Gluten Free Diet & Issues

[zcc]

Hi! I'm new here and new to a gluten free diet. A month ago I was looking at celiac symptoms online and decided to try gluten-free life. The symptoms I recognized were bloating, constipation (it was changed to D for the last couple of days before diet), lower abdominal cramps, feeling of constant sickness (I was diagnosed with chronic gastritis cca 5 years ago and the sickness wouldn't go away), itchy scalp and sometimes other body parts, occasional mouth sores. I also have had a couple of times in my life (I'm 26 now) incidents of itchy, red swellings of my fingers which would start to become dry skin once they started to go away. I went gluten-free as much as I could for a start (it takes a while to figure out what to eat/not eat) and I was feeling better within the first 2-3 weeks. But now I'm not feeling so great any more. I was underweight before starting a diet (183cm, 60kilo), but now I lost additional 3 kilo which makes my BMI fall to 17. I'm not eating lactose and it also seems I'm having bad reactions to soy. Could it be that there is soy in vegetable oil? I'm changing to olive/sunflower either way. Has anybody else had this problem of feeling bad a couple of weeks into the diet? My sleeping took a turn for bad, I'm constantly waking up and tossing in bed, which didn't happen before. I just decided to be extra careful with cosmetics also, but one field that still could present a risk are a couple of wooden kitchen utensils in use, so i should eliminate those also. I don't know what else to do. Should I just be patient and hope my sleep and pounds will return? Argggh

sorry about my English- I'm from Europe (Croatia)..

[happygirl]

Were you tested for Celiac? Are you under a doctor's care?

It is possible that you may have a problem other than Celiac, or a problem on top of Celiac. On the other hand, it takes many longer than 2-3 weeks to fully recover after going 100% gluten-free.

Best of luck.

[Motorboater]

Were you tested for Celiac? Are you under a doctor's care?

It is possible that you may have a problem other than Celiac, or a problem on top of Celiac. On the other hand, it takes many longer than 2-3 weeks to fully recover after going 100% gluten-free.

Best of luck.

I would definately consult a Dr. but you'll need to start eating gluten to make sure the test results are accurate. I felt good 8 days after going gluten free and occassionaly have had a bad day here and there, gas, stomach ache but that was from unknowlingly eating something with gluten. Celiac's call it "being glutened". Everybody's different and there is no one answer for feeling bad........it truly might be sickness or it might be food poisening.........sometimes we just don't know. Good Luck! Pam

[Kaycee]

zcc, Other things could be going on there, but you still need to exercise a bit of patience and learn to relax a bit if you can, as it might take a while to feel completely better.

I did a lot of tossing and turning to start with, but I think that was because I was totally blown away and wasn't expecting all the host of emotions I had experienced by just being diagnosed as coeliac.

Like the others say, get tested if you haven't already.

Cathy

[daron5780]

i am new to all this as well, 2 weeks ago today i started a gluten free diet. i felt great for 3-4 days ( besides not sleeping well) until i got glutened...ive been feeling pretty horrible. headaches and irritability are really bad. i dont get intestinial symptoms, but i am hoping patience is the key here. we will see...good luck!

[Ursa Major]

zcc, if you initially felt better, I believe you truly have a gluten problem. Try eliminating not just lactose, but rather all dairy, that might help.

Also, try eating only foods that are naturally gluten-free for starters, like vegetables, meat and fruit, and cook your vegetables well, to give yourself time to heal. Don't add in all the gluten-free replacement products yet, as these can be hard to digest.

Soy could be another problem as well.

[zcc]

Thank you for your replies and encouragement!

Good news: I'm feeling good again. It seems to change rapidly. Before the diet I always felt almost the same, but now I'm plunging between feeling great and lousy like a yo-yo. It's certainly interesting . What was also probably affecting me was the fact that my period was late and I was getting worried about not having it at all because of the weight loss, so I was not feeling emotionally secure or stable at all. It's all new for me.

As far as testing goes, I'm aware that it would be a smart thing to do, but I cannot imagine intentionally eating gluten just now. A few times since going on diet I ate something that made me feel sick, have abdominal pain and run to the toilet inside 1 hour after eating. I do have some intolerance, of that I am almost sure of, but is it gluten/soy or just one of those (or maybe also dairy), I didn't really figure out yet. I will make a gluten challenge after dieting some more.