Lets Talk About Villi

[Zprime]

Tested Positive for Celiac In March ( Mild to Moderate Villi Blunting )

No Symptoms, No Issues, Just Heart Burn.

I'm ok with the diagnosis for the most part, other than the constant fear and misinformation by Blogs ( On how we die early, 60% never heal, ect ect )

One thing I've been curious on is Villi.

When you look up ' how long do Villi take to heal ' , you are met with a bunch of different answers.

1) 48 - 72 Hours

2) 3 - 6 Months

3) 2 Years+

4) Never 

This is a pretty shocking difference, 72 hours vs 2 years vs never.

One thing I've been curious on is this... Lets assume you heal up, your Villi are normal and you are Glute free / Celiac.

Lets Assume the following night you get glutened, a bit gets in your meal and you get sick, So the villi get damaged.

Am I understanding that a perfectly healthy person will full villi can eat gluten just once, and have 2 years of healing ahead of them again? If that's the case it's impossible to heal ( I get glutened at least once a month by accident / cross contamination ).

 

Would it be a more logically approach to say Once Healed when you get Glutened ( once in a blue moon ) that the damage would be minimal? ( More like a week or two of healing )

 

I just don't buy the whole 2 Years + thing for villi to heal, I mean maybe if you ate gluten for 40 years of your life ( I can see that taking 2 years to heal ) but not if you are healed / healthy/ gluten free?

 

Anyone have anymore insight to this?

[kareng]

8 minutes ago, Zprime said:

Tested Positive for Celiac In March ( Mild to Moderate Villi Blunting )

No Symptoms, No Issues, Just Heart Burn.

I'm ok with the diagnosis for the most part, other than the constant fear and misinformation by Blogs ( On how we die early, 60% never heal, ect ect )

One thing I've been curious on is Villi.

When you look up ' how long do Villi take to heal ' , you are met with a bunch of different answers.

1) 48 - 72 Hours

2) 3 - 6 Months

3) 2 Years+

4) Never 

This is a pretty shocking difference, 72 hours vs 2 years vs never.

One thing I've been curious on is this... Lets assume you heal up, your Villi are normal and you are Glute free / Celiac.

Lets Assume the following night you get glutened, a bit gets in your meal and you get sick, So the villi get damaged.

Am I understanding that a perfectly healthy person will full villi can eat gluten just once, and have 2 years of healing ahead of them again? If that's the case it's impossible to heal ( I get glutened at least once a month by accident / cross contamination ).

 

Would it be a more logically approach to say Once Healed when you get Glutened ( once in a blue moon ) that the damage would be minimal? ( More like a week or two of healing )

 

I just don't buy the whole 2 Years + thing for villi to heal, I mean maybe if you ate gluten for 40 years of your life ( I can see that taking 2 years to heal ) but not if you are healed / healthy/ gluten free?

 

Anyone have anymore insight to this?

There is a lot that goes into all this.  Unfortunately, it isn’t as simple as you might think

When a GI doc takes a little sample of a small intestine ( villi are destroyed/ removed).  A Gi will tell you that that injury should heal, under normal circumstances, in 7-10 days approximately.  

For a Celiac, you can still produce antibodies for a few weeks, even after going gluten-free.  That assumes that you truly are completely gluten-free.   There is usually a bit of a learning curve and mistakes or left over gluten gets into your diet for a few weeks or months.  

Unfortunately, they have done studies to show that some people don’t seem to be healing on a gluten-free diet.  Why is that?  There are various reasons, but the most common one seems to be inadvertent gluten in the diet.  It is usually suggested that they do a “ gluten elimination diet” also known as “ the Fasano Diet”.  This restricts food choices for a few months, and often people can get back to a normal gluten-free diet after that.  

If you are healed and you eat a little gluten ( not on purpose I hope), no one really knows. It’s too small for current blood tests to find.  But the thought is , it’s minor , even if you feel like complete s$#& ( pun intended).  Your villi will heal quickly.  It could start up a bunch of antibodies and inflammation .... and that can take a while to leave you.  

You have only been gluten-free since March and glutened 5 times?  You might want to be extra careful for a few months and let yourself heal.  You may not have given your body enough actual gluten-free time to stop making antibodies.  It will be helpful for you to see how much the antibodies have decreased at your 6 month checkup 

[Zprime]

3 minutes ago, kareng said:

thank-you for the calm insight.

