Do You Have Stomach Pain Because Of Gluten?

[ebrbetty]

Hi Guys, I'm going back to my Gastro on Friday, the last time I saw him he insisted that celiac disease DOES NOT cause severe stomach pain and that my borderline positive blood tests [i was one month gluten-free at the time of test] means nothing..I went on to say I get severe stomach pain, so bad I'm on the floor crying day after day, he said celiac is not the problem, I told him I think other ppl get pain too, he said then they have something else wrong, they don't have celiac if they are having stomach pain...GGGRRRRR

if you have or had terrible stomach pain now or before going gluten-free would you please share your experience's with me,just a quick post of how the pain felt, how lond it lasted, where you had the pain etc.. I want to print them out and bring them with me to my appointment, see what he has to say..I'm guessing he'll say we all just think we have problems with gluten!!

thank you all for the help, I appreciate your time!

Hugs Betty

[AndreaB]

I had severe stomach pain a few years ago and even though it wasn't that common recently my doctor would have been willing to run the Celiac panel. I didn't do it since I had been gluten light for 1 1/2 months. My numbers through enterolab are low so I don't know that it would have registered.

I still get stomach pain if I get glutened but it's not severe.

They took xrays and everything. They told me to take something like gasx if I had those problems. Don't know if those really helped or it just cleared as it went through the digestive track.

[jerseyangel]

Hi Betty,

When glutened, I get stomach pain, in addition to the nausea and diarreah. I would describe it as having been kicked in the stomach.

[megzmc3611]

Betty,

I too get SEVERE stomach/intestine pains when glutened. Sometimes are worse than others. There are times that I am keeled over on the floor crying for about 12-16 hours....excruciating pain with NO remedy. My primary doctor actually prescribed me painkillers to take for when this happens..those lessen the pain somewhat but not completely! The severe pain slowly subsides after about 16 hours, and then I experience less excruciating pain and discomfort for about 3-4 days. It seems like I can feel the pain moving it's way down my intestines and through my stomach....very hard to explain...but just awful awful awful....

[kbtoyssni]

I get stomach pain, too. Stomach pain is more like a constant ache. I also get intestinal pain which is more of a sharp, stabbing pain. Both make me want to curl up in a ball and moan. Staying curled up is the only thing that lessens the pain.

[Guest melannen]

When I'm glutened I have a constant stomach ache that lasts for about a week. Nothing too serious, kinda of a burning gnawing ache that just won't go away; but it makes me very nauseous and it becomes hard to force myself to eat. I haven't yet found anything that helps, other than not getting glutened in the first place

And I'm not sure if it counts as a stomach problem, but.....

Before I went gluten-free I would regularly get severe pain just below my left ribs. The pain was incapacitating, the only thing that seemed to help was laying flat on my back and stretching my arms above my head (essentially lengthening my torso). This did not eradicate the pain but it did enable me to be able to breathe. I had MANY tests and my doctors never found anything wrong; they finally decided it was all in my head. After I started eating gluten-free they lessened...now they're gone

[suzannabanana]

Before I went gluten-free back in March, my life revolved around my stomach and pain. I came home from work very uncomfortable nearly every night. Yoga and stretching helped, but it was pretty inconvenient to have to roll around on the floor for a half hour before I could even think about the evening activities. I am not a crybaby, took me 10-15 years to speak up enough to get diagnosed w/ Celiac via scope, blood tests all normal but my villi was linoleum slick instead of shag rug in texture. I am not completely asymptomatic 5 months later, still tweaking the diet, but the stomach pain is more the exception now than the norm. My saving grace was finding a gastro that has a daughter with Celiac, so he really gets it.

[Mamato2boys]

My two year old son complained about his tummy hurting several times. My husband also gets really nasty heartburn/reflux when he eats gluten.

[ebrbetty]

thank you all so very much..this is just what i was hoping to hear, not that I want any of you in pain, but its good to know others feel the same. I will show this to my Dr!!

megan, you described my pain very closely, its just terrible, I also get awful heartburn.

[megzmc3611]

thank you all so very much..this is just what i was hoping to hear, not that I want any of you in pain, but its good to know others feel the same. I will show this to my Dr!!

megan, you described my pain very closely, its just terrible, I also get awful heartburn.

I know, it really is awful. If a non-celiac had a day in the life of a glutened celiac, they would never look at us funny for anything again!

I hope you don't get these pains after eating at Rancho CHico!

My sister went this weekend with her husband...I had other plans and was unable to make it...

But soon I will!

[jerseyangel]

Heartburn! I'll add that I never had reflux until I went gluten-free. It got so bad that I had to go on Prevacid and my allergist said that it was causing my bronchial spasms.

It's all connected.

[kbtoyssni]

Oh, yeah, I forgot all about the heartburn. And it just occured to me - celiac is a digestive disorder, why the heck would your doctor think you can't have stomach pain??? Hello, the stomach is part of that digestive system, and when you're eating stuff it can't deal with, it's no wonder people are in pain.

