Is This Possible?

[IMWalt]

Yesterday I was doing some shopping and bought a bag of flour for my non-celiac family. Last night I developed bad gas and intestinal churning like I had before I went gluten-free (and which is still happening now). Then this morning I had D and have made a couple quick trips to the BR. My wife said I could not possibly have intestinal reactions from flour touching my skin. She thinks I should have a skin reaction of some type. She says I can not blame every gastro upset I have on gluten. I did have a very big salad last night for dinner, but I do that 3 or 4 nights a week and don't have an adverse reaction to it. I have noticed that I seem to be getting more sensitive to gluten, but this seems like it could be my imagination?

Walt

[jerseyangel]

Walt--

I doesn't sound so far-fetched to me. I have a "mixed" kitchen, but one thing I won't have in the house at all is wheat flour. That dust gets into the air and wherever it lands gets contaminated.

Did you wash your hands well after handling the bag of flour?

[JNBunnie1]

Walt--

I doesn't sound so far-fetched to me. I have a "mixed" kitchen, but one thing I won't have in the house at all is wheat flour. That dust gets into the air and wherever it lands gets contaminated.

Did you wash your hands well after handling the bag of flour?

You could have simply breathed it in from disturbing the ever-present piles of loose flour on those shelves or from tossing it in your cart too carelessly. Might want to have them get their own flour from now on.

[ShayFL]

Yeah...I wouldnt allow gluten flour in my house at all. It is easy to breath it in. And when your wife cooks with it, it gets everywhere unfortunately.

Would they be willing to use gluten free flours for dregging meats and such and buy pre-made other gluten stuff so that there doesnt need to be any gluten flour in the house at all?

I dredge in amaranth flour for pork chops and they are delicious. Sorghum would be good too.

[IMWalt]

Thanks for the info. No, I did not wash my hands after picking it up. I did not seem to have a problem with it before. Maybe that's because I did not know what it was like to not have a churning stomach. This is all so frustrating to me. I struggled for years with the symptoms, and they all went away after eating gluten-free, but now it sems like it doesn't take much to make me feel bad. I am working on getting rid of all the wheat flour in the house. One of my son's favorite things is waffles, and he actually likes the Trader Joe's gluten-free mix. My wife eats most of the gluten-free stuff I make, and I do most of the cooking, the vast majority of which is gluten-free. My wife just does not believe in cross-contamination yet.

Walt

[jerseyangel]

Cross contamination becomes much more apparent the longer you are gluten-free. So many of us tend to react strongly to smaller and smaller amounts as time goes by. Doesn't seem fair, but that's the way it is nonetheless

I think if you can eliminate the flour you'll be better off

[kenlove]

I have this problem often with unseen flour in the air. Can't buy wine at costco as its next to the bakery. Can't walk into any bakery anymore. Every time over the past 2+ years since diagnoses if I get near flour, I have almost the same reaction you described. I've read on the forum that we can be affected on a molecular level.

When I was first diagnosed my wife had flour in the kitchen but its just no longer possible for her to keep it here.

Always drives me nuts when stores keep the gluten free flours on the same shelves and sections as regular flour too.

I think you can blame all the gastro problems on contamination of some type although your lucky you can still eat big salads. I had to cut down to small salads and other gluten-free foods. Used to do like you and had a head of romaine 3 or 4 times a week.

good luck

Ken

Yesterday I was doing some shopping and bought a bag of flour for my non-celiac family. Last night I developed bad gas and intestinal churning like I had before I went gluten-free (and which is still happening now). Then this morning I had D and have made a couple quick trips to the BR. My wife said I could not possibly have intestinal reactions from flour touching my skin. She thinks I should have a skin reaction of some type. She says I can not blame every gastro upset I have on gluten. I did have a very big salad last night for dinner, but I do that 3 or 4 nights a week and don't have an adverse reaction to it. I have noticed that I seem to be getting more sensitive to gluten, but this seems like it could be my imagination?

Walt

[purple]

Walt, be sure to throw away the grocery bag that held the flour and clean anything that was in the bag with it...and wash...again...

[lovegrov]

No, you will not have an intestinal reaction simply from touching flour. For one thing, you don't absorb flour through your skin.

richard

[Gemini]

No, you will not have an intestinal reaction simply from touching flour. For one thing, you don't absorb flour through your skin.

richard

Excellent, Richard!!!! You mean there is another person on this forum who has taken the time to learn how real reactions occur?

