Wow, My Husband Is Gluten Intolerant Too!

[Glutenfreefamily]

Well he has been on a gluten-free diet for 99% of the time except for parties at holidays. Now he gets bad diarrhea from it. I always assumed he was fine since he had no symptoms of it at all before going on the diet.

When he had it at work the other day he let me know that it has been happening lately especially with the christmas parties. He is ticked since he is saying *I* caused this because I made him sensitive to it by him going on the gluten-free diet by default since I wont have it in the house since me and our daughter have it. I told him that is not possible since I rarely eat pineapple but when I eat it every few years I dont have a reaction from it.

So I have a question, Is it possible he has no problems with it and I made him sensitive to it or is it just he has a stronger reaction because he isnt steadily getting it and shouldn't have been eating it in the first place? I want to add his mom has diabetes type 1 and is not even 5ft and his dad is in remission from colon cancer and is barely 5'3 himself.

Thanks

[ptkds]

It sounds like he has a gluten problem, and just never knew it! It isn't your fault at all.

[celiac-mommy]

We have some acquaintances with custody of their grandson. They are a gluten-free household but he is not intolerant at all--as far as all the tests go (but they are). He has a really bad reaction if he goes out and has gluten. It was explained to them that his body doesn't know how to process it very well any more, so it's very common for it to 'reject' the added gluten. I would guess that the pineapple thing may not be the same because if you are eating a variety of fruit, your body can digest the pineapple every so often--but I could be wrong...

Either way, it's not your fault!!

[Glutenfreefamily]

Thank you

I am starting to feel a little guilty so its nice to have confirmation.

[Glutenfreefamily]

Thanks Rachelle

My husband was never tested but I know my daughter has a double gene for celiac so the possibility is there for him since she had to get 1 gene from him. Im also looking at gluten not being beneficial for anyone with just so much potential for causing problems down the line. I dont plan on changing having gluten in the house. When it was just me gluten free in the beginning he glutened me constantly with having the foods around the house and I definitely dont want him glutening my daughter.

[celiac-mommy]

Thanks Rachelle

My husband was never tested but I know my daughter has a double gene for celiac so the possibility is there for him since she had to get 1 gene from him. Im also looking at gluten not being beneficial for anyone with just so much potential for causing problems down the line. I dont plan on changing having gluten in the house. When it was just me gluten free in the beginning he glutened me constantly with having the foods around the house and I definitely dont want him glutening my daughter.

I don't blame you for wanting to be super careful, I feel the same way. I can be careful for me, but my DD, she's only 6 and we have to be super careful for her. I'm really paranoid about what comes into my house and although we aren't completely gluten-free, we might as well be. My mom and sister have looked into gluten NOT being beneficial for anyone, it wasn't origionally intended to be eaten in the hunter/gatherer days. My mom's naturepath says NO ONE should be eating it, that it really is poison. I would be interested to see some medical studies on that. I will check into some of our medical journals here to see what I can come up with. Above all, don't let him make you feel guilty what-so-ever, you are ensuring that your child is taken care of. This is our job!! He can eat all the gluten he wants OUTSIDE your home!

[elye]

It was explained to them that his body doesn't know how to process it very well any more, so it's very common for it to 'reject' the added gluten.

If one's lower intestine is not digesting the gluten protein, then one is gluten intolerant. There isn't any grey area. you cannot be "made" intolerant, or celiac. It is a genetic condition that you are born with. Symptoms can be made more noticeable by being away from gluten for a period and then introducing it again--this is what happened to me. I look at your situation this way: you have brought to light a life-threatening disease in your husband, and have given him the chance to address it and escape the often fatal complications before it's too late!

[mamaw]

I have several doctor friends who agree that humans are not equipped to digest wheat. wheat did not appear until the agricultural age. Before that period of time humans were mainly meat eaters.

And for sure you did not cause the problem if anything you helped his body by not giving him wheat. Tell him to say "thank You"

I would hope that he realizes that wheat is not good for humans after having a reaction to it.

I have a brother that everytime he eats a big sandwich , he gets the runs. When I suggest it is the wheat he goes nuts.... you know , nothing is wrong with me syndrome:I just ate to much.... I go , I know its the bread!!! It happens evry time & I tell him now before he takes his first bite...but he will not believe me.......

mamaw

[Gemini]

Well he has been on a gluten-free diet for 99% of the time except for parties at holidays. Now he gets bad diarrhea from it. I always assumed he was fine since he had no symptoms of it at all before going on the diet.

