Do You Get Symptoms After Eating Casein?

[SUZ42]

I am wondering if eating casein can cause symptoms like gluten can? I have been gluten free and really try not to eat casein. The only time I do is with butter (on a potato), coffee cream and milk chocolate, and these are not daily. But the other day I got so sick with bloating, pain, gas. I reread my journal and the only thing I did differently the day before was eat cauliflour with about 3 tbs of cheese sauce. Could it be the casein in the cheese sauce? thanks everyone!

[jerseyangel]

It could be. Recently I tried some rice cheese (1 slice on a sandwich). The cheese was lactose free. I had an intestinal reaction later that night and for 2 days after. It was different than my normal gluten reaction, in that I did not have any anxiety or moodiness.

I've been dairy free for longer than I've been gluten-free. I don't know what I was thinking--but it was enough to tell me my body does not like casein!

[hathor]

Yes. Next question

Since you show an Enterolab result of casein intolerance, you shouldn't be so surprised that you had a reaction.

I was having only tiny bits of casein for some time since I was mostly eating vegan. OK, I would eat out & the veggies or the pasta sauce would have a little butter, cream, or cheese I didn't expect. I wouldn't send it back. I occasionally would eat birthday cake or goodies at Thanksgiving, etc. Rarely did I react (although I felt sick for days from eating a big slab of cheesecake -- what was I thinking? Of course, no one had officially diagnosed me with anything). But the occasional bits of casein were enough for a substantial antibody response.

I'm sure Enterolab told you that you should avoid every bit of casein as much as you should avoid gluten. Not to be a nag or anything ... it is your choice. Just don't be surprised if you react sometimes.

[jcc]

My daughter with gluten sensitivity reacts to casein with gastrointestinal symptoms (stomach ache, gas, bloating, diarrhea). Apparently this is not uncommon. Thankfully, while she also had neurological symptoms with gluten, she doesn't seem to get neurological symptoms with casein (although some people do... I've heard of both seizures and peripheral neuropathy related to cow's milk).

Here is a March 2007 study about casein sensitivity...suggesting that about 50% of those tested also had casein sensitivity.

Mucosal reactivity to cow's milk protein in coeliac disease.

Patients with coeliac disease (celiac disease) on a gluten-free diet may still have gastrointestinal symptoms. On clinical grounds cow's milk (CM) protein sensitivity may be suspected. Here, using rectal protein challenge, we investigated the local inflammatory reaction to gluten and CM protein in adult patients with celiac disease in remission. Rectal challenges with wheat gluten and dried CM powder were performed in 20 patients with celiac disease and 15 healthy controls. Fifteen hours after challenge the mucosal reaction was recorded by the mucosal patch technique with measurements of local release of neutrophil and eosinophil granule constituents; myeloperoxidase (MPO) and eosinophil cationic protein (ECP). We measured the mucosal production of nitric oxide (NO) simultaneously. Six of the patients who reacted to CM were also challenged with alpha-lactalbumin and casein. In 18 of 20 patients gluten challenge induced neutrophil activation defined as increased MPO release and increased NO synthesis. Ten of these 20 patients showed a similarly strong inflammatory reaction to CM challenge. Six of the CM sensitive patients were challenged with specific CM proteins: casein and alpha-lactalbumin. Casein, in contrast to alpha-lactalbumin, induced an inflammatory response similar to that produced by CM. A mucosal inflammatory response similar to that elicited by gluten was produced by CM protein in about 50% of the patients with coeliac disease. Casein, in particular, seems to be involved in this reaction.

PMID: 17302893

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This is similiar to past findings.. another often referenced study...

Antibodies to dietary antigens in coeliac disease.

Antibodies to gliadin (AGA) were found in 77 (94%) of 82 sera from patients with active coeliac disease (untreated and after gluten challenge). Although IgG AGA had a higher nosological sensitivity than IgA AGA (88% versus 67%), their nosological specificity was lower than that of IgA antibodies (87% versus 100%). The sensitivity of antibodies to casein, beta-lactoglobulin, and ovalbumin in active coeliac disease varied from 36% to 48% without significant difference between IgG and IgA antibodies. IgG and IgA antibodies to milk and egg proteins showed a specificity similar to that of AGA, although some IgA antibodies other than AGA were found in disease controls (Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, post-enteritis syndrome).

PMID: 3775259

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SOY can do it too~

"Food-induced enteropathy: Cow's milk proteins and soy proteins can cause an uncommon syndrome of chronic diarrhea, weight loss, and failure to thrive, similar to that appearing in celiac disease. Vomiting is present in up to two thirds of patients. Small bowel biopsy shows an enteropathy of variable degrees with villous hypotrophy. Total mucosal atrophy, histologically indistinguishable from celiac disease, is a frequent finding."

eMedicine: Protein Intolerance

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Cara

[hathor]

I wonder how they found people willing to participate in any study involving "rectal protein challenge."

Sorry, that makes me squirm just to think about it

[jcc]

I wonder how they found people willing to participate in any study involving "rectal protein challenge."

Sorry, that makes me squirm just to think about it

lol.... some people will do anything for $$. Maybe it was one of those studies where you get paid for participating ~

[MySuicidalTurtle]

Yes, I have reactions to casein like I do to gluten.

[georgie]

I get symptoms after cows milk casein but not after goats milk casein or sheeps milk casein. I am taking things carefully and not overdoing the goats milk cheese - even though I love it - but it does seem to be better for me.

[mhb]

I've been off gluten for 1.5 years and casein for 1 year, except of course the occasional screwup. I'd been hoping to reintroduce casein after a year, so I started with a goat milk yogurt (goat and yogurt forms supposed to be easier to digest). Well that was the end of it. Immediate reactions were slightly gurgling stomach, bronchial congestion and gas. Two mornings later loose stools. I don't know if it's lactose or one of the proteins, but before going dairy free I didn't have all these symptoms to it, just bloating, so I suspect it's a protein.

[RollingAlong]

Most of the recipes I've seen for cheese sauce contain flour. Are you talking a standard bechamel, or white sauce, flavored with cheese? But you made a gluten free version? Do tell....I'm not planning on using the cheese, just the white sauce.

[Crimson]

I had the same thought that RollingAlong had. Most cheese sauces can contain some kind of wheat or wheat derivative.

Before eating gluten again for three weeks last month, I could eat yogurt without issue. Now when I eat yogurt, I get immediate headache, dizziness and brain fog that lasts for a number of hours.

So, I'd say you can react in many different ways.

Usually when I eat rice now, it's gluten like, stomach gurgling, bloating, severe D... but without all the extra pain.

[brookevale]

I realized after elimination that high levels of casein or sodium caseinate gave me splitting headaches. I stopped dairy altogether. I recently tried eating dairy again and although I don't get headaches, I have been having horrible neuropathy, muscle and joint pain. I am a very complicated case--have sphincter of oddi dysfunction (SOD), which I had surgery for. Ever since about two months after the surgery I've been getting this pain for the first time in my life. I tested positive for the celiac genetic marker, but negative for the antibodies and sprue. So, GI doctor says I don't have celiac. I went gluten free for nearly a year while I was very ill with SOD. It never made a difference for how I felt because I always felt like crap. I started eating gluten again back in August. I still have negative celiac blood tests. Not sure what to do/think. But, I do know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have casein intolerance.