Not trying to make light of your reaction, Walt, but your wife had some very good advice for you. You absolutely cannot have a reaction in your gut just by touching flour to your skin. Celiacs also will have other gut reactions to other foods, just like the rest of the non-Celiac population. You can , however, become nauseous from the smell of something wheaty from a bakery or find the smell very distasteful and I am not sure if that is real or psychosomatic. I cannot walk down the bread aisle in a mainstream grocery store because the smell of all that wheat is overwhelming and makes me gag. It's not a true reaction like a glutening but it sure makes me feel yucky. I wonder if this is induced psychologically or not but it happens. This is not a glutening, though.

You may have swallowed some flour that got on your hands but if you did not touch your mouth afterwards, you were not glutened. It can be very frustrating to figure out why you reacted as you did but it could have been the salad. I sometimes have a problem after ingesting a whole lot of salad and I eat buckets of the stuff every week. You will become more sensitive over time, once gluten-free, but do not become overly worried about every incident. You also will not have a reaction if flour is in the room, contrary to popular belief on this forum.

[jerseyangel]

Excellent, Richard!!!! You mean there is another person on this forum who has taken the time to learn how real reactions occur?

I don't recall anyone on this thread implying that Walt was glutened by simply touching flour. I asked him if he washed his hands after handling the bag--and he said he didn't. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that he touched his face or fixed himsef something to eat with contaminated fingers.

It's also true that inhaled gluten is swallowed and can cause a reaction.

Please keep board rule #1 in mind when posting. Thanks

[ShayFL]

I don't recall anyone on this thread implying that Walt was glutened by simply touching flour. I asked him if he washed his hands after handling the bag--and he said he didn't. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that he touched his face or fixed himsef something to eat with contaminated fingers.

I dont recall that either. Everyone was simply giving him information as to how you can get glutened after you touch gluten. Not that simply touching it causes glutening.

[MNBeth]

I completely agree that a person wouldn't get a gluten reaction from touching flour.

On the other hand, I don't feel the detractors have sufficiently negated the argument that a person can be glutened by ingesting airborne flour. That is a separate argument, separate also from "smelling wheaty things."

I was a bread baker before I had to go gluten free, and was always cleaning flour off everything in my kitchen. I am not talking about things I touched with floured hands, but EVERYTHING in the kitchen. It got on everything because some of it always became airborne and travelled throughout the room. It seems to me, then, not at all unreasonable to think that those airborne particles could as easily enter my mouth while I'm breathing or talking as they could get onto everything else.

After I went gluten-free, I cleaned up my flour mill to give to a friend. I was hyper cautious about handling it, and washed my hands very thoroughly afterward - brushing out fingernails, the whole works. I was still sick for a week afterward. Of course I can't prove that cleaning the mill did it, but neither have I heard an argument that convinces me that airborne flour cannot have been the culprit.

[jerseyangel]

That is a separate argument, separate also from "smelling wheaty things."

I agree! I'm ultra sensitive but have no problem at all walking down a bread aisle and smelling the baked breads (although some do). The problem comes in where flour is loose in the air--such as a bakery, or a kitchen where flour is being used.

If Walt is buying flour, it's a safe bet that some has settled around in his kitchen.

[IMWalt]

Good to know that simpy touching it will not cause a problem. I do not think it was the salad, because I eat the same large salad at least 3 or 4 times a week, and do not have a problem. I guess I just have to keep learning as I go. It's frustrating, because when I first started gluten-free, everything was fine. Now, it seems like the the slightest suspect food gives me D, and then my insides churn for 3 or more days after.

Walt

[happygirl]

Just for fun: Open Original Shared Link

[ravenwoodglass]

Just for fun: Open Original Shared Link

Thanks for posting the link on actual findings from a reliable source that inhaled gluten can be an issue. It is appretiated.

[Rya]

Good to know that simpy touching it will not cause a problem. I do not think it was the salad, because I eat the same large salad at least 3 or 4 times a week, and do not have a problem. I guess I just have to keep learning as I go. It's frustrating, because when I first started gluten-free, everything was fine. Now, it seems like the the slightest suspect food gives me D, and then my insides churn for 3 or more days after.

Walt

I'm not entirely sure why this is on my mind all the time lately, but it's amazing how many times a day I find my fingers in my mouth somehow. I might be an oddball, but I bet I'm not alone.

I'm sorry to hear your wife doesn't believe in CC yet, Walt. My mom didn't either for the longest time. In fact, my parents didn't believe I had Celiac for quite some time...but another story for another post. Fortunately, I'm a dietitian now so I can one up mom's nurse status. It just took actually proving it for her..i.e. getting sick when she was careful about cooking. Perhaps you and your wife can sit down and read this forum? There are so many other stories like it.

You aren't crazy that you are becoming more sensitive now. If you follow a regular diet, you will have the same low level reaction all the time. If you follow a gluten-free diet, your reactions become more severe each time you are exposed, just like a true allergy (even though it's not).

