Minor Gluten Intolerance And Dpp-iv

[Eric-C]

I am in the process of going through diagnosis for wheat/gluten intolerance.

Part of the process is finding a new doctor. I did not care of the previous GI doc I saw as she misdiagnosed me with Ischemia...and then told me "don't worry about it".

I'm 35 and for years apparently I've had a reaction to wheat/gluten and never put two and two together. Partly because in the past it came and went. We'd goto our favorite Italian place and I'd eat pasta no problem and feel great. Then I'd eat one piece of bread and be in trouble. All of my symptoms are intestinal related. I don't get skins rashes or thankfully any of the other issues. Worst thing that happens is either I have an extreme urgency to use the bathroom which depends on what I eat and when or the bad problem is if I do not keep up my fiber intake and I have an urgency episode I am in extreme pain until everything passes.

I had about 5 bouts a year with the extreme pain part...honestly I never paid attention to the urgency issue because my father was the same way with certain foods, as if the rest of my family. We'd go out, enjoy what we want and "pay the price" later

I've read about these supplements...do any of them work? I have such a strange set of reactions.

I can goto Bonefish Grill or Caraba's and have 1 TINY slice of their bread and be in trouble in minutes. I can go for Arabic food and eat 3-4 pieces of flat bread that is 8" in diameter and just feel a tiny bit gassy. On top of that I have their puffy bread, 2-3 pieces 3-4 inches in diameter without much fanfare. 50 percent of the time we go for Indian when I get Naan it'll bother me slightly or not at all. We get an Onion Bhajji which is coated in a flour base and deep fried, again slight irritation that lasts for 4-5 minutes and maybe some gas.

I always noticed an irritation to Seaweed salad and now find out that Soy has gluten in it. These are not painful or bad irritations just a feeling of having a lot of gas which pass after a few minutes but still leave you not feeling too well.

I can eat 2 White Castle Hamburgers no problem...3rd one is kind of iffy, 4th sends me running to the bathroom. Same with Mcdonalds. I can do a single cheeseburger no problem.

Then again some foods, Wheat thins are immediate and painful like the bread from the few restaurants we frequent.

White Castle and McDonalds none withstanding we generally eat very healthy. At home we cook a lot of Indian food, no breads at all, Vietnamese, and stay gluten free.

The point of this entire post was to find out if there was any effectiveness to DPP-IV.

We've changed our diet so much already and really thought we had homed in on the problem. Having a great liking of Sushi and Indian food which is overall low in gluten was great but I get some irritation. If it was just irritation I wouldn't care but my understanding is this is always damaging the lining in the intestine, correct?

I'd like to be able to take something for those marginal times. I'm not looking to go out and eat pasta and breads all night just something to deal with the light stuff like a small amount of Soy or the Naan which sometimes doesn't bother me at all, other times does slightly more.

I keep thinking it has to do with my bowels....if they are "full" I have more of a problem. If I don't, then I have no problem. Maybe thats just gas build up with no where to go.

For better or worse this has really changed our eating habits for the better. We love foreign foods and although giving up pasta is a let down if I could just get around the very small amounts of gluten/wheat I might get I'd be doing good.

I wish I could nail this down more...I can eat donuts with no problem which is really strange. I can have cakes for the most part and a number of cookies but certain crackers kill me. I used to get a danish every morning at work...before I know what this all was I'd have a severe reaction to something but never looked at bread/gluten because I can eat these danishes no problem. I've given up pasta but don't think I have that bad of a reaction but I'm not too sure about eating that large of a quantity of wheat/gluten.

Beer, even wheat beer, no problems. I've had 2-3 before and it never bothered me.

I've thought it might be a response also to not only gluten but also preservatives. I've considered making some fresh bread at home and seeing what it does since my most severe and immediate reaction is from chain restaurant breads which I'm sure are "add water and bake" setups.

Last week I did have a reprieve...we went back to our favorite Italian place...this is the place that sent me to the hospital for the ischemia episode. Their Veal Marsala was the culprit, covered in breadcrumbs and flour. We used to frequent this place weekly and had not been back in months. They made me the Marsala with corn starch instead and it was great. I'd say 90 percent flavor of the original and they were very accommodating. We also vacationed down in Disney and they bent over backwards everywhere we went.

