Can I be just barley intolerant?

[samcoyle]

I've never had any kind of symptoms of intolernace until I had a few pints of beer one night and the day after my stomach was awful. I sort of ignored it and stopped drinking beer, one night trying a bit too much whiskey and had the same symptoms? These are the only times I've got any kind of reaction from drinking really, other drinks not having the same effect.

An other thing I was wondering was whether I could have gluten-free beer, if my intolerance doesn't appear to be gluten? If the removed gluten from barley means it'll be alright or not.

Cheers

[Scott Adams]

Welcome to the forum!

There are two categories of gluten sensitivity, those with celiac disease (~1% of people), and those with non-celiac gluten sensitivity (~10% of people). Currently there isn't a test for those in the latter NCGS group, but both groups still must avoid all gluten to avoid symptoms and negative health effects.

It sounds like you might be in the NCGS group, but you didn't mention if you're currently on a gluten-free diet or not, so I'm not sure. Does bread or other wheat products bother you? I'd recommend getting a blood panel done for celiac disease, but you need to be eating gluten daily for 6-8 weeks beforehand for the test to be valid.

Whiskey is distilled and should be gluten-free, but regular beer does contain a small amount of gluten. Does other hard alcohol, for example 100% agave tequila cause you similar issues? I ask only because it may just be the higher alcohol level causing your system issues.

[samcoyle]

7 hours ago, Scott Adams said:

Welcome to the forum!

There are two categories of gluten sensitivity, those with celiac disease (~1% of people), and those with non-celiac gluten sensitivity (~10% of people). Currently there isn't a test for those in the latter NCGS group, but both groups still must avoid all gluten to avoid symptoms and negative health effects.

It sounds like you might be in the NCGS group, but you didn't mention if you're currently on a gluten-free diet or not, so I'm not sure. Does bread or other wheat products bother you? I'd recommend getting a blood panel done for celiac disease, but you need to be eating gluten daily for 6-8 weeks beforehand for the test to be valid.

Whiskey is distilled and should be gluten-free, but regular beer does contain a small amount of gluten. Does other hard alcohol, for example 100% agave tequila cause you similar issues? I ask only because it may just be the higher alcohol level causing your system issues.

Thanks for clearing that up.

It is interesting you ask about the alcohol, as that is the other correlation between the two, and I have wondered whether that would play a part. But, the symptoms are significantly worse if I consume one of those two drinks, since then not drinking them.

And also no, I'm not on a gluten free diet and regularly consume gluten, sorry I should have mentioned it. Thanks for your help.

[Scott Adams]

My thought here is that you could have either celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity, and now would be the perfect time to get tested, since you haven't gone gluten-free. 

Also, since you're eating gluten, it also may be possible that you've eaten more gluten, for example pasta or pizza, before you had the whiskey, but there is really no way to be sure. I will only say that whiskey should be gluten-free, and there are good gluten-free beers out there as well: