Do Sensitivity Levels Go Down?

[dilettantesteph]

For those of you who have been gluten free for a long time, do you find that you no longer have as many issues with things like cross contamination because, perhaps, the amount of gluten that you need for a reaction has gone up? I'm hoping. It seems like the symptoms get less severe as I get more healed. Comments?

[RiceGuy]

From the many posts on the topic, I'd say most people have a greater sensitivity to gluten as time goes by on the gluten-free diet, such that less and less can cause the same or worse symptoms. But, as long as you don't ingest gluten, you can look forward to better health as the body heals.

[spunky]

A published, well-known celiac researcher/author once told me in correspondence that after some time, his reactions to accidental ingestion of gluten became less severe and he was only mildy ill from them by that time.

I was only a few months gluten free at the time, and didn't think to ask how much time it took for him to get that way...I was into thinking in terms of weeks or months, but since then, considering all things gluten, I'm more into thinking in terms of YEARS... I've learned a lot through trial and error since that time.

I've been gluten free for 2 1/2 years now... I'm so careful I'm flatout paranoid... never take chances, never eat out, now, or eat anything from anyplace but my own kitchen, because the last time I got it by accident, apparently... was last Christmas-time while eating salad from a buffet for my mom's birthday...I mean, I didn't see any gluten and thought I'd steared clear, but a day or two afterward I was pretty sick, and it lasted the entire month of January...totally miserable and I thought I'd never get well again... like the worst ever (just as I was about two months shy of 2 whole years gluten free)... so... if / when it gets better... I've heard from a reliable source that it does eventually improve, but didn't know enough to ask him exactly how long that takes!!!! Now I think I'm too paranoid to find out through my own trial and error.

I still dream I get glutened... often.

[gfp]

From the many posts on the topic, I'd say most people have a greater sensitivity to gluten as time goes by on the gluten-free diet, such that less and less can cause the same or worse symptoms. But, as long as you don't ingest gluten, you can look forward to better health as the body heals.

This is true in my experience too.

I react more quickly and it feels more violently though I think a part of this is psychological.

As Rice guy say's your general heath gets better and better so when you do slip up you have further to fall.

It might sound negative but its not really, I think I'm just as ill but it FEELS worse because I'm used to good health.

[samcarter]

It gets worse. Sorry to break it to you. I have been gluten-free only a month, and right now am feeling horrid--headache, nausea--from getting glutened with, I suspect, a leftover energy bar my kid handed me while we were in the car on Monday. I was distracted by driving and ate it without thinking. D'OH! It wasn't even wheat-based, but oat-based, and had malt in it. In the past, I wouldn't have felt this bad after a whole bowl of pasta with bread--maybe tired, lethargic, but not with a pounding headache and queasy stomach. My sinuses are getting into play, as well.

I think, as you heal, your body realizes how it's SUPPOSED to feel. We're so used to feeling crummy that when we feel good, and then we get glutened, as a previous poster said, it's that much farther to fall.

[Jestgar]

After two years my reactions are less severe. I think the answer is "it depends on you".

[gfp]

After two years my reactions are less severe. I think the answer is "it depends on you".

Serious question ...

is that ALL reactions or specifics.

(I should maybe have said, the one reaction I no longer get almost EVER is migranes.... and VERY rarely acid reflux but the poop is proably more so or the same)

[Phyllis28]

Everyone is different. I know when I have been accidently glutened but the symptoms are mild. If I get accidently glutened several days in a row I get progressivley sicker.

[Jestgar]

Serious question ...

is that ALL reactions or specifics.

(I should maybe have said, the one reaction I no longer get almost EVER is migranes.... and VERY rarely acid reflux but the poop is proably more so or the same)

I don't have clear answer for you. I react to gluten and soy. A little of either and I get brain fog and fatigue. More soy leads to digestive problems, more gluten leads to headaches.

I eat gluten-free foods 'made in a facility...' with no problems, I only have cc issues when I eat out, and I don't know if it's soy or gluten.

[gfp]

I don't have clear answer for you. I react to gluten and soy. A little of either and I get brain fog and fatigue. More soy leads to digestive problems, more gluten leads to headaches.

I eat gluten-free foods 'made in a facility...' with no problems, I only have cc issues when I eat out, and I don't know if it's soy or gluten.

I also noticed that the delay seems to have become 'longer' for intestinal reactions though the brain fog starts off pretty quickly.

The brain fog is so subtly creeping in its hard to say exactly when it starts.... I just feel a little out of it.. then a bit more then more.

Often its my really good friends spot it first....