Celiac Questions

[starlight1221]

I'm being tested for celiac on Monday, but this week has just been pure hell for me because of the waiting. I've definately got some GERD issues, and my mom has GERD and ulcers so it's kinda expected. Celiac doesn't run in my family, but I started to suspect celiac when I got heartburn to a piece of bread and now I'm in a panic. My mom doesn't think I have it, but I have a few celiac questions I can't find the answer to and answers might help to put this in better perspective for me.

-Are you more likely to get celiac-related heartburn if you eat something with wheat in the afternoon/evening, or is it a 24/7 problem? My heartburn/regurgitation never comes after I eat breakfast, only usually mid-afternoon/evening, and usually never when I'm falling asleep.

-I've had IBS since I was born. I had a colonoscopy a few years ago and diagnosed with true IBS because my large intenstinal walls were inflammed and I had no other large intestinal diseases (they didn't do celiac testing). Since celiac is a small-intestine thing, can celiac cause the large intestinal walls to become inflamed?

-Is it possible for someone with celiac to change to a diet of almost completely wheat products and have the IBS symptoms go away? Right now, everything I eat has a high wheat concentration (seriously, basicially if it doesn't say CONTAINS: WHEAT, I don't eat it) and my stomach has NEVER been better, aside from this blasted acid reflux issue I'm having.

-If you slip up and eat gluten, do you have the same reaction every time? Like, I have specific problems to specific foods, not just one general reaction. Heartburn to certain foods, gas to miniwheats, cramps to too many chocolate chip cookies (three is fine, 10 is not), and if I have a butter crust on pizza (not regular pizza, just the butter crust ones), I'm in the bathroom within 15 minutes, and (sorry TMI) once even found a whole tomato piece in the toliet. Since my whole diet is wheat, wouldn't I be having these symptoms 24/7?

The only reason I even suspect celiac is because of the bread issue....and it seems to only happen with burger buns or rolls, not white bread. I have poptarts every morning with no ill effects, and when I had Life cereal every morning before I got sick of it, I was even better.

Thank you so much for any answers you all can give me.

[Guest cassidy]

I too have had reflux my entire life. I had surgery for it when I was 10. I found out about celiac because I was about to have a second surgery for reflux and decided to do more research.

Your questions are hard to answer. Symptoms are different for everyone. Since going gluten free my reflux is gone. However, if I eat something I shouldn't, I get reflux. It took about a month being gluten free before my reflux went away. Now that I'm feeling much better I notice reflux with other foods and I have started realizing I'm allergic to other things. I never knew that when I felt like I was refluxing everything.

For me I have mostly the same symptoms every time I'm glutened. The problem is, like I said above, I'm finding other things I can't tolerate. So, I may not feel well, and it may not feel like when I'm glutened, but it may be hard to tell what made me feel that way. Also, symptoms can be delayed so you might not be able to say this carrot made me feel this way. And, at a meal most people eat so many ingredients that it is hard to tell which one made you sick.

My experience has been that it takes a while for your system to heal for you to really figure out what symptoms are caused by what. If you are constantly eating wheat it doesn't mean you will be in the bathroom every 5 minutes. But, if you go off gluten for a few months and then get glutened, you may be in the bathroom all day.

My recommendation would be to try to go off gluten. Give it at least 2 weeks; that is how long it took me to figure out when I was glutened. I had to get better before I could figure out I was having a reaction. The gerd took a lot longer to get better, but I'm off all my medication (I was on aciphex twice a day) and doing great.

The blood tests aren't always accurate, so just keep that in mind. Good luck.