How soon do you get symptoms after gluten? Confused

[Haveaniceday]

I'm really confused trying to track what causes my reactions because it seems that I don't get obvious symptoms for 24-48 hours after ingesting. I will feel some fatigue and allergy type symptoms/head fog for the first 24 hours, but not enough to say definitely glutened. Then I'll get gastro upset (yellow diharrea, stomach pain etc) which lasts for about a week but doesn't start until 48 hours after, get worse over a few days then subsides. It's like it takes a few days for my immune system to really rev up.

It does seem different every time though. Is this possibily related to the amount of gluten? Ie big amount symptoms come on hard and fast, small amount a slow burn?

[Scott Adams]

This can vary greatly from individual to individual. Super sensitive people claim they get severe symptoms only minutes after ingesting gluten, while other may have no symptoms at all. Some people say it takes 24-48 hours, which can make it very hard to identify the source of contamination. How long and severe the symptoms are can also vary greatly. Generally speaking, the more damage your gut has, the worse your reactions can be, and you can even react to other foods that don't contain gluten, like dairy, corn, soy, etc. Once your gut heals some people react less, and can add some of the non-gluten things they react to back into their diets.

[Haveaniceday]

5 hours ago, Scott Adams said:

This can vary greatly from individual to individual. Super sensitive people claim they get severe symptoms only minutes after ingesting gluten, while other may have no symptoms at all. Some people say it takes 24-48 hours, which can make it very hard to identify the source of contamination. How long and severe the symptoms are can also vary greatly. Generally speaking, the more damage your gut has, the worse your reactions can be, and you can even react to other foods that don't contain gluten, like dairy, corn, soy, etc. Once your gut heals some people react less, and can add some of the non-gluten things they react to back into their diets.

Thank you Scott, that's really helpful. I'm curious, could you please elaborate on the reactions to foods like soy etc. I have been already diagnosed as lactose intolerant, my Dr said that may improve in time, but my reactions to diary are just a tiny bit of tummy upset. I react to soy also, but it isn't too extreme. I'm wondering if other food intolerances would cause symptoms similar to the immune response to gluten? Or if they would be markedly different/less severe?

[Scott Adams]

This varies a lot from person to person as well, but I experienced similar gut feelings when I ate corn, chicken eggs, tomatoes and dairy (casein) before and after my diagnosis. This was likely due to the leaky gut situation caused by my flattened villi, and I also had internal bleeding due to the celiac lesions found during my biopsy. I had to also eliminate those foods for a couple of years after my diagnosis, but was able to slowly add them back after my gut healed.

I now plan to take a ALCAT food sensitivity test, and will be writing about my results, as it's possible that I really should still not be eating certain foods. Long before my diagnosis I had to take both food and pollen allergy shots, and scored very high on food allergy testing for various things, including a super high score for wheat. My allergist told me to only eat wheat once or twice a week, and I ignored him (I was 18 or 19). I still wonder what might have happened had I followed his advice. Perhaps the celiac trigger would never have been turned on.