How Long Before Reflux Stops?

[Gez]

I was just wondering if those of you who had heartburn and reflux can tell me how long it was before you were free of symptoms.

I've been trying to be fully gluten free for a week now since I was diagnosed but I've made a few mistakes. I would say that this is day 4 of being completely gluten free and although my heartburn is a lot better in that I am not taking medication ....I still have burning. I think this is being caused by cheese and also by the 2 glasses of wine I like to have in the evening. I see that I need to cut cheese and alcohol but why since neither contain gluten?

Is it that they irritate an already inflamed oesophagus/stomach/gut or could it be that i have a problem with them too?

Also, the consultant said although i have had coeliac all my life, I only have slight damage but if I continue to eat gluten it will develop in to full-blown coeliac disease. Could it be that over the years as I have unwittingly cut out gluten in an attempt to feel better the villi have got better only to be damaged again when i've reeaten gluten and this continued pattern has stopped the disease from becoming full-blown?

I've read that the villi can heal in 3 days.

many thanks again for your comments.

[Wonka]

I was just wondering if those of you who had heartburn and reflux can tell me how long it was before you were free of symptoms.

I've been trying to be fully gluten free for a week now since I was diagnosed but I've made a few mistakes. I would say that this is day 4 of being completely gluten free and although my heartburn is a lot better in that I am not taking medication ....I still have burning. I think this is being caused by cheese and also by the 2 glasses of wine I like to have in the evening. I see that I need to cut cheese and alcohol but why since neither contain gluten?

Is it that they irritate an already inflamed oesophagus/stomach/gut or could it be that i have a problem with them too?

Also, the consultant said although i have had coeliac all my life, I only have slight damage but if I continue to eat gluten it will develop in to full-blown coeliac disease. Could it be that over the years as I have unwittingly cut out gluten in an attempt to feel better the villi have got better only to be damaged again when i've reeaten gluten and this continued pattern has stopped the disease from becoming full-blown?

I've read that the villi can heal in 3 days.

many thanks again for your comments.

I get heartburn and nausea when I have been glutened but there are some foods that will also do the same thing to me. Coconut milk is a real killer for me, which is a drag because I love coconut milk curries. I was gluten free for a few months before I was able to go off of my Pariet. Hang in there it will get better.

[Darn210]

My daughter's reflux got much better immediately however, she stayed on prevacid for a couple of months so it may have still been there but "under control". We took her off the prevacid and things were OK for a while and then she started having flare ups once in a while. We determined that she has problems when she has too much blue dye and were wondering if she was gettting cc'd at school. She went back on prevacid. She had break through reflux every two to three weeks. We decided to take her off of the prevacid to see how often she had symptoms and to try a couple of food eliminations. To our surprise, her break through reflux intervals continued to get farther and farther apart without making any other changes other than discontinuing her medication. I'm now to the point that I don'e even remember the last time she had reflux. This whole process took a little more than a year. She was also diagnosed with Gastroparesis at the same time (Doc thought it was the result of the Celiac) and at her last appointment, he said that although the inflammation from acid reflux will heal rather quickly, the motility issues that can be caused by it can take a lot longer. With no other real changes going on, we are assuming that is what has happened in our daughter's case. So to summerize . . . things improved quickly and dramatically and then, the last bit took over a year to resolve. When she had gluten accidentally (we know of one known case in the last year), her acid reflux came back with a vengence.

[Wonka]

My daughter's reflux got much better immediately however, she stayed on prevacid for a couple of months so it may have still been there but "under control". We took her off the prevacid and things were OK for a while and then she started having flare ups once in a while. We determined that she has problems when she has too much blue dye and were wondering if she was gettting cc'd at school. She went back on prevacid. She had break through reflux every two to three weeks. We decided to take her off of the prevacid to see how often she had symptoms and to try a couple of food eliminations. To our surprise, her break through reflux intervals continued to get farther and farther apart without making any other changes other than discontinuing her medication. I'm now to the point that I don'e even remember the last time she had reflux. This whole process took a little more than a year. She was also diagnosed with Gastroparesis at the same time (Doc thought it was the result of the Celiac) and at her last appointment, he said that although the inflammation from acid reflux will heal rather quickly, the motility issues that can be caused by it can take a lot longer. With no other real changes going on, we are assuming that is what has happened in our daughter's case. So to summerize . . . things improved quickly and dramatically and then, the last bit took over a year to resolve. When she had gluten accidentally (we know of one known case in the last year), her acid reflux came back with a vengence.

