Better...then Worse?

[amg2389]

My doctor told me she thinks I have Celiac a little over two weeks ago, so I started a strict gluten/dairy-free diet. My symptoms were severe bloating, continual burping, and a fermentation in the stomach. Immediately after I started the diet, my symptoms improved dramatically. I was feeling really good about the gluten-free diet and thought that I had finally figured out what was wrong. But about a week and a half after starting the diet, my symptoms returned as bad as ever and have occurred the past two days. I haven't changed my diet, and as far as I am aware, I haven't been eating any gluten. Is this normal? Did anyone experience anything similar to this when first starting a gluten-free diet?

[leadmeastray88]

My doctor told me she thinks I have Celiac a little over two weeks ago, so I started a strict gluten/dairy-free diet. My symptoms were severe bloating, continual burping, and a fermentation in the stomach. Immediately after I started the diet, my symptoms improved dramatically. I was feeling really good about the gluten-free diet and thought that I had finally figured out what was wrong. But about a week and a half after starting the diet, my symptoms returned as bad as ever and have occurred the past two days. I haven't changed my diet, and as far as I am aware, I haven't been eating any gluten. Is this normal? Did anyone experience anything similar to this when first starting a gluten-free diet?

I am in the exact same boat as you as we speak. I started a thread like this in the 'Coping' section.

The first few days I felt great - now it's just a little over a week since I started and I feel terrible. I'm starting to second guess myself but everyone here has been telling me to keep with it so I'm trying! I'm anxious to get the tests from Enterolab too and that's not helping

Hang in there! It gets better!

[curlyfries]

The best thing to do would be to start a food journal. I see you also went dairy free, but some people also have problems with soy. For me it was sugar.............including fruit, rice and rice pasta. Others have issues with nightshades. You could also be getting gluten from somewhere you're not aware of.......vitamins, shampoo, toaster, skillet, etc. Do you drink a milk substitute? I don't but have read that there is one that is labeled gluten-free, but really isn't......the name escapes me at the moment.

Good luck and welcome!!!!!!!!

[CamiJ]

I'm having the same problem - but I was not diagnosed celiac (just damaged villi). Anyway, I was trying to figure out what else causes damaged villi and celiac-like symptoms. Ravenwoodglass suggested to me to cut dairy and soy as well as gluten. I looked into that further too and I came across this article.

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The author talks about the "big 4": gluten, casein(dairy), soy, and corn. He actually calls them the 4 horses of the Apocalypse - and he believes that the majority of the world's chronic conditions and diseases can be linked to intolerances to these foods. Anyway, I know it's not a terribly scientific source, but he does have some interesting points. I noticed doing a google search of "GFCFSFCF" (gluten free, casein free, soy free, corn free), that cutting these allergens has been useful in treating autism, epilepsy, and a number of other conditions. The author of the article has celiac, and he said that when those with celiac fail to do well on the gluten-free diet, they can often find relief cutting out the rest of the big four. All four, he says, have similar molecular properties, and all are capable of damaging villi. (He also notes similarities to properties of MSG and aspartame (all contain glutamates)- which have been known to cause problems too. I personally cannot tolerate MSG - bad headaches!) Anyway, what I thought was really interesting was this:

He says:

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"The fact is that the Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins University published their incidence studies last year and found celiac disease to afflict 1:122 Americans. Yes, that is the new

[amg2389]

That is an interesting idea..I have had four good days in a row, so I'm hoping that something I ate unintentionally was the cause of the bad days. If I start having problems again, I will definitely look into getting rid of soy and corn too.

[fedora]

It is hard at first to be 100% gluten free.

My pickles weren't gluten free, then much later realized that pickled ginger can have barley in it. I accidentally to a sip of my son's minestrone soup thinking it was lentil. I put my fingers in my mouth after cleaning up my son't soy sauce. ugh.

I stopped eating out completely for awhile. I stopped eating dairy and then figured out I have a hard time eating many nuts(though nut milk is fine).

Give it time, and good luck