[JenKuz]

This may not be very helpful, since I have yet to be diagnosed, but my symptoms are a match, my doctor thinks celiac is the most likely explanation (just waiting to get in for my biopsy), and I've responded to gluten-free diets twice.

The pain I get is probably intestinal, but it's severe, in the mid right quadrant. It's worst when I eat wheat, but at this point the damage is probably so bad that I can't digest much of anything, so every time I eat, there it is. When I haven't eaten, it's a twinge, when I eat, within a couple hours it's a stabbing, shooting, radiating sort of pain. Last night I was in tears from it. Well, they were also tears of frustration, but the pain is terrible. The worst part is that every pain killer hurts my stomach even worse. I've tried them all.

The heartburn is an even bigger problem than the intestinal pain. It radiates from the stomach up to my mouth, basically, and it lays me flat out when it hits. Antacids help in the short term, but I have a feeling they're compounding the problem so I try to keep them to a minimum. This is the kind of pain that keeps me from sleeping, wakes me many times each night, moaning and groaning. I've never had reflux before in my life (I'm 28) until adding gluten back to my diet the most recent time, three months ago. When I did, the symptoms went from bad to worse. Now I'm gluten-free/gluten-light...trying to be gluten-free, but I'm traveling a lot so it's hard.

I guess I'd say, none of this pain seems to be in the stomach itself necessarily, but it's pretty much my entire abdomen from chest to hip.

I hope that helps!

[IrishKelly]

Hi Guys, I'm going back to my Gastro on Friday, the last time I saw him he insisted that celiac disease DOES NOT cause severe stomach pain and that my borderline positive blood tests [i was one month gluten-free at the time of test] means nothing..I went on to say I get severe stomach pain, so bad I'm on the floor crying day after day, he said celiac is not the problem, I told him I think other ppl get pain too, he said then they have something else wrong, they don't have celiac if they are having stomach pain...GGGRRRRR

if you have or had terrible stomach pain now or before going gluten-free would you please share your experience's with me,just a quick post of how the pain felt, how lond it lasted, where you had the pain etc.. I want to print them out and bring them with me to my appointment, see what he has to say..I'm guessing he'll say we all just think we have problems with gluten!!

thank you all for the help, I appreciate your time!

Hugs Betty

Oh yes, i thought i had an ulcer going on (to accomidate my everyday horrible heartburn of course, i was on Prevacid for it) before my d actually kicked in and explained what was going on.

[dionnek]

Mine is just a stabbing/shooting pain in the left side - when I run however I get cramps all across my middle and have to stop and bend over and wait for them to go away (never had these before going gluten-free - my dr. thinks I'm "carb starved" - how ironic). Anyway, yoiu might want to get tested for crohns - that kind of pain sounds just like what my friend goes through with her crohns flareups. If you've already ruled out crohns, I'd say it sounds like celiac related to me! I just don't understand how he could think that an intestinal disease wouldn't cause pain in that area!

[NoGluGirl]

Hi Guys, I'm going back to my Gastro on Friday, the last time I saw him he insisted that celiac disease DOES NOT cause severe stomach pain and that my borderline positive blood tests [i was one month gluten-free at the time of test] means nothing..I went on to say I get severe stomach pain, so bad I'm on the floor crying day after day, he said celiac is not the problem, I told him I think other ppl get pain too, he said then they have something else wrong, they don't have celiac if they are having stomach pain...GGGRRRRR

if you have or had terrible stomach pain now or before going gluten-free would you please share your experience's with me,just a quick post of how the pain felt, how lond it lasted, where you had the pain etc.. I want to print them out and bring them with me to my appointment, see what he has to say..I'm guessing he'll say we all just think we have problems with gluten!!

thank you all for the help, I appreciate your time!

Hugs Betty

Dear ebrbetty,

Until I went gluten free about two months ago, I had a lot of stomach pain. I had this poking pain all over the place. It felt like someone doing a naval destroyer all over your stomach, just taking their finger and poking you hard everywhere. I had negative blood tests and biopsies, and tried digestive enzymes. None of them helped. My lower abdomen also bloated badly, and I was nauseated a lot more, and I had alternating bouts of having to go to the bathroom a lot and getting constipated. I hope this helped.

Sincerely,

NoGluGirl

P.S. The doctor is an idiot!

[suzannabanana]

Another "oh yeah, I had forgotten." Background: I am in early 30's, chronic stomach problems since teens, dx'd via EGD in March with Celiac, normal bloodwork. Have always practiced good diet/exercise routine, no weight loss or gain out of the ordinary. A couple of ditto's - before gluten-free, was waking up with nasty reflux if I drank anything before bed time. Felt like rotten sugar coming up, yuck. I just realized it has been weeks since I have had heartburn or reflux. I've also always had an itchy throat/ears and mouth after eating melons, bananas, etc. and that seems to have resolved with the diet change. In the process, I had some skin biopsies done for what I'm sure is DH. $1500 later, I got a "non-diagnostic" result but, once again, there's been a huge improvement in the past few months. And, I couldn't jog for more than 5 minutes until going gluten free, now I can jog until me knees are the size of cantalopes So, yes, it's all connected and everybody's experience is going to be different and it's surprising at how many additional systems are affected by this problem.