I don't think it was the salad either.....

Rya

[trekker]

Excellent, Richard!!!! You mean there is another person on this forum who has taken the time to learn how real reactions occur?

Not trying to make light of your reaction, Walt, but your wife had some very good advice for you. You absolutely cannot have a reaction in your gut just by touching flour to your skin. Celiacs also will have other gut reactions to other foods, just like the rest of the non-Celiac population. You can , however, become nauseous from the smell of something wheaty from a bakery or find the smell very distasteful and I am not sure if that is real or psychosomatic. I cannot walk down the bread aisle in a mainstream grocery store because the smell of all that wheat is overwhelming and makes me gag. It's not a true reaction like a glutening but it sure makes me feel yucky. I wonder if this is induced psychologically or not but it happens. This is not a glutening, though.

You may have swallowed some flour that got on your hands but if you did not touch your mouth afterwards, you were not glutened. It can be very frustrating to figure out why you reacted as you did but it could have been the salad. I sometimes have a problem after ingesting a whole lot of salad and I eat buckets of the stuff every week. You will become more sensitive over time, once gluten-free, but do not become overly worried about every incident. You also will not have a reaction if flour is in the room, contrary to popular belief on this forum.

I beg to differ

Skin does absorb things, including gluten.

I've been taking care of my four year old granddaughter this summer and I've been gluttened all summer just by handling her food. I am Very Careful, and wash my hands, etc. But it still gets to me. On the days I when I'm not around her food I start to feel better.

She starts school next week and I hope I will less exposure to gluten will help me get back to being really healthy again.

Some of my family thinks I'm obsessive and paranoid about gluten - don't think it's serious or even real.

[MyMississippi]

I beg to differ

Skin does absorb things, including gluten.

I've been taking care of my four year old granddaughter this summer and I've been gluttened all summer just by handling her food. I am Very Careful, and wash my hands, etc. But it still gets to me. On the days I when I'm not around her food I start to feel better.

She starts school next week and I hope I will less exposure to gluten will help me get back to being really healthy again.

Some of my family thinks I'm obsessive and paranoid about gluten - don't think it's serious or even real.

I just got an email today from" About.com Celiac disease" that said gluten molecules were too large to be absorbed into the skin.

[sickchick]

I used to have severe reactions to touching vinegars and lemon & lime juice. SEVERE, it would throw me into a tailspin for days

[darlindeb25]

Happygirl...great find!

Non-Responsive Celiac Disease due to Inhaled Gluten

7/10/2007

Non-Responsive Celiac Disease due to Inhaled Gluten

Brief: This study evaluated two patients who had nonresponsive celiac disease after having been on a gluten free diet. Both patients still showed chronic symptoms and histological changes from celiac but had adhered to a strictly gluten-free diet. Both patients worked on farms where they feed gluten-containing grain to livestock on a daily basis and were likely inhaling dust particles with gluten in them, thereby aggravating their symptoms even when no gluten was being ingested with their diets. Wearing face masks greatly improved symptoms and histological results for both patients.

Thing is, the naysayers never believe anything "they" do not want to believe. They also know more than all of us. Some people just do not react to the same things as others. Maybe their reactions are not nearly as strong as they think they are. I do not get sick by walking pass a bakery, but the odors do make me feel ill. I no longer can stand the smell. Also, when I walk pass them, I do pay special attention to my breathing, and move by quickly.

Walt, stay away from flour, and try to keep it out of your home. It does get on everything, everywhere. Your problem was not that it glutened you through your skin, it glutened you because you inhaled it. Some people are mouth breathers at times, and once it's in your mouth, especially flour, it's too late. Like Rya said, it really is amazing how many times your hands are near your mouth, or even touching it. Something as simple as thinking you have a hair on your tongue, or fuzz, you will use your finger to remove it. Finger + flour + tongue= glutened.

Considering there are more of us who "know" you can get glutened in this way, kind of says it all, don't you think? You will have to make up y our own mind on this. I think your tummy already proved to you what will happen to!

[IMWalt]

Thankd for all the input. I think eventually I will get to a gluten-free house. And, since I was in the store when I picked up the flour, I was unable to wash my hands. At home I always wash after touching something with gluten in it. I suppose that was the problem. That was Monday, I and Im starting to feel better today.

Walt

[Kauk]

Hello

I have heard of a reaction to gluten/wheat being SO severe that even the handling of it will cause serious illness. My neighbour has a cousin with this severity so I would say sure its possible. I have a more skin reaction when I handle it. WE dont use flour at all unles its Gluten/wheat free.

HUGS for Walt. =-)

Rebecca

[Lisa]

It is very possible to have Celiac Disease as well as a wheat allergy.