Could This Be Celiac?

[Starshine]

I apologize in advance for the length of this! I'm just trying to figure out what the heck is going on with me. A basic history: I'm 24, no family history of celiac, been pretty much healthy as a horse my entire life.

About a month ago I started having some gas when I woke up-- nothing major, and I was fine throughout the rest of the day. I had diarrhea once or twice, but again, nothing major that would make me think it was anything other than my stomach being slightly off. I also started to- and this is kind of hard to describe- feel my heartbeat in my gut after I ate (presumably as I was digesting), but there was no pain or anything like that. I felt fine, it was just sort of weird.

In any case, the symptoms continued for a week or so before vanishing completely, so I thought it was just a temporary issue. I went for a week and a half-two weeks with no problems at all, and then all of a sudden it came back a few days ago and it's been worse- I've been getting palpitations too, but they don't always seem to be connected to eating as I get them at other times (like in the shower with hot water, for instance). I haven't changed my diet at all, either. HOWEVER, there are several things that are making me think it's probably NOT celiac.

First of all, the last two days I tested myself by eating two slices of wheat bread for lunch one day and sushi (with soy sauce, which has wheat) and barley soup for lunch the other day and then I monitored myself for about three hours afterwards-- nothing. No issues whatsoever. I felt absolutely fine, nothing out of the ordinary. Yesterday night I had dinner (hamburger with bun, sweet potato fries and corn) and started feeling gassy almost right away, but after a little bit of gas and a little bit of diarrhea (nowhere near comparable to the volume of food that I just ate, though-- I know, TMI, sorry), I was fine again. It seems to me that if I were having an issue with gluten the bread and the barley soup would've given me problems right off the bat like dinner did and I wouldn't have felt better almost instantaneously after the diarrhea. I monitored my heart rate after eating the bread, and again, nothing unusual. No palpitations either. This morning I ate a banana and had half a can of soda, and bam, I got the symptoms almost right away. Unless Mountain Dew has gluten in it that I didn't know about, there shouldn't have been anything in that that would upset me.

Secondly, aside from these digestive issues I feel absolutely fine. No fatigue, no depression/irritability, nothing. I'm not even getting bloating (that I can tell, and given that I'm very slender I think it would be fairly evident), pain, nausea, or anything like that. 95% of the time it's like there's nothing wrong with me at all, which is why I'm so confused. I know adult-onset celiac is usally triggered by something, but there hasn't been anything in my life that could possibly be a trigger other than starting a new job at the beginning of September (and it's a very low-stress job, certainly less so than college was!). I haven't even been sick at all in almost a year. I used to get hormonal migraines but I haven't had any of them since early summer so I'm going to tentatively say that those are gone. I know celiac can cause migraines, but can it cure them? I should also mention that I'm still only having one or two bowel movements a day just like I always have, so that hasn't changed at all.

Does it normally come on so quickly with no apparent trigger, and then have the symptoms go away entirely for a week or more? That's what's making me think it's probably something else. I'm going to try to get to the doctor sometime this week and I figure I'll ask to have the blood tests run, but I was curious to hear what you guys think. I should also note that I've been taking seaweed supplements, but to my recollection the symptoms started before I started taking them and I stopped a few days ago anyway. I do have what seems to be a little bit of eczema on one arm, but it's not bilateral and it's only in the spot where I rest my arm on the desk both at work and when I'm at home on the computer. It doesn't itch, either.

So, any ideas what might be up?

[CMCM]

For me, one of the difficult things about getting and accepting a diagnosis was the inconsistency of the reactions. I could eat a gluten item one day and have no reaction, then a few days later something would make me very sick. I decided it was sort of an "overload" factor.....I might get away with something here, something there spaced out time-wise, but when I have fallen off the wagon and eaten gluten daily, I'll do pretty much OK for awhile, then notice some minor digestive issues such as you described, but then suddenly it's like a overflow condition gets reached and my body can't handle it any more and I get quite sick. My reactions have varied....the last time it was 6 hours of horrible nausea and vomiting. A couple of months ago it was severe pain in both hands and wrists. My reaction the time I actually got serious about getting a diagnosis was a long spell of vertigo 2 years ago, which really scared me. Now the pattern seems to be that I stay gluten free for lengthy periods, but when I break down and eat a few things over a few days, I now get sick with varying symptoms. The time from eating gluten to getting reactions is now much shorter, apparently.

My own experience was years of low-level digestive upset, occasional dizzy spells (nothing major, though), heart palpitations here and there, and this went on for 35+ years before the bad stuff kicked in. I don't really know what triggered it, and I'm not sure I actually had full blown celiac disease even though I have the gene. But at the very least I'm strongly gluten sensitive, and that's enough to take the need for the diet seriously.

I just read that fully 50% of Americans are thought to be noticeably gluten sensitive, and probably 70-80% have at the very least a gluten sensitive gene. This should not be dismissed as gluten sensitivity can do much the same damage as celiac disease. I've decided that most likely NO ONE should eat gluten.

[Starshine]

I did some more research yesterday and from the looks of it it actually seems more likely that what I have is hyperthyroidism (due to the palpitations, which are very frequent now, and other things that I hadn't thought might be symptoms like excessive sweating and sensitivity to heat), and I'm thinking that what caused it was those seaweed supplements giving me an excess of iodine. The timing is just too coincidental and it's making me suspicious. The symptoms are also almost a perfect fit for what's going on with me, so I think that's far more likely especially since it can cause digestive issues (due to your metabolism running too fast).

I'm going to make a doctor's appointment, so we'll see what she thinks.