It's been interesting, With anti bodies and blood tests. I didn't have blood work done before my celiac diagnosis, but on the biopsy It said I was a 16 ( 5 - 10 being the normal range ).

When I did my blood work recently, everything was in perfect health, as in nothing abnormal, and my Celiak Screen ( as its called in Canada ) was negative, Iw as once again in the range ( 8 ) 5 - 20 being the normal range on this test. I'm unsure if it's an incorrect diagnosis , because in 3 months I appear to be ' fine ' , yet I've been on gluten my whole life, it's very confusing.

 

3 minutes ago, kareng said:

There is a lot that goes into all this.  Unfortunately, it isn’t as simple as you might think

When a GI doc takes a little sample of a small intestine ( villi are destroyed/ removed).  A Gi will tell you that that injury should heal, under normal circumstances, in 7-10 days approximately.  

For a Celiac, you can still produce antibodies for a few weeks, even after going gluten-free.  That assumes that you truly are completely gluten-free.   There is usually a bit of a learning curve and mistakes or left over gluten gets into your diet for a few weeks or months.  

Unfortunately, they have done studies to show that some people don’t seem to be healing on a gluten-free diet.  Why is that?  There are various reasons, but the most common one seems to be inadvertent gluten in the diet.  It is usually suggested that they do a “ gluten elimination diet” also known as “ the Fasano Diet”.  This restricts food choices for a few months, and often people can get back to a normal gluten-free diet after that.  

If you are healed and you eat a little gluten ( not on purpose I hope), no one really knows. It’s too small for current blood tests to find.  But the thought is , it’s minor , even if you feel like complete s$#& ( pun intended).  Your villi will heal quickly.  It could start up a bunch of antibodies and inflammation .... and that can take a while to leave you.  

You have only been gluten-free since March and glutened 5 times?  You might want to be extra careful for a few months and let yourself heal.  You may not have given your body enough actual gluten-free time to stop making antibodies.  It will be helpful for you to see how much the antibodies have decreased at your 6 month checkup 

 

[notme]

I went undiagnosed for 25 years.  I have been on the gluten free diet for 9 years.  I am still seeing improvements in my health and I am still adding in foods that I had eliminated because my body couldn't tolerate them.  so, I think the healing time has quite a bit to do with the amount of damage that has been done.  I figure 25 years worth would take longer than a person who developed celiac and then was diagnosed in a short amount of time.  unfortunately, welcome to the confusing world of this disease.   i'd venture to say that with your villi damage, you've been undiagnosed for quite a while.  everybody is different, though.  that being said, many doctors are undereducated about celiac and some are loathe to diagnose celiac because they lose $$ from treating your symptoms and complications.  not to mention there isn't a pill or medication to treat it, so they don't make money on ya there either.  I go to the dr to check my vitamin levels and what's gonna kill me now lolz cholesterol.  my vitamin levels are in normal ranges without supplementing any more.  but my villi MUST BE ABSORBING CHOLESTEROL lololz jerk body...  ?

that would be another thing to check is your vitamin/mineral levels - if your villi are damaged you won't be absorbing nutrients.  I would also venture to say that you are presently lactose intolerant, as villi tips are where the enzyme to break down lactose is produced.  hope you get it sorted out!

[Ennis-TX]

I know I got glutened for sure last year...it took over 4 months to get back to normal BMs and I still have to blend some food to make digestion easier while avoiding spices and limiting nightshades.  Think of one gluten exposure of a few crumbs triggering the body to attack for weeks and it slowly stops attacking before you can then start healing. Often it seems moody with various foods, spices, textures and acidic foods for months.

A few tips it took me a while to learn....do not eat out unless the restaurant is 100% gluten free or has a dedicated kitchen, this includes family and friends houses. Bring your own food and prep everything, read labels and avoid processed foods where you can. Be sure you read the newbie 101 thread to take precautions in your house by replacing cutting boards, condiment containers, scratched pots/pans, etc. Also some celiac people will react to oats just like gluten so remove them along with dairy. many develop other food issues so a food diary with meals and symptoms with limited foods per meal with help track them down.

Oh not sure how it relevant it might be to us Celiacs, but Enterade makes a drink to help heal villi damaged by chemotherapy in cancer patients and ease the symptoms of diarrhea. Figured if it helps heal villi then it might speed up the healing of celiac damage. https://enterade.com/patients/support-gi-health/