What Happens If You Have Gluten?

[kh382]

I was recently diagnosed with Celiac's, but had not had any symptoms, other than irregular bloodwork and weight loss, but what happens if I unintentionally have gluten?

[elye]

I was diagnosed with celiac a year ago and had never had any obvious gastrointestnal symptoms either, until I was gluten-free for a while and accidentally got glutened. For the first time, I experienced the bloating and abdominal pains I kept hearing about. This often happens to people who go gluten-free and haven't presented classic GI symptoms--their lower intestine heals and then boy, do you feel the invading gluten! So, if you start the diet you will begin to heal, and the bad stuff will not be tolerated like it was before. A good thing!

[schmenge]

I was diagnosed with celiac a year ago and had never had any obvious gastrointestnal symptoms either, until I was gluten-free for a while and accidentally got glutened. For the first time, I experienced the bloating and abdominal pains I kept hearing about. This often happens to people who go gluten-free and haven't presented classic GI symptoms--their lower intestine heals and then boy, do you feel the invading gluten! So, if you start the diet you will begin to heal, and the bad stuff will not be tolerated like it was before. A good thing!

Same with me. Never had the "traditional" symptoms until my first glutening after being gluten-free. When people ask what it is like I tell them I will get flu like symptoms for anywhere between hours and days. And of course there is the intestinal damage, but you don't "feel" that.

[tarnalberry]

You may start getting the classic GI symptoms (bloating, pain, loose stools, fatigue, etc.) or you may get neurologic symptoms (brain fog, nerve pain, headaches, etc.) or other systemic systems (joint pain, irritability, etc.). Or you may not notice a whole lot in outward symptoms.

Inside, however, you body will produce antibodies to gluten. Other chemicals, which your lucky celiac genes encode for, will see these, and be triggered to damage your intestines, starting a cascade reaction that can last up to two weeks (it's a nearly self-sustaining reaction, once gluten has caused the antibodies to be created). That damage sets up a whole other immune response in your system (the classic inflammation, "must fight off the bad guy" type of response, only it's your own body that's the bad guy).

Having this happen to any non-trivial (and, no, this is not well defined) degree as little as once a month is tantamount to not following the diet, and leaves you at increased risk of nutritional deficiencies (anemia, osteoporosis, etc.), intestinal cancers, and other autoimmune conditions (rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, thyroid problems, etc.) That's what we know of, at the moment, anyway.

It's frustrating, for those who don't have obvious symptoms, because there isn't always anything you can feel to remind you to stay gluten free, other than the knowledge that not doing so can, and very likely WILL, cause very VERY significant, costly, and painful complications in the future.