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True Or False

Random Guy

By Random Guy
in Coping with Celiac Disease

Recommended Posts

Random Guy Apprentice
Random Guy
Posted

i'm fairly new to all of this - diagnosed with celiac on 12/21/05, gluten free since 1/1/06

and i am all for being 100% gluten-free with no cheating

this guy i work with that has celiac also, told me that your intestines heal in a matter of weeks. any gluten will damage them again. and they will heal again in a couple of weeks. but there is some amount of 'scarring' damage that is cumulative (meaning the scarring on top of previous scarring gets worse and worse with each incident'

i don't remember reading that anywhere else.

anyone know if this is true? or false? or theoretically makes sense, but not proven?

thanks

rg

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darlindeb25 Collaborator
darlindeb25
Posted

To begin with it takes more then a few weeks to heal--some people take up to 5 yrs, average I think is around 2 yrs. I dont know if anyone truly knows how much damage is done by celiacs disease and a celiac must stay gluten free. Any gluten is too much. If you eat gluten on purpose, you are only adding to the damage already done. Sometimes we do get glutened by accident, we learn from those mistakes. When we go gluten free, we heal, but we cant really know what damage was already done, we can only prevent further damage from occuring. Keep at it! Deb

tarnalberry Community Regular
tarnalberry
Posted

All evidence suggests that the vast majority of people - who stay completely gluten free - do eventually completely heal. That is *not* all of them. The chemical reaction that is celiac disease (reacting to the gluten and destroying the intestines) can run for a week or two itself. Then there's time needed for repair of the damage caused during that reaction. So, theorectically, if you start with pristine intestines, have one gluten-ing episode, you may have gone through the reacting/damaging/healing cycle in four weeks, if you're a fast reactor and a fast healer.

But the 'starting with pristine intestines' thing is a HUGE assumption. It doesn't take into account daily contamination risks. It doesn't take into account any large scale damage that your body is trying to recover from if you ate gluten for a number of years earlier in life (where it could take many months or many years to completely heal). And it doesn't take into account the leftover chemical indicators of the inflammatory process in your intestines. These secondary chemicals can stick around for months, and from my reading, I would guess these are what play a large role in some of the more serious long term complications of celiac disease. (There is thought that other autoimmune diseases can be triggered by extended inflammatory cycles in the body.)

Claire Collaborator
Claire
Posted

All comments here address intestinal damage done by gluten. Why is it that the neurological damage that is real threat to people with Celiac is rarely ever mentioned. Maybe you can, over time, heal a damaged gut but how do you heal a damaged brain? Is gluten worth the risk? Claire

Merika Contributor
Merika
Posted

I'm guessing your friend was diagnosed as a small child and has never known (or remembered) being really sick with long-term damage. If glutened, he or anyone will feel like cr&p for a few weeks and then feel better. This has nothing to do with actual intestinal damage. He is simply uninformed.

Merika

Canadian Karen Community Regular
Canadian Karen
Posted

If you ate a little rat poison, you would get sick, then recover eventually.

If you ate it again, you would get sick, and recover again.....

Over the long haul, it would be safe to assume that you are slowing poisoning yourself to death.

Same goes for gluten. It is toxic to us. Sure, it won't kill us immediately, but the more exposure to it, the closer you are to it killing you.

Rachel--24 Collaborator
Rachel--24
Posted
anyone know if this is true? or false?

Umm....I would say false.

YUP...thats my final answer. :D

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minibabe Contributor
minibabe
Posted

If anyone knows, or it maybe different for everyone. But say that you are gluten-free for I dunno a couple of months and then you are glutened. You heal and then you are gluten-free for a year, then you get glutened again. The second time that you are glutened do you become more sensitive to it and it does more damage then the first time, or is the damage always the same amount and never gets more severe?

Hope that I worded it right (its kinda late :P )

Amanda NY

Canadian Karen Community Regular
Canadian Karen
Posted

The longer your body is free from gluten, the more sensitive it is to it when it is exposed to it.

For all those people who are suffering right now with celiac symptoms but don't know it is celiac, they are still basically functioning on a daily basis while consuming gluten, struggling until finally they get the proper diagnosis. Once they get their answer and go gluten free, it is like a breath of fresh air for the body. Six months later, expose the body to some gluten, and it is like a knock out punch in boxing.

I probably am not making any sense whatsoever since it is 2:30 in the morning and I am rocking back and forth in pain right now, but that's the best I can do under the circumstances!!!

Hugs.

Karen

minibabe Contributor
minibabe
Posted

Awww I am really sorry that you were up that late......I was up until about 1:00 <_<

You are making sense, I have heard it before I jsut didnt know if it was true or anyone had heard of that.

It is greatly appericated, Hope that you feel better soon :)

Amanda NY

Guest gfinnebraska
Guest gfinnebraska
Posted
The longer your body is free from gluten, the more sensitive it is to it when it is exposed to it.

For all those people who are suffering right now with celiac symptoms but don't know it is celiac, they are still basically functioning on a daily basis while consuming gluten, struggling until finally they get the proper diagnosis. Once they get their answer and go gluten free, it is like a breath of fresh air for the body. Six months later, expose the body to some gluten, and it is like a knock out punch in boxing.

I probably am not making any sense whatsoever since it is 2:30 in the morning and I am rocking back and forth in pain right now, but that's the best I can do under the circumstances!!!

Hugs.

Karen

I agree 100% Karen ~ Wow, you make great sense at 2:30 am!! Hope you are feeling better!!! :)

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