Symptoms After Mess-up, How Long?

[Curious and Determined]

I've been gluten free (for the most part) for a little over two months. I'm positive by Enterolab, negative by three docs, so I get surly and "test the waters" now and then. I was feeling frisky Monday morning and ate a half of a pancake at Denny's.

Question - if you were having a reaction because of gluten, how long would you have expected before you noticed a problem? Immediately? within 24 hours? within 48 hours?

[jerseyangel]

Hi,

This varies greatly from person to person. I almost always react after about 2 hours.

[jayhawkmom]

Half a pancake would not give me any outward symptoms or signs at all.

However.... I know what would be happening internally - so I would not bother with half a pancake. It'll do just as much damage as a whole stack.

[Curious and Determined]

So JayhawkMom, you have no external symptoms. How do you know what's happening internally? How can you keep motivated to stick to this diet when there's not a predictable, tangible reward?

I feel like I'm grasping at straws, not knowing what's causing what in my body. Last night I couldn't get to sleep because my heart was pounding and skipping beats. Was it that half pancake 36 hours earlier? Was it the ice cream I had before I went to bed? I had diarrhea this morning. Is that associated with my skipping heart last night?

I'm a logical thinking programmer, and I get so frustrated when I can't see the pattern in what's going on...

[jayhawkmom]

So JayhawkMom, you have no external symptoms. How do you know what's happening internally? How can you keep motivated to stick to this diet when there's not a predictable, tangible reward?

I understand your thinking. I do have external motivation though. My children.

I have to be a good role model for them, in order for them to learn to stick with this diet. If I "cheat" they think it's ok for them to cheat. It's not ok. My exterior motivation stems from a strong desire to keep my children healthy. And, their health IS a tangible reward! =)

If I were to eat a "stack" of pancakes... I'd definitely have external symptoms.

I know that I have an autoimmune response to gluten. At first, it wasn't enough to keep me motivated to stick to it. I figured a little here and there would not matter. But, the more reading I did, the more I realized that even the smallest amount of gluten causes internal response, even if it's not noted on the outside.

I'm not super sensitive, so in essence, I could eat a little gluten here and there. And, while I would not notice anything on the outside, I'd be doing further damage to my body and risking 100 other problems that go along with the autoimmune response.

To me... it simply isn't worth it.

[Curious and Determined]

Sorry to get angry. I have to look on the bright side at what I've accomplished. I was on Nexium and my stomach was still waking me up at night, and I kicked that by cutting back on the carbs and sugars, as well as the gluten. It's just that this irregular heart scares me, and I'm not sure what's causing it. I'd like to blame it on that half pancake, but I'm not sure I can. 36 hours is a long time.

[jayhawkmom]

LOL! I didn't realize you were angry! =) But, it's ok! I think at one time or another, we all get angry about this!!!

Can you think of anything else you might have eaten that could be causing problems?? What else did you eat besides the pancake? If you had scrambled eggs - there is often pancake batter IN the eggs to make them more fluffy. Is it possible that you had more wheat than you originally thought??

Just trying to help.

I've been at this a while... and I still make mistakes. It's frustrating and infuriating. Especially when something I misread causes one of my children to have a reaction. Ugh!

[Jestgar]

I'm a logical thinking programmer, and I get so frustrated when I can't see the pattern in what's going on...

Then limit your variables. Eat no dairy for a week, then eat 1/2 a pancake. If you have the weird heartbeat, maybe there's a link. Eat ice cream for dinner, see if you get the heart thing. Eat them both, see if you get the heart thing, etc.

[crosstalk]

So JayhawkMom, you have no external symptoms. How do you know what's happening internally? How can you keep motivated to stick to this diet when there's not a predictable, tangible reward?

I feel like I'm grasping at straws, not knowing what's causing what in my body. Last night I couldn't get to sleep because my heart was pounding and skipping beats. Was it that half pancake 36 hours earlier? Was it the ice cream I had before I went to bed? I had diarrhea this morning. Is that associated with my skipping heart last night?

I'm a logical thinking programmer, and I get so frustrated when I can't see the pattern in what's going on...

I had the same symptoms as you for a long time. Your pounding/skipping heart may be due to a couple of things. You may be allergic to something else besides the wheat. Which case you need to have a kind of elimination diet.

After 18 months of pursuing this I am starting to make real progress. Unfortunately when I started dieting a year ago the lowfat diet included a lot of bread and I got sicker and sicker without knowing why. But one day I got sick and I realized that it was the food (aka bread) that was causing me problems. Hence I made it to this website.

I got the irregular heartbeat largely under control with magnesium supplements. But I still had a pounding heart. I went on a low salt/low fat diet (aka 1000 mg of sodium a day doing all my own cooking) and that got rid of my pounding heart and I dropped 50 pounds (which probably also helped). But I was sick as dog instead of getting better. That's when I realized that the wheat was causing me problems. I went off the wheat and ten days later after I did my receding hairline started to unrecede and I started growing hair back in part of my male pattern balding area. But even though I got rid of the wheat, I was still having reactions to the food - I have allergic other reactions that I am in the process of being diagnosed for (which would make my heart race five hours after I eat the food). I think what happens is that I have an allergic reaction in my gut, my blood pressure drops, my body kicks the heart to compensate, and then I get chilled.

I can't reccomend going as low salt as I did as the body *needs* salt and I probably was undersalted. One thing Celiacs will do will give you malabsorbtion which means you are not absorbing the vitamins from your food. Salt. potassium, magnesium, calcium all play a role in this. Another mistake I made besides having all that bread (I became an expert at baking no salt bread using barley enriched wheat flour) was eating the same thing day in day out, because now I react (allergically) to those handful of things. I managed to train my immune system on those things. Laughable if it wasn't literally sickening.

It takes three months for the magnesium supplements to start working. My heart still occasionally skips a beat (maybe due to the gluten effects :/) but it isn't all over the map like it was. And it doesn't pound. I do 100% of my cooking right now and probably use the salt shaker on everything but still probably not over 1500mg a day. Do not use supplements for potassium, get that only from natural sources.

I strongly suggest you consult with your doctor or dietician (if you are so fortunate to find/have one). I went to a doctor two weeks ago and he told me outright "I don't believe in food problems."

I hope you are able to find an understanding patient and tenaciuos doctor, because I haven't yet. But I am thankful to the Dear Lord that I am seeming to get better (with near zero help from that doctor).

BTW, the celiacs II panel came back negative but flagged that I took when I went off the wheat. The day I got the results of that test is the day I noticed my hair growing back!

[tummyache]

I've been gluten free (for the most part) for a little over two months. I'm positive by Enterolab, negative by three docs, so I get surly and "test the waters" now and then. I was feeling frisky Monday morning and ate a half of a pancake at Denny's.

Question - if you were having a reaction because of gluten, how long would you have expected before you noticed a problem? Immediately? within 24 hours? within 48 hours?

I react usually right after the meal. It feels like a trap door opened and cement fell through it. It hurts and I am uncomfortble for days. Sometimes I have the runs and sometimes its just horrid constipation. All I know is that it hurts and I bloat and feel like I caught some bug.