Gluten Challenge and Covid Vaccine

[Hev75]

Hi - I'm now 5 weeks into the gluten challenge and I have my first Covid vaccine booked for next Friday here in the UK. A sudden thought that I wanted to just query - if my body is currently having crappy reactions to gluten (be it Coeliac or not), does this mean I could potentially have a worse reaction to the vaccine than say my partner, who does not have issues with gluten? Might I currently be more prone to reacting against something foreign in my system, given how the body reacts to Covid in the first instance?

Has anyone else had experience of this? It's clear my body is going through some 'stuff' at the moment and of course I want to have the vaccine as soon as I can so I can resume a normal life again, but wondered if this might be something which I should flag up with them when I go for the jab. I'll be going for it on the exact 6 week mark of starting the challenge so not sure if that's a good or a bad thing! 

Any thoughts would be appreciated. ☺️

[Scott Adams]

It's unfortunate to hear that you have to go through a gluten challenge. I seriously doubt the people who administer the vaccine would have an answer for you, but given the known risks associated with getting covid-19 I would still proceed with the vaccine. I've not seen any published studies on this specifically, but you can review some of the articles we've down on covid and celiac disease here:

https://www.celiac.com/search/?q=covid-19&type=cms_records2&updated_after=any&sortby=newest&search_in=titles

[RNGayle]

On 4/16/2021 at 4:24 AM, Hev75 said:

Hi - I'm now 5 weeks into the gluten challenge and I have my first Covid vaccine booked for next Friday here in the UK. A sudden thought that I wanted to just query - if my body is currently having crappy reactions to gluten (be it Coeliac or not), does this mean I could potentially have a worse reaction to the vaccine than say my partner, who does not have issues with gluten? Might I currently be more prone to reacting against something foreign in my system, given how the body reacts to Covid in the first instance?

Has anyone else had experience of this? It's clear my body is going through some 'stuff' at the moment and of course I want to have the vaccine as soon as I can so I can resume a normal life again, but wondered if this might be something which I should flag up with them when I go for the jab. I'll be going for it on the exact 6 week mark of starting the challenge so not sure if that's a good or a bad thing! 

Any thoughts would be appreciated. ☺️

Just wanted to see how everything turned out for you getting the vax during your gluten challenge. I was gluten free when I got Covid in the Summer of 2021. It wasn’t any worse than a case of bronchitis.  I understand that natural immunity is better than the vax.  I hope you did okay with the jab.

[Scott Adams]

On 1/6/2022 at 3:19 PM, RNGayle said:

I understand that natural immunity is better than the vax.

If you are lucky enough to have mild or few symptoms after getting covid this may be true, but the best approach to reduce your risk of severe covid symptoms and death would be to get a safe and effective covid vaccine, rather than to get covid. 

[RNGayle]

On 1/7/2022 at 12:37 PM, Scott Adams said:

If you are lucky enough to have mild or few symptoms after getting covid this may be true, but the best approach to reduce your risk of severe covid symptoms and death would be to get a safe and effective covid vaccine, rather than to get covid. 

Respectfully, I disagree. My husband barely got any symptoms at all and only got tested because he was exposed to me who was exposed to my sister who picked it up from her adult grandson. The only severe cases that I know of,personally, that ended poorly involved morbid obesity and/or diabetes. My husband and I regularly take good multivitamin supplements, Vit D3, Vit C, Zinc and Magnesium. In the last few months we added Quercetin which helps absorption of Zinc. It comes from Apple peels. Just my two cents.

[Scott Adams]

Hopefully you realize that the tiny number of personal experiences that you are sharing here are scientifically insignificant. Using science and statistics is the best way to protect the most people. Using anecdotal evidence from one person is not a good way to try to protect society from a pandemic.

[RNGayle]

On 1/9/2022 at 12:49 PM, Scott Adams said:

On 1/9/2022 at 12:49 PM, Scott Adams said:

Hopefully you realize that the tiny number of personal experiences that you are sharing here are scientifically insignificant. Using science and statistics is the best way to protect the most people. Using anecdotal evidence from one person is not a good way to try to protect society from a pandemic.

I do hope people can think for themselves. Science should always have the capacity to be questioned.

[Scott Adams]

The definition of "Science is the pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based on evidence. Scientific methodology includes the following: Objective observation: Measurement and data (possibly although not necessarily using mathematics as a tool) Evidence."

So when it comes to controlling infectious diseases, science is by far the best tool mankind has ever created. 

In order to question the current scientific consensus on the best way to deal with this pandemic it would take a great deal of scientific training and knowledge on your part, not to mention the accumulation of better evidence if your hypothesis doesn't agree with the scientific consensus, and just saying "I hope people can think for themselves" isn't enough. What does that even mean? I thought for myself when I got vaccinated, the first two times, and got my booster last month--and I wasn't just thinking of only myself when I did this, but thought of others in society whom I'll never meet, because my choice will help protect them too--and I thought for myself when I realized that there is a broad consensus among medical experts that this approach will save lives, and will be the fastest way to end the pandemic.

Science and vaccines have ended worse pandemics in the past, and have even eradiated diseases like small pox from the planet, so why would this approach not work now? Should we stop using engineers and science to build air planes, computers, cell phones, etc., or do you think that people should "think for themselves" and get into airplanes designed by people like Mike Hughes, a self taught engineer? https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51602655. No thanks, I'll stick to following science, and the advice of those who are a lot smarter than I am when it comes to such things.