When he had it at work the other day he let me know that it has been happening lately especially with the christmas parties. He is ticked since he is saying *I* caused this because I made him sensitive to it by him going on the gluten-free diet by default since I wont have it in the house since me and our daughter have it. I told him that is not possible since I rarely eat pineapple but when I eat it every few years I dont have a reaction from it.

So I have a question, Is it possible he has no problems with it and I made him sensitive to it or is it just he has a stronger reaction because he isnt steadily getting it and shouldn't have been eating it in the first place? I want to add his mom has diabetes type 1 and is not even 5ft and his dad is in remission from colon cancer and is barely 5'3 himself.

Thanks

I seem to have the same situation as yourself. I was diagnosed in April of 2005 and have been gluten-free ever since. My husband eats gluten-free at home by default but his lunches and food away from home may contain gluten. I started to notice that he seemed to have stomach issues like gassiness and burping after having a gluteny meal. No constipation or D, though.

He eats like a teen-ager and never gets above 140 pounds, which is not too horrible for his 5'7" frame. However, he lost 10 pounds over the past year,without trying, and family and friends noticed the weight loss. Then, for me, a BIG clue was he was found to be anemic after a routine blood test. I started to talk to him about the possibility of his having GS/celiac disease but, of couse, he is in denial. It's OK for me to have celiac disease and he will gladly eat gluten-free at home but it's a whole different story when I talk about his going completely gluten-free for a trial run. I guess I will have to wait for him to become sicker or have more symptoms. If the anemia doesn't clear up after treatment, I told him it was an automatic colonoscopy his doctor will want to do because they always think you are bleeding internally if you have unexplained, stubborn anemia. I had that thrown at me and I refused the testing because I knew that wasn't it. Seems to me the gluten-free diet is much easier than THAT test!

I wish you luck because men are stubborn when it comes to changing their diet. Not your fault at all....by cutting down on gluten and then gorging on it, you have already done a good gluten-free trial on him and it looks like he may very well be Celiac or gluten sensitive. I figure when it gets bad enough, they will change their minds.

[Joyous]

Tell him not to shoot the messenger.

He should be thankful that he was fortunate enough to discover his condition before getting cancer or diabetes himself.

That said, I think there's a certain amount of grieving involved in discovering that you have a life altering condition, and denial and anger are two of the stages of grief.

[sneezydiva]

Get either or both of these books: The Gluten Connection by Shari Lieberman or Going Against the Grain by Melissa Diane Smith. Both books explain very well how gluten grains are sabotaging EVERYONE"S health. They trace how each agricultural advance has actually caused a decrease in human's health--for everyone not just celiacs.

I'm going through a slightly similar thing with my DH. He has always had digestive trouble and GERD. He fits the criteria for IBS and his mom has been diagnosed with it. Although he hasn't gone gluten free, he has been essentially eating gluten-lite because I won't prepare gluten meals. And while his symptoms haven't disappeared, they've improved a lot. He is slowly coming around to the idea that he should try being gluten-free, but it is hard for him to accept.

Anyway, you didn't "do" this to him. I'd bet money he had quite a few issues before your household went gluten free, he just didn't notice or was used to them, and assumed they were normal. Now that he feels better most of the time, he notices immediately when things aren't right.

[alamaz]

After my diagnosis my husband went and got tested because (1) we did genetic testing because we were trying to have a baby at the time and wanted to know the odds of the baby having double genes and (2) he just thought he was lactose intolerant this whole time. Low and behold...

He is getting frustrated now as he gets more into the diet because he is becoming more sensitive. He used to be able to pull a piece of bread off the plate and be "fine" but now he gets symptomatic. I think that's bumming him out now because he has to be more careful.

[debmidge]

Well he has been on a gluten-free diet for 99% of the time except for parties at holidays. Now he gets bad diarrhea from it. I always assumed he was fine since he had no symptoms of it at all before going on the diet.

When he had it at work the other day he let me know that it has been happening lately especially with the christmas parties. He is ticked since he is saying *I* caused this because I made him sensitive to it by him going on the gluten-free diet by default since I wont have it in the house since me and our daughter have it. I told him that is not possible since I rarely eat pineapple but when I eat it every few years I dont have a reaction from it.