I get it back with a vengence when I get accidently glutened too.

[curlyfries]

Mine went away fairly quickly before I was even totally gluten free, but came back months later....had to eliminate sugar.

[AliB]

The awful stomach pain I had diminished within a few hours, but it took a good week for the bloating and residual discomfort to settle down.

The healing process takes time and you are unlikely to see an instant result so hang on in there.

You must make sure that you are completely 100% free of the stuff. Any exposure will just continue to keep the damage going.

Yes, the villi may start to heal within 3 days but it takes a lot longer for the damage and 'holes' within the 'leaky gut' to repair.

Most people with gluten-intolerance also have major problems with dairy and some other foods, alcohol often one of them. The enzymes that digest lactose for instance, are situated in the gut and are the first to go when the gut is damaged. I have been off gluten, dairy, most carbs and sugar for 3 months and my body is still working through the healing process. I have never been able to tolerate alcohol except an occasional very low alcohol glass.

My immune system has only just started to kick back in and it is only now that I am getting 'proper' reactions to gluten, which has led me to realise that foods I thought were safe, aren't.

The quicker you get your gluten-free diet nailed down and your exposure halted, the quicker your body will heal. Try to keep your diet simple. Stick to plain, unprocessed meat, fish, poultry, veg and fruit, with very limited grain consumption such as rice, quinoa, buckwheat, amaranth, etc. Baked, savory or sweetened goods, although nice, should be very limited - too much makes it harder for the healing process. I have been following the Specific Carbohydrate Diet which has been a great help.

Celiac can sit quietly in the background in latency or 'silent' form for years - it often takes a trauma to the body to kick it off, possibly an immune system challenge such as a bad virus, an operation, and accident or emotional trauma. In my case I believe it was due to a change of medication by my doctor as the symptoms kicked off in earnest from that point.

Cutting out the gluten from time-to-time may well have helped, but it would be good now to deal with it properly. Unfortunately the exposure you have had to it over the years will not have protected you from developing other health issues or diseases. Some people never present with obvious symptoms so are unaware of the Celiac link to the insidious diseases they may end up developing.

[AndrewNYC]

You are expecting too much, too fast, and your diet is not helping you. Villi may technically take 3 days to heal but it takes much longer for the body to feel whole. With respect to the reflux, cut out the wine completely for a few weeks. Ditto on the cheese. As long as you eat things that are known to aggrevate reflux then do not expect the reflux will simply dissappear. Even if you give you wine for say, 6 months, if you start drinking again after that then there is a high probability that you'll feel some burn. That's just how it goes.

I was just wondering if those of you who had heartburn and reflux can tell me how long it was before you were free of symptoms.

I've been trying to be fully gluten free for a week now since I was diagnosed but I've made a few mistakes. I would say that this is day 4 of being completely gluten free and although my heartburn is a lot better in that I am not taking medication ....I still have burning. I think this is being caused by cheese and also by the 2 glasses of wine I like to have in the evening. I see that I need to cut cheese and alcohol but why since neither contain gluten?

Is it that they irritate an already inflamed oesophagus/stomach/gut or could it be that i have a problem with them too?

Also, the consultant said although i have had coeliac all my life, I only have slight damage but if I continue to eat gluten it will develop in to full-blown coeliac disease. Could it be that over the years as I have unwittingly cut out gluten in an attempt to feel better the villi have got better only to be damaged again when i've reeaten gluten and this continued pattern has stopped the disease from becoming full-blown?

I've read that the villi can heal in 3 days.

many thanks again for your comments.

[SchnauzerMom]

My reflux calmed down within a couple of days. I still take an acid reducer pill once a day. After I've been gluten free for several weeks I will slowly cut back on it. Maybe every other day and then every 2 days and so on. I was gluten free for 6 months last year and only had to take the pill once or twice a week. Then I went off the diet and am now starting the process over.

[dollamasgetceliac?]

Almost every food tht I eat hurts I only started gluten-free recently and I am still learning. I wonder if I should stop tea? I can't drink herbals due to allergies? I am surprised to hear that sugar can cause reflux?