For some reason, my doctor did the EGD, the most logical test, very last when I think it was pretty clear what my problem was, and this guy's daughter is a Celiac. I asked him about going gluten-free instead of having a colonoscopy (which was horrible and costly) and EGD, etc., and he said that was, "pretty draconian," don't you think? At that point, I was ready to have my intestines removed, if it would help. The diet is a challenge at first, but forget the doctors. Try it and see if you feel better. Who needs the testing to prove you're sick, if 2 months on the diet helps, screw em'. My stomach dictated my life for so many years. It affected my relationships, my recreation, travel, work, school, and on and on. The doctors that really understand what that means are few and far between.

[StrongerToday]

YES! I had horrible stomach pains. If someone would have told me I'd swallowed glass, I would have beleived them - it was that painful!! My bloodtests came back "fine", but my doc says if I feel better not eating something, it's pretty simple... don't eat it!

[emcmaster]

Yes, I get severe, severe stomach pains after eating gluten. Before I went gluten-free, I had to go to the ER several times because it was so bad. Sometimes I get it randomly, when I'm sure I haven't been glutened. I'm hoping it will go away the longer I stay gluten-free.

[happy4dolphins]

HI, My daughter and I haven't been diagnosed, however we've been on a gluten-free diet. When we do have something, my daughter does get stomaches that land her on the couch and crying. Some are more painful then others. I too have trouble with it. That's what started the whole thing for me. I had an endoscopy done and had a swollen stomach lining. Doc said I don't know what it's that way. Maybe just stop taking ibprofen. I've long stopped that and still get the aches and pains.

Nicole

[wolfie]

I get severe stomach pain when I eat gluten. I was diagnosed with IBS for years before I found out it was gluten causing the problem. Usually it is sharp pain and I can't even stand up straight, I have to lay down. It is mid-stomach and intestinal. Sometimes I would get diarrhea, sometimes constipation.

Now that I am gluten-free, I feel so much better. Before the pain was daily and I would have to lay down after eating or I would feel like dog poop. Also, my reflux has pretty much gone away. I was living on Zantac or Tums before.

Good luck with your dr. I hope he is a little more convinced once you show him others.

Oh, thought I would add that my DS, who was just diagnosed in July, came to me after being gluten-free for a week and said "I never realized that my stomach was hurting until it stopped". It had just become "normal" for him. His wasn't severe, he said it was more like a cramp towards the side, but he said it was almost always there. He was always complaining about his stomach hurting and hasn't complained but a couple of times since going gluten-free.

[jerseyangel]

Kim,

I used to have to lay down after eating all the time, too. Especially dinner--I'd feel nauseous and have a pressure-like pain. Laying down, even for a few minutes would really help.

It never happens anymore!

[tarnalberry]

When you say "stomach pain" *WHERE* do you mean? The stomach is actually in the rib cage, fairly far above the belly button. So, in the middle of your abdomen, around the belly button or below it, is really intestinal pain. I definitely do get that - not as bad as what you describe, but bad enough at times. Usually not shards-of-glass, but it's happened. Usually it's more spasm or movement-through. I'll get a 'raw' feeling in my *stomach* sometimes, but not often.

The *stomach* isn't usually associated with celiac because the reaction doesn't begin until the intestines, BUT I think a lot of times we use terms fairly loosely, and that may be problematic when discussing symptoms with the doctor. (I didn't realize, until I looked at Grey's Anatomy (got it when it was on sale at B&N) how far up the stomach was!)

[ebrbetty]

I can't thank you guys enough for the help..if ant of you were DX'd from a biopsy please let me know as he said that is the only true test, but told me he will only take one "sample" and would want me to go back to eating high amounts of gluten for 4 weeks first.

I'm too scared to do that even though I have been having terrible pain again for the last 12 days, today I ate a banana and 30 mins later I had severe pain, its been 3 hours and I'm still hurting..if I tell him this, he will just say it proves his point because a banana is safe, I'm at a loss somedays.

I really appreciate all the help, every medical site or celiac disease site I go to leaves out severe stomach pain as a symptom

hugs Betty

[megzmc3611]

I can't thank you guys enough for the help..if ant of you were DX'd from a biopsy please let me know as he said that is the only true test, but told me he will only take one "sample" and would want me to go back to eating high amounts of gluten for 4 weeks first.

I'm too scared to do that even though I have been having terrible pain again for the last 12 days, today I ate a banana and 30 mins later I had severe pain, its been 3 hours and I'm still hurting..if I tell him this, he will just say it proves his point because a banana is safe, I'm at a loss somedays.

I really appreciate all the help, every medical site or celiac disease site I go to leaves out severe stomach pain as a symptom

hugs Betty

Betty..

I was diagnosed with a biopsy and blood tests...

And when I do get "glutened" my stomach hurts for almost a week...anything I eat for that whole time worsens the stomach pains. I get this really full, distended belly with even the smallest of amount of food...