How Quickly Do You React To Gluten?

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I've been gluten free for a year now. Stomach aches are my most noticeable symptom - once the reaction starts my stomach burns intensely and then within about 15 minutes I have urgent diarrhea. (Sorry for the graphics...) So it's pretty easy to tell that I've ingested something bad, but lately it has happened after a couple of possible culprits and I'm wondering if the timing of the reaction could tell me when I had the gluten. For example, yesterday afternoon (4pm) I trusted a home-made oatmeal cookie from a gluten free parent (very tasty but made me nervous), and then in the evening (7pm) had a bean salad that had some unknown kind of vinegar. By 10pm I had a severe reaction. So which one was it? On another occasion I had a bite of soy sauce marinated tuna around 10pm, then had a probably too risky bloody mary around 12 the next morning, and had a severe reaction at 4pm. I'm just wondering if reaction times are consistent enough (and happen quickly enough) that I can say for sure it was something I ate in the 4 hours before the reaction.

Anyone who's been doing this longer have thoughts? Can that kind of stomach reaction happen as long as 18 hours after ingestion? Does a person normally have the same reaction time every time?

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PS I was shocked that night that I ate the soy sauce (the tuna was drenched in it) that I didn't have a reaction right away. What's up with that??

[dally099]

hi, i know for me its about 8-12 hour tourn around for the diahreah, i have brain fog and a headache usually within 20min, and the stomach pain within about 6 hours. everyone is different though, i have had times that gluten will burn my mouth while im eating it, you may find that your reactions get worse as you are gluten-free longer, hope this helps!

[BelievinMiracles]

I've been gluten free for a year now. Stomach aches are my most noticeable symptom - once the reaction starts my stomach burns intensely and then within about 15 minutes I have urgent diarrhea. (Sorry for the graphics...) So it's pretty easy to tell that I've ingested something bad, but lately it has happened after a couple of possible culprits and I'm wondering if the timing of the reaction could tell me when I had the gluten. For example, yesterday afternoon (4pm) I trusted a home-made oatmeal cookie from a gluten free parent (very tasty but made me nervous), and then in the evening (7pm) had a bean salad that had some unknown kind of vinegar. By 10pm I had a severe reaction. So which one was it? On another occasion I had a bite of soy sauce marinated tuna around 10pm, then had a probably too risky bloody mary around 12 the next morning, and had a severe reaction at 4pm. I'm just wondering if reaction times are consistent enough (and happen quickly enough) that I can say for sure it was something I ate in the 4 hours before the reaction.

Anyone who's been doing this longer have thoughts? Can that kind of stomach reaction happen as long as 18 hours after ingestion? Does a person normally have the same reaction time every time?

I've only started this gluten free diet for about a week and a half now with much accidental consumption of gluten. I don't know quite if gluten intolerance/celiac is what I have, (I had an endoscopy when the symptoms first started and a blood test) but my doctor recommended that I go on this diet. And so far I've been feeling better and noticed I had flare ups when I eat instant oatmeal, cook and serve pudding, and perhaps ramen. But I realize if gluten is the problem, I can have a reaction within 1-2 hours or it may even be then next day and it lasts for quite awhile. But my hypothesis is that my body is still used to eating gluten and hasn't had time to heal and maybe after being on this diet I'll react quicker...who knows.

[wolfie]

My son has a reaction within a half hour usually.....diarrhea. I usually have a delayed reaction....somewhere between 4 and 8 hours for me. ***Knocking on wood**** it has been a while since I was glutened.

[TipTip]

I know that I used to have fairly delayed and "minor" reactions to gluten when I first went on the gluten-free lifestyle...

But now, my reactions are fairly severe and it can take a week or more for me to get back to my old self if I consume gluten. I think what people have said is correct, the longer you are gluten-free and the more healed you are the more severe your reactions become - or at least that has proven true for me.

[Caletara]

I'm not celiac, but I do have a delayed allergy to gluten. My doctor had me challenge, and eat gluten for three days or until I had a reaction. I had chinese food for lunch. It took only for hours to have a reaction, so I didn't need to go for three days. That's a typical reaction for me, time wise, it's usually about 4 hours, give or take a little and then I'm having nerve pain in my fingers for the next three days.

[emcmaster]

It depends. For me the timing of the reaction is related to how bad the glutening was. Almost like it takes my body days to detect a little teeny tiny bit of gluten and react but if it's a more substantial amount, it knows immediately.

If I were to eat a big hunk of bread, I'd react within 30 minutes.

