Does He Need To Give Up Dairy Too?

[Luvs to Scrap]

My DH started the gluten-free diet last Oct after the doctor diagnosed him. He started feeling somewhat better immediately and got conistently better until his eighth month when he commented he was doing great. Now, in the last month or two, he seems to be having a lot of gluten symptoms again. At first I thought it was CC since he eats out with the guys once a week. But he has been being careful and when I suggested dairy he said he was fine with it. I told him that a lot of people on the forum's doctors had them give up dairy while they were healing. Now he is beginning to wonder if there is something to dairy making him sick. He ate a burger with gluten-free bun and then a sundae Wed night and got sick. Then Thursday for lunch he had a shake and got really sick. He doesn't seem to react to a little cheese on a casserole or pizza but seems to have problems if his meal is mainly dairy. I am actually impressed that he is considering it since he was so adamant about it not being the problem before.

Anyway, I was wondering if there is a test we need to do to figure out if dairy is the problem or if we just eliminate it for awhile. (I know more about celiac than our doctor--his words, not mine--so I don't want to bother asking him. I thought I would ask you since you are the experts!) By eliminating dairy does that mean EVERYTHING like when I eliminated gluten from his diet? He wants to know if dairy damages his villi like gluten or if it just causes similar symptoms. Do any of you off dairy have any tips to give us? It seems like most of my gluten-free recipes seem to call for some form of dairy or another. Also, is this possibly a temporary thing or is it life long like being gluten-free is?

Thanks in advance for all of your help. This forum has been so wonderful for me to help with adjusting to my DH and DS's diet. Kendra

[AndreaB]

I'm not sure about whether it can damage the villi or not but it is pretty sticky and so is gluten.

As far as testing.....you can get rid of all dairy for 6 months minimum and then reintroduce small amounts. You could also go through the expense of an allergy test and/or enterolab's dairy intolerance test. I am mildly allergic to dairy but not intolerant. I had both of the above mentioned tests done. I can help out with recipes if you are interested.

[Green Fingered Gaelic]

OKAY.

Celiac 101.

Gluten is sticky and so is glue. But thats not what damages the villi. Our problem is that our immune system detects gluten, and then releases enzymes into the intestine. These are what cause damage the villi. For years I was misinformed that the sticky gluten held down the villi, its not true.

Here is the hardpart. The villi in the intestine house lacto bacilli (among others), these bacteria help us digest dairy. When a celiac experiences damage to the villi they may also experience damage and loss of lacto bacilli. Hence they become lactose intolerent. If the villi are routinely damaged they may sometimes not recover enough to house lacto bacilli ever again, hence the celiac becomes permentally lactose intolerent.

Here is another hardpart. The less gluten I intake the more sensitive to it I become. Most recently I'm avoiding all processed foods.

There are two schools of thought.

1)Intake regular gluten, be less sensitive. Its a live fast, die young mentality. usually leads to other auto immune diseases.

2)Withdraw from eating out, live in a glutenfree enviroment, trust no one. Start feelin normal again.

Here is the good part. I sometimes have difficulty with dairy after gluentation, so far I've allways got better.

Here is another good part, yes there is a simple and easy to test to see if your allergic to dairy. Its a blood test, one little prick and its all over.

Best wishes to your husband.

Am glad he has a nice wife like you, looking out for him. Its difficult being a celiac. When your own immune system starts trying to kill you it can feel like the whole world is against you. With a good wife, its a better life.