Confusion

[Heidi Johnston]

I got diagnosed with celiac disease 5 years ago, I accidentally ate gluten few months ago and didn't get sick and when I do, I get sick instantly. This year I've been getting sick randomly after I eat something that says gluten-free or eat anything at all. I finally tried to eat gluten to see what happens ever since that happened (accidentally eating something that was NOT gluten free and, which was normal batter) and I haven't got sick, what do I do?

[knitty kitty]

Welcome to the forum, @Heidi Johnston!

It's normal for the autoimmune response to calm down after being on a gluten free diet for a while.  

When gluten is reintroduced, the autoimmune response takes a while to gear up.  One exposure to gluten may not provoke a strong autoimmune response, but consistently eating gluten will.  Do NOT continue eating gluten.

Keep a food diary to help you track what is making you sick when you eat gluten free processed foods. 

Was the product labeled gluten-free but packaged in a facility that also makes gluten containing products?  

Are you getting sick after eating high carbohydrate foods?  Fatty foods?  Raw veggies?

"Randomly sick after eating anything at all" is rather vague.  

[Russ H]

  On 10/20/2023 at 7:57 AM, Heidi Johnston said:

I got diagnosed with celiac disease 5 years ago, I accidentally ate gluten few months ago and didn't get sick and when I do, I get sick instantly. This year I've been getting sick randomly after I eat something that says gluten-free or eat anything at all. I finally tried to eat gluten to see what happens ever since that happened (accidentally eating something that was NOT gluten free and, which was normal batter) and I haven't got sick, what do I do?

Expand Quote  

At least some people with coeliac disease can occasionally eat gluten without reacting to it. Coeliac disease has been known since the Ancient Greeks but despite being a specific food intolerance, its cause only began to be hypothesised in the 1940s and the exact cause established in 1952. With food allergies it is easy to establish the cause because the reaction and recovery are closed tied to consumption of the problematic food, but this is not the case with coeliac disease. This suggests to me that the cause of coeliac disease took so long to be established because symptoms are not closely tied to time of ingestion: with coeliac disease, symptoms gradually worsen and recover over a period of weeks and months of dietary consumption and exclusion.

I suspect that your random sickness is nothing to do with gluten consumption and could be caused by another condition such as IBS or a food intolerance, which are common. You may well be able to very occasionally eat gluten without evoking an immune response, but I think that if you do it regularly your body will react to it and your symptoms will return. 

[trents]

  On 10/20/2023 at 10:59 AM, Russ H said:

At least some people with coeliac disease can occasionally eat gluten without reacting to it. Coeliac disease has been known since the Ancient Greeks but despite being a specific food intolerance, its cause only began to be hypothesised in the 1940s and the exact cause established in 1952. With food allergies it is easy to establish the cause because the reaction and recovery are closed tied to consumption of the problematic food, but this is not the case with coeliac disease. This suggests to me that the cause of coeliac disease took so long to be established because symptoms are not closely tied to time of ingestion: with coeliac disease, symptoms gradually worsen and recover over a period of weeks and months of dietary consumption and exclusion.

I suspect that your random sickness is nothing to do with gluten consumption and could be caused by another condition such as IBS or a food intolerance, which are common. You may well be able to very occasionally eat gluten without evoking an immune response, but I think that if you do it regularly your body will react to it and your symptoms will return. 

Expand Quote  

@Russ H,

This is simply not true for many celiacs. Many of us reliably get violently ill in a short time after consuming gluten. With me, it's predictably about 2 hr. if I get a good slug of it. This is in contrast to being almost a silent celiac before diagnosis and going gluten free.

[Scott Adams]

Remission has been documented in celiac disease, and for some people it might take weeks or months for symptoms and damage to present, but if your original diagnosis was correct, eating gluten will lead to health risks, gut damage, and most likely symptoms.