Jump to content

  • Welcome to Celiac.com!

    You have found your celiac tribe! Join us and ask questions in our forum, share your story, and connect with others.



  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A1):

    Celiac.com Sponsor (A1-M):

  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Our Content
    eNewsletter
    Donate

Is Everyone Sensitive, Or Can Some People Handle Contact?

foodiegurl

Recommended Posts

foodiegurl Collaborator
foodiegurl
Posted

Once you have Celiac, is everyone super sensitive, or can some people handle it if bread touches their food, but they don't eat it? Or does everyone have to be super careful about keeping everything completely separate?

One thing that worries me is that if i am so strict about it, then when I go get it in my system, my body will go crazy. Like is it not beneficial to not be too careful, because then the effects it will have when you do get some will be that much worse. Or does it not work that way?

Thanks!

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):


chasbari Apprentice
chasbari
Posted

As a relative newcomer here and newly diagnosed I know I have been going through all the spasms of emotion when it comes to food prep... feels like I am going through a food divorce with my wife and children sometimes. Reading some things here almost made me paranoid about CC. I have had more trouble with soy and corn than with CC issues. I have my own little space and my own pan to prepare my food. I try not to twitch when someone walks in to the kitchen and pulls out the bread or pizza or whatever and am calming down. My wife made some chicken... just plain, nothing but olive oil the other day. I had some and it was nice to eat something someone else prepared. Then, when she was in a rush to clean up the kitchen she put the leftover pieces on a plate with a leftover french bread pizza one of the kids didn't eat. I almost cried. We talked, she felt honestly bad that she didn't even think of what she had just done. I closely examined the plate and saw there was ample separation and no apparent crumbs. I separated the offending pizza. I ate the chicken cold for lunch the next day to no ill effect. A few weeks ago I could have had myself talked into an absolute meltdown. I have had issues when I have gotten legitimate CC but.... due diligence seems to be a reasonable way without going the paranoia route. We are slowly adjusting as we learn.

Good luck.

Chuck

MaryJones2 Enthusiast
MaryJones2
Posted

Here are my thoughts on the topic. Perhaps it will help you out. As we all know, we are required to maintain a certain attention to detail to properly follow the diet but the level exposure each celiac can tolerate varies greatly and can only be determined by you. Your body will let you know what is OK and what isn't. The other important thing to note is that the body of a celiac can not distinguish between a crumb and an entire loaf of bread. The autoimmune reaction is triggered in both instances and chronic exposure to trace amounts of gluten via cross contamination can imact your health and recovery.

violet2004 Newbie
violet2004
Posted

SUPER-SENSITIVE!!! The smallest amount can make me sick.

(See my post on Educating The Family (aka the woes of explaining cross-contamination...))

When in doubt, don't eat it.

I have noticed, though, that the severity and duration of "glutening" symptoms relate to the amount of exposure. A mild CC can mean less than a week of being exhausted and having severe tummy trouble.

I greater amount (as in like, gee, doesn't this "red wine" sauce at this restaurant REALLY taste like it's made from soy/teriyaki sauce even though the waiter swears there is none in here and that it's gluten free?) has left me sick for up to 3 weeks - and violently so. (lying on bathroom floor at 3am with severe cramping, all food goes straight through me, and even some mild bleeding)

The bright side, to borrow from The Devil Wears Prada, is that I'm only 2 glutenings away from my ideal weight!

TES Newbie
TES
Posted
As a relative newcomer here and newly diagnosed I know I have been going through all the spasms of emotion when it comes to food prep... feels like I am going through a food divorce with my wife and children sometimes. Reading some things here almost made me paranoid about CC. I have had more trouble with soy and corn than with CC issues. I have my own little space and my own pan to prepare my food. I try not to twitch when someone walks in to the kitchen and pulls out the bread or pizza or whatever and am calming down. My wife made some chicken... just plain, nothing but olive oil the other day. I had some and it was nice to eat something someone else prepared. Then, when she was in a rush to clean up the kitchen she put the leftover pieces on a plate with a leftover french bread pizza one of the kids didn't eat. I almost cried. We talked, she felt honestly bad that she didn't even think of what she had just done. I closely examined the plate and saw there was ample separation and no apparent crumbs. I separated the offending pizza. I ate the chicken cold for lunch the next day to no ill effect. A few weeks ago I could have had myself talked into an absolute meltdown. I have had issues when I have gotten legitimate CC but.... due diligence seems to be a reasonable way without going the paranoia route. We are slowly adjusting as we learn.