So I have a question, Is it possible he has no problems with it and I made him sensitive to it or is it just he has a stronger reaction because he isnt steadily getting it and shouldn't have been eating it in the first place? I want to add his mom has diabetes type 1 and is not even 5ft and his dad is in remission from colon cancer and is barely 5'3 himself.

Thanks

to Glutenfreefamily:

Wow! I didn't know you were that powerful. Could you please wish for me to win the Mega lottery?

Tell hubby he more than likely had wheat issues that were bound to catch up with him sooner or later.

[Crystalkd]

I have several doctor friends who agree that humans are not equipped to digest wheat. wheat did not appear until the agricultural age. Before that period of time humans were mainly meat eaters.

And for sure you did not cause the problem if anything you helped his body by not giving him wheat. Tell him to say "thank You"

I would hope that he realizes that wheat is not good for humans after having a reaction to it.

I have a brother that everytime he eats a big sandwich , he gets the runs. When I suggest it is the wheat he goes nuts.... you know , nothing is wrong with me syndrome:I just ate to much.... I go , I know its the bread!!! It happens evry time & I tell him now before he takes his first bite...but he will not believe me.......

mamaw

It's funny. I noticed a problem after I got Pneumonia severel years ago. Anytime I had gastro problems I would say that I ate too much. I know diffrent now but I found your brothers responce familiar.

[CMCM]

Not your fault!

More and more doctors, as they study all this and all the evidence, are moving towards the belief that gluten is not good for any of us....the human digestive system doesn't handle it well. Also....the gluten content of grains has been hybridized and engineered to be greater and greater over the last 20 or 30 years, because gluten is responsible for the wonderful texture of grain foods. So a slice of bread today has far more gluten than a slice eaten in 1925.

If you have a genetic predisposition to celiac and/or gluten sensitivity, you obviously have more problems dealing with the gluten "poison" than do those without the predisposition. HOWEVER.....looking at all the so called "diseases of western civiilization", it is becoming obvious that huge numbers of people, if not everyone to one degree or another, are all having varying degrees of difficulty handling a relentless influx of gluten into their systems on a daily basis.

In response, the body does its best to create a tolerance to gluten, and how successful it is also varies from person to person. SO.....if you have been minimizing gluten, or even mostly eliminating it, this tolerance you have previously developed disappears. So then when you eat gluten again, you won't have that built-up tolerance and you react more strongly to it. I asked Dr. Fine of Enterolab about this, and he confirmed it. Tolerance is built up over time, tolerance is lost when you don't eat gluten.

My mom is an extreme example. Her active celiac disease (she has two celiac genes!!) was triggered after surgery when she was 43 or so. Prior to that, she obviously had a built up tolerance and wasn't all that sick, just had occasional upsets like a lot of us do. After the celiac was triggered, she got sicker and sicker until she was finally diagnosed. After 40+ years gluten free, a microscopic smidgen of gluten, a cross-contamination that is invisible, can make her unbelievably sick, sicker than she ever got before celiac was triggered.

So tell your hubby he just lost his tolerance. Tolerance is NOT a good thing....it masks the damage which is going on in his body. It's good that he knows earlier in life rather than later. Who knows, this knowledge and avoiding gluten could possibly save him from prostate cancer. My two brother didn't know, they ate gluten freely, and BOTH were diagnosed with prostate cancer at the early age of 53. You've got to take this seriously, because gluten is a POISON and having a continual poison in your system compromises your immune system, leading to all sorts of problems including possible cancer.

[Glutenfreefamily]

Thanks so much everyone for the responses. Everything has been smoothed out now and he is ok with it. I do think it was anger and denial stage. Yesterday at the new years eve party we went to he asked me to pack him a gluten free meal and snacks along with me and our daughter. It was really nice to have his support since usually he eats gluten at those functions. His mom noticed his 22 lb weight loss just by going gluten free and commented on it and thought it might help her lose weight. Hopefully this will help many of his family members. Im printing this out and showing it to him.

Thanks again

[NewGFMom]

just one more thought from a non-celiac in a gluten-free house. I think gluten is like meat. Ex-vegetarians tend to go through an adjustment period when they put meat back into their diets where they don't feel so good. I've found I react to gluten if I have some after not having it for a week. But if I eat a cracker or a sandwich every couple of days, I'm totally fine no matter what I eat. It's the starting and stopping that seems to shock my system. I agree that gluten isn't so good for you, but if you're not celiac or intolerant it's easier to eat it sometimes than not.

Just a thought. Glad you worked this out!