Thanks!

[Cinnamon]

I tried giving DPP-IV enzymes to my 11-year-old son who was having problems with gluten, and I have to say, they did help him. But then I got scared and decided it was better to go totally gluten free with him. I suddenly felt like I was saying to him, 'go ahead and eat the poison, just make sure you take the antidote at the same time'. He was having really bad neurological symptoms too, terrible brain fog, staggering at times, bad rash. They all stopped with the enzymes. But I just don't know if silent damage is being done, and I decided it's just not worth taking the chance. But you're an adult and your reactions aren't that bad. It's your call. I will say the enzymes did work.

[Eric-C]

Thank you for your reply.

I'll discuss it with my doc and see what she thinks. The science, if its true, makes sense. It digests the gluten before the intestine kind of like Lactaid.

It is funny though the more I read about people who have different reactions. Brain fog, rashes, neurological issues I start to wonder. I get a rash on the inside of my thighs and at the ankle only during the winter. I always attributed it ot the weather and so did my doctor. I'd use some cortizone cream and it would go away quickly. I took Cipro 2 years ago last week and suffered some incredibly bad neurological problems. Uncontrollable shakings of the hands and arms, couldn't think...I had every bad reaction you could have. Those symptoms have seem to have gone away. They started to subside in 6 months, then in a year I was going backwards again, now I've been on an upswing and I seem to be OK.

I don't know how much has to do with gluten but I don't think too much. Whats odd is it gets better and it gets worse. 6 years ago I had a terrible bout with stomach problems. I went through everything you can imagine and now I realize it was bread/wheat. Then it got better...now its getting worse...the fact I can eat it one day and not the next is the part that makes me wonder.

My wife and I both have the flu right now. She went and picked up some vegetable and chicken noodle soup from the local diner. I do not know if egg noodles have gluten but for sure the barley I was eating in the vegetable soup did and I feel fine after 2 complete meals of it.

Good luck with your son too. I personally think people are better off not eating flour based products so it may seem like a downer now but he's eating healthier because of it.

[Ursa Major]

I used to be like you all my life, until at the age of 52 I tried a bowel cleanse, which sent me over the edge into being desperately ill with explosive, watery diarrhea for six months. Everything went right through me within minutes. Immodium would make it worse (it is high in salicylates, which I didn't know then).

But I was terribly skinny as a kid and never really well. Always low on energy, with aching joints and muscles, backaches, headaches........ doctors thought I was a hypochondriac. Then, starting with my first pregnancy, I was gaining weight, and unable to lose it.

Now I know that unexplained weight gain can also be a sign of malnutrition.

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia seven years ago......... but have those symptoms only now when I eat forbidden foods. I have developed hypothyroidism and adrenal insufficiency.

I used to get those bouts of severe stomach cramps. They'd be so bad I was doubled over in agony, wanting to die. But then they would go away, and I was sort of fine for a while, before they would return.

And then I got severe anemia. I was taking so many iron pills that my stomach finally protested to the point were I was unable to function and had to get iron injections (quite painful) twice a week, just to barely keep my ferritin up at an acceptable level.

If you keep eating gluten, you will likely start developing similar problems. You are still at the stage were you think you are okay, but you will pay the price in a few years.

I suggest you be tested for celiac disease. Because you are gluten light, the blood test may come back negative. I am not sure about a biopsy. You could go with Open Original Shared Link testing, though. But trying the diet (and by that I mean NO CHEATING and being strictly gluten-free) is the best test of them all.

Soy doesn't have gluten, but most soy sauces do. Maybe you are intolerant to soy as well, like many people with celiac disease (in fact, like most people, period). You would do well to also eliminate dairy, at least for a while.

I think relying on that enzyme is playing Russian roulette. Nobody knows if it really prevents damage. It is a good idea to take when you have been inadvertently glutened, maybe.

Oh, and by the way, there is no such a thing as a 'minor gluten intolerance'. Either you are intolerant to gluten, or you are not.