When will the Diarrhea stop??

[DeeDee95]

Hi y'all.

I became gluten sensitive after my son was born, not Celiac though. Eliminating gluten did the trick at the time, but I could always ingest a little as a treat. A dessert here and there usually. I lived fine being 'almost' gluten free for 16 years.

Then I got Covid and my small intestine went bananas. Everything bothered me it seemed, but I had weeks of feeling fine so I didn't think anything of it. In June, I treated myself to a gluten dessert as I always had and had diarrhea for days with everything accept gluten free bread, bananas, berries, boiled chicken, low fat fish and some cooked vegetables. Dairy, sugar, fat all seem to set it off.

My stool was tested - no parasites, viruses, toxins, nothing. Calprotectin was low, so fine. But Pancreatic Elastase was slightly low at 187. 

My doctor thinks Covid may have prompted the autoimmune disease of Celiac to come out. (Two members of my family had it.) Of course, biopsy is the only thing that will confirm it and I can't get schedule for that for two months. (sigh)

What should I do/eat to make the diarrhea stop?? I've even stopped eating dairy and no change. It's been six weeks and doesn't seem to be letting up.

Thank you all so much for your time!!

Love and healing bellies,

Dee

 

[plumbago]

While you're still symptomatic and hopefully while you're still eating gluten, go ahead and get the complete Celiac (blood test) panel, and then you can think about discontinuing gluten to resolve the diarrhea.

[trents]

Yes, you must be eating normal amounts of gluten (2 slices of wheat bread or the gluten equivalent) daily starting now and continuing up until the day of the blood draw. If discontinuing dairy didn't help, you might as well go back to it. Dairy is a potent source of nutrition.

Have you tried Imodium for the D?

[Wheatwacked]

Choline supplements will help your digestion.  It is essential to fat digestion, is absorbed in the small intestine (Celiac Malabsorption Syndrome) Less than 10% of us eat even the minimum daily recommended amount.  Best dietary source is liver, eggs, steak.  Though we do make some indogenously, it is not sufficient.  The RDA can be reached by 3 eggs a day, or 10 cups of cooked brocolli a day.  

1 hour ago, DeeDee95 said:

Dairy, sugar, fat all seem to set it off.

"Steatorrhea occurs when the digestive system is unable to absorb dietary fats. Instead, these fats pass through the intestinal tract with waste products. The stools tend to be oily, large, pale, very foul-smelling, and often float in toilet water... https://badgut.org/information-centre/a-z-digestive-topics/pancreatic-exocrine-insufficiency/"

Choline is a fat emulsifier and reduces the surface tension in fat and bile. Choline is one of the salts you will see in healthy bile which allows the body to breakdown fat into fatty acids for the building of the brain, supplying cell membranes, and dozens of critical processes of the body. It also breaks down the plaquing that you see from toxic buildup in the brain causing amyloid plaque. We are again back to healthy bile as the universal detergent and crucial element for a healthy nervous system. CHOLINE - THE MOST IMPORTANT NUTRIENT OF THE BODY

With the Covid, get your vitamin D plasma tested and raise it.  It may take high dose vitamin D supplement to get your immune system back in control.  Vitamin D is like the internet, it connects to everything.  It took 6 years at 10,000 IU a day to get my plasma up to 80 ng/ml (200 nmol/L) homeostasis level .  It varies with season according to your uv exposure, but a "full tank" is 80 ng/ml.  At 29 ng/ml (72 nmol/L) you are running on fumes. Might not make it home.

"Vitamin D can modulate the innate and adaptive immune responses. Deficiency in vitamin D is associated with increased autoimmunity as well as an increased susceptibility to infection. Vitamin D and the Immune System"

 

[Taradaktull]

On 7/17/2023 at 3:42 PM, DeeDee95 said:

Hi y'all.

I became gluten sensitive after my son was born, not Celiac though. Eliminating gluten did the trick at the time, but I could always ingest a little as a treat. A dessert here and there usually. I lived fine being 'almost' gluten free for 16 years.

Then I got Covid and my small intestine went bananas. Everything bothered me it seemed, but I had weeks of feeling fine so I didn't think anything of it. In June, I treated myself to a gluten dessert as I always had and had diarrhea for days with everything accept gluten free bread, bananas, berries, boiled chicken, low fat fish and some cooked vegetables. Dairy, sugar, fat all seem to set it off.

My stool was tested - no parasites, viruses, toxins, nothing. Calprotectin was low, so fine. But Pancreatic Elastase was slightly low at 187. 

My doctor thinks Covid may have prompted the autoimmune disease of Celiac to come out. (Two members of my family had it.) Of course, biopsy is the only thing that will confirm it and I can't get schedule for that for two months. (sigh)

What should I do/eat to make the diarrhea stop?? I've even stopped eating dairy and no change. It's been six weeks and doesn't seem to be letting up.

Thank you all so much for your time!!

Love and healing bellies,

Dee

 

Hi! I started having diarrhea 2 months after going gluten free. I eliminated dairy and that helped but didn’t completely solve the problem. It turns out I am now also intolerant of nightshades: tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, potatoes. When I don’t eat either dairy or nightshades, the diarrhea clears up. Keep a food diary and pay attention to the correlation with the digestive issues. Good luck!

[knitty kitty]

@DeeDee95,

How are you doing?

Covid and other illnesses can cause one to use up lots of their vitamin stores to fight the infection.  This means we can become depleted in B vitamins quickly.  Deficiencies in several B vitamins can show up as diarrhea.  B12 Cobalamine, Thiamine B1, and Niacin B3 or Tryptophan.  

Since you've been gluten free for such a long time, have you been supplementing with vitamins and minerals?  Have you tried taking a B Complex supplement to see if symptoms improve?

Hope you're doing better!