Good luck.

Chuck

Paranoia! Yep, I feel that way! I have been really careful and even eliminate food that shouldn't have any gluten, but after eating, maybe I have a reaction, then I think, was it the food, was it was the can opener, or a breeze that flew over the dogfood bowl or who knows? My husband is supportive and yet will reach for a handful of nuts after eating a gluten food (cracker) and then I think "the nuts are contaminated!" But as I heal, I think my reaction time to gluten is less and that makes me happy, but if I have no reactions eventually, how do I know if I am being glutened or doing damage? And, am I being glutened now or is it part of the healing process when I have "faint" symptoms? Then I read where salt can be a hindrance and wonder if the salt on the Lay's chips is the culprit or are they cc? I keep reading and learning so much from this site, and I am healing, I just hope I don't drive everybody else crazy in the process! I can't figure out if people are more sensitive or have had more damage done, if we all react differently or react the same at different stages of the disease. Or what came first, (chicken or the egg) gluten, then all the auto immune or auto immune with additional problems of gluten. In other words, is gluten the underlying cause of auto immune disorders? It seems that so many people that have wriiten, have other auto immune problems that dissappear after going gluten free.

rinne Apprentice
rinne
Posted
....

The bright side, to borrow from The Devil Wears Prada, is that I'm only 2 glutenings away from my ideal weight!

Thanks, I laughed out loud when I read that.

When I was first ill and melting, losing a half pound or pound a day, and needing to lose some weight I admit to a simultaneous knowledge that something was very wrong and that wow (happy, happy) I was getting to wear jeans again. :lol:

I think in the beginning it is very important to be very careful, this will give you a truer sense if something bothers you. As to how much, we are wonderfully unique and for each of us it is different. :)

jerseyangel Proficient
jerseyangel
Posted
When I was first ill and melting, losing a half pound or pound a day, and needing to lose some weight I admit to a simultaneous knowledge that something was very wrong and that wow (happy, happy) I was getting to wear jeans again. :lol:

Now this gave me a chuckle! :P

In the year preceding my diagnosis, I was losing a lot of weight. This was something that had never happened to me before without a great deal of effort.

As I was a bit over my ideal weight when this began, I was, on the one hand, thrilled that I was going down in pant sizes and was looking mighty good in my clothes! On the other hand, as Rinne said, I was also aware that something was amiss. <_<

Fast forward 3 and 1/2 years, and I'm back to wanting to lose 20 pounds. :D

In answer to your question, foodiegurl, as you spend time reading here you will see that the level of sensitivity varies greatly from person to person. Some of us need to use all gluten-free personal products and can't tolerate products made on shared lines.

Others are not so sensitive. Our own reactions can even change as time goes on. What's important is how you feel. It takes some trial and error to figure out what will work/not work for you.

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):


Tallforagirl Rookie
Tallforagirl
Posted

I'm one of the non-sensitive. I think you'll know as you go along how sensitive you are. There are basic precautions we all need to take though, as severity of symptoms are not indicative of level of damage to villi.

chasbari Apprentice
chasbari
Posted
I'm one of the non-sensitive. I think you'll know as you go along how sensitive you are. There are basic precautions we all need to take though, as severity of symptoms are not indicative of level of damage to villi.

This is a very good point that I am mentally filing away for that day when I am all healed up. I used to be able to eat anything in spite of all my difficulties and once this is all better I have to remember what the suffering was like so I don't go back. I hope I am of the mindset that my new way of eating is bringing me such good health that I will chose not to return to old things once better.

CS

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A19):


  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A20):

  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      121.5k
    • Total Posts
      1m
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A22):



  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A21):


  • Upcoming Events

  • Posts

    • Jacki Espo
      Covid caused reoccurrence of DH without eating gluten

      By Jacki Espo · Posted

      This happened to me as well. What’s weirder is that within a couple hours of taking paxlovid it subsided. I thought maybe I got glutened but after reading your post not so sure. 
    • Mari
      New Celiac Mama in My 30s

