Celiac Disease And Anemia?

[savedbygrace92]

I have not officially been diagnosed with Celiac Disease, had the classic symptoms and I am feeling somewhat better on a gluten free diet. I have, however, been diagnosed with Iron Deficiency Anemia. I am wondering how long it should take for my intestines to heal enough to be able to reap the benefits of an Iron supplement. It doesn't seem to matter if I take a supplement, get it naturally from my diet, but I still feel weak, dizzy, tired (12+ hours of sleep later) and am getting weaker by the day as it seems my body isn't getting any of the iron it needs. Does anyone else suffer from both Celiac and Anemia? How long did it take you to feel better?

P.s. I know that I should see a doctor, I also know that without testing there is no guarantee that I have celiac disease, etc.

[Mother of Jibril]

Iron deficiency anemia isn't the only thing that can make you feel weak, dizzy, and tired... Other common causes include hypothyroidism and deficiencies in vitamins like D and B-12 (pernicious anemia). Someone with celiac disease can have all of these conditions at the same time

Everyone is different when it comes to healing. It depends on your age, how careful you are about cross-contamination, how much damage there was, what kind of damage there was, etc... Some of the neurological symptoms (neuropathy, ataxia), for example, can take a long time to go away. It only takes a few weeks on a gluten-free diet to get a negative result on a celiac blood test.

IMO, a good place to start now would be a CBC and a CMP. You could also try vitamin D on your own. I found this website helpful (Open Original Shared Link). I know it can be tricky to find a good doctor I had one who told me that "fatigue is common with a lot of autoimmune disorders" (which is true), so "I better just get used to it" (WRONG). I didn't go back to him again.

[savedbygrace92]

Thanks for the info! I know that I don't have thyroid problems, I was tested for them less than three months ago. It is definitely possible for me to have vitamin deficiencies. Because I'm already on a gluten free diet, I know that a blood test will likely come back negative. I am thinking about the possibility of doing the enterolab testing. Does anyone else know about this and how it works? Did it work for you? As far as cross contamination goes, it would be very unlikely. I do almost all cooking in my home, don't eat any foods that could have come in contact with gluten, and my entire family is gluten free, so the likelihood of cross contamination in my home is VERY minimal. I have been VERY careful about ingredients, etc. I'm guessing depending on the kind of damage you are right... do you know how long it can take those symptoms to go away? Months? Years? Hopefully months I want to feel better!!!! Of course, I don't know how much damage there was, and I'm hoping that some testing can enlighten me on that.

[jerseyangel]

Hi and welcome!

I had iron deficiency anemia before I was diagnosed--it was mild for years and years and in the year before I was diagnosed it worsened to the point where I couldn't even stand upright for very long. I took suppliments, and although they made me ill, they weren't very much help.

For me (and it different for everyone), it took about 6 months. Pre-diagnosis, my hemaglobin was 8, and 6 months later, it was 14.6. It was so nice when it finally resolved--I had it for so long that I had pretty much forgotten how it felt to not feel dizzy when I got out of bed in the morning!

Anemia is a very common symptom of Celiac. If your villi are damaged and they begin to heal on the gluten-free diet, hopefully the anemia will begin to improve. Hope so

[Yoekie]

I am anemic as well. I found out in early december. The doctor scared me to death, telling me I was on the edge of needing a bloodtransfusion. Then he told me what to eat (lentils, spinach, liver) and put me on a very high dosis of ironpills which made me sick, so I switched to intramuscular injections which I get weekly from my GP. Then I went to a GI for second opinion on possible celiac and he said the injections aren't enough to get it back up, so I'll probably get IV at hospital weekly now. I'm waiting for the blood results to see how much of the injections I've acutally taken in.

So, what you need, depends on how anemic you are and how well you cope with the pills. But please go to a doctor, because if it's serious, you cannot get it back up 'just' with the right food and pills because you only take in a part of that. You need more.

I know how it feels, I wake up to a bloodtaste in my mouth every day and although I'm 23, I can't work because I need to sleep 12 hours and rest during the day. I thought I had cfs so I'm actually very happy I have a condition that is treatable... so I'd go and get that treatment if I were you!

[curiousgeorge]

I am in the process of iron injections myself. I have had three of five and WHOA, I noticed a HUGE difference in how I felt afte the second one. I have been gluten-free since last may and the iron seems to be my nemesis. It was going up with oral iron but EVER so slowly. I haven't had the blood work yet but I can tell its gotten way higher.

[thleensd]

Getting my iron up was the hardest thing for me to do.... My ferritin was all the way down to TWO! But after my diagnosis and going 100% gluten free (not almost gluten free...it won't work), my iron shot WAY up. (And in two weeks! Not common if you visit the iron deficiency forums) And this is after years of trying to get my iron up with iron supplements *three times* per day! Now, I am only taking it once a day and Floravital (made by flouradix--reg. flouradix has gluten). It's expensive, but it's really a life saver for me. It's iron and B complex. I tolerate and absorb the liquid much better even though it's a small dose.

How long have you been gluten-free? My blood work was negative because I had gone off gluten before testing, which is a bad idea. You must be on gluten for tests to show it. My biopsy was positive, but my doc almost didn't do it because my tests were neg.

I have not officially been diagnosed with Celiac Disease, had the classic symptoms and I am feeling somewhat better on a gluten free diet. I have, however, been diagnosed with Iron Deficiency Anemia. I am wondering how long it should take for my intestines to heal enough to be able to reap the benefits of an Iron supplement. It doesn't seem to matter if I take a supplement, get it naturally from my diet, but I still feel weak, dizzy, tired (12+ hours of sleep later) and am getting weaker by the day as it seems my body isn't getting any of the iron it needs. Does anyone else suffer from both Celiac and Anemia? How long did it take you to feel better?

P.s. I know that I should see a doctor, I also know that without testing there is no guarantee that I have celiac disease, etc.