When I get glutened from a small ingredient (like a meat marinade that contained soy sauce or something similar), I usually react within 24 hours.

Cross contamination can take me up to 3 full days to react.

[gfpaperdoll]

I am just double DQ1 & it takes 15 to 20 minutes. If it was wheat gluten I get the immediate stomach pain. no mistaking that pain. I get a different reaction from oats & barley, both of which I tested allergic to 35 years ago. barley makes me the sickest & causes vomitting & a broader stomach ache than wheat. I have almost forgotten how sick I get eating oats, I never get CC'd with oats. But I think that I get a headache with oats in adddition to some general sick nauceous feeling.

IMO I think because soy sauce is fermented that it is not as bad a reaction. BUT, my celiac group all eat at this fabulous chinese place that will use a gluten free soy sauce - you can bring your own, & I still get that wheat stomach pain, not as bad but bad enough I will not eat there. I think it is from the residue wheat soy sauce in the pans. But, I have also mostly given up "soy" soy sauce. I have gotten creative in making my own stir fry sauces!!

while on the subject of soy sauce. I find it very odd that they still call the stuff soy sauce when it is made out of wheat with no soy in sight.

[darlindeb25]

I have been gluten free for 8 yrs next month. In the beginning, when I was lgutened, I knew in a very short time. Now it takes much longer, normally, and also, depending on the type of glutening. I am so limited on what I can eat anymore, it's very rare that I actually do get glutened. A couple of years ago, I got very sick on some Quaker Choc Chip Rice Cake Snacks. I ate 3 of them, and within 2 or 3 hours, I was ill, and had to leave work. That is the quickest reaction I have had in years to gluten. In Jan I was glutened by an OTC medication, which I believed to be gluten free...my reaction time was over 24 hours, and a neurological reaction. Severe headache, uncontroable shaking, severe brain fog, blood pressure shot up, my heart raced, then nausea hit. I was able to calm myself with Xanax (which took me a long time to find a gluten free Xanax),took more than an hour to calm the neurological symptoms, and the brain fog was with me for the better part of the day. The glutening though, effected me for 3 months...this time, my tummy could not get back to normal, and I lost 24#--which I am happy about now!!!

Everyone is different, everyone reacts in their own way. You come to figure out your own system. I rarely ever have diarrhea anymore, which is fine with me. I suffered enough of that for so many years!

[gfp]

It depends. For me the timing of the reaction is related to how bad the glutening was. Almost like it takes my body days to detect a little teeny tiny bit of gluten and react but if it's a more substantial amount, it knows immediately.

If I were to eat a big hunk of bread, I'd react within 30 minutes.

When I get glutened from a small ingredient (like a meat marinade that contained soy sauce or something similar), I usually react within 24 hours.

Cross contamination can take me up to 3 full days to react.

Just to prove everyone is different I seem to be the opposite ??? Not that CC takes longer but that there doesn't seem any correlation between the AMOUNT and the delay or severity.... ????

Well ... again more or less...

Some things like CODEX starch I seem to get a delay or build-up type reaction... a tiny amount of some very low ppm and I just feel crappy but if for instance I eat CODEX bread for 4-5 days then it seems to explode...

The biggest thing for me seems to be 'other stuff' like general health ...

Another thing I noticed is its often the 'withdrawal' period that's most severe...

Anyway.. the problem with all these 'observations' is that its impossible to be sure you're 100% gluten-free always... for instance just touching a door handle someone who just ate a sandwich touched ... and although we might catch most of these gotcha's we are never really 100% sure...

My personal perspective is we can drive ourselves mad trying to figure some of this out but its only of limited use...

For instance, if you ate out you might have been glutened by the meal but you can't be 100% certain it wasn't the soap dispenser ... OR something you ate the day before!!

I know there are times i have been as close to 100% as I can and still work... and still I get glutened, perhaps I should stop drinking coffee at work? etc. because someone used the teaspoon for muesli? but It might not be that and something I didn't even notice...

[Katsby]

It's different for everyone like others have said. Since I went on the gluten-free diet about a month ago I've accidentally glutened myself a few times. I react within 15 min, sometimes sooner, but I don't get as sick as I used to if I ate whole pieces of bread/crackers/etc. Thankfully it's much more mild for me now, but I still get the gas/bloating/loud rumbling noises and general sick feeling just not D.

I'm also lactose intolerant, and I notice that can take longer for me to react to strangely and it seems to last much longer.

I hope you feel better.