tests of celiac disease which includes TTG-IGG, TTG-IGA, Total IGA, EMA -IGA, AGA (ANTI GLIADIN ANTIBODIES ). Best of luck