      By Mari · Posted

      Hi Tiffany. Thank you for writing your dituation and  circumstancesin such detail and so well writte, too. I particularly noticed what you wrote about brain for and feeling like your brain is swelling and I know from my own experiences that's how it feel and your brain really does swell and you get migraines.    Way back when I was in my 20s I read a book by 2 MD allergist and they described their patient who came in complaining that her brain, inside her cranium, was swelling  and it happened when she smelled a certain chemical she used in her home. She kept coming back and insisting her brain actually swelled in her head. The Drs couldn't explain this problem so they, with her permission, performed an operation where they made a small opening through her cranium, exposed her to the chemical then watched as she brain did swell into the opening. The DRs were amazed but then were able to advise her to avoid chemicals that made her brain swell. I remember that because I occasionally had brain fog then but it was not a serious problem. I also realized that I was becoming more sensitive to chemicals I used in my work in medical laboratories. By my mid forties the brain fog and chemicals forced me to leave my  profession and move to a rural area with little pollution. I did not have migraines. I was told a little later that I had a more porous blood brain barrier than other people. Chemicals in the air would go up into my sinused and leak through the blood brain barrier into my brain. We have 2 arteries  in our neck that carry blood with the nutrients and oxygen into the brain. To remove the fluids and used blood from the brain there are only capillaries and no large veins to carry it away so all those fluids ooze out much more slowly than they came in and since the small capillaries can't take care of extra fluid it results in swelling in the face, especially around the eyes. My blood flow into my brain is different from most other people as I have an arterial ischema, adefectiveartery on one side.   I have to go forward about 20 or more years when I learned that I had glaucoma, an eye problem that causes blindness and more years until I learned I had celiac disease.  The eye Dr described my glaucoma as a very slow loss of vision that I wouldn't  notice until had noticeable loss of sight.  I could have my eye pressure checked regularly or it would be best to have the cataracts removed from both eyes. I kept putting off the surgery then just overnight lost most of the vision in my left eye. I thought at the I had been exposed to some chemical and found out a little later the person who livedbehind me was using some chemicals to build kayaks in a shed behind my house. I did not realize the signifance  of this until I started having appointments with a Dr. in a new building. New buildings give me brain fog, loss of balance and other problems I know about this time I experienced visual disturbances very similar to those experienced by people with migraines. I looked further online and read that people with glaucoma can suffer rapid loss of sight if they have silent migraines (no headache). The remedy for migraines is to identify and avoid the triggers. I already know most of my triggers - aromatic chemicals, some cleaning materials, gasoline and exhaust and mold toxins. I am very careful about using cleaning agents using mostly borax and baking powder. Anything that has any fragrance or smell I avoid. There is one brand of dishwashing detergent that I can use and several brands of  scouring powder. I hope you find some of this helpful and useful. I have not seen any evidence that Celiac Disease is involved with migraines or glaucoma. Please come back if you have questions or if what I wrote doesn't make senseto you. We sometimes haveto learn by experience and finding out why we have some problems. Take care.       The report did not mention migraines. 
    • Mari
      My only proof

      By Mari · Posted

      Hi Jmartes71 That is so much like my story! You probably know where Laytonville is and that's where I was living just before my 60th birthday when the new Dr. suggested I could have Celiacs. I didn't go on a gluten challange diet before having the Celiac panel blood test drawn. The results came back as equivical as one antibody level was very high but another, tissue transaminasewas normal. Itdid show I was  allergic to cows milk and I think hot peppers. I immediately went gluten free but did not go in for an endoscopy. I found an online lab online that would do the test to show if I had a main celiac gene (enterolab.com). The report came back that I had inherited a main celiac gene, DQ8, from one parent and a D!6 from the other parent. That combination is knows to sym[tons of celiac worse than just inheriting one main celiac gene. With my version of celiac disease I was mostly constipated but after going gluten-free I would have diarrhea the few times I was glutened either by cross contamination or eating some food containing gluten. I have stayed gluten-free for almost 20 years now and knew within a few days that it was right for me although my recovery has been slow.   When I go to see a  medical provide and tell them I have celiacs they don't believe me. The same when I tell them that I carry a main celiac gene, the DQ8. It is only when I tell them that I get diarrhea after eating gluten that they realize that I might have celiac disease. Then they will order th Vitamin B12 and D3 that I need to monitor as my B12 levels can go down very fast if I'm not taking enough of it. Medical providers haven't been much help in my recovery. They are not well trained in this problem. I really hope this helps ypu. Take care.      
    • knitty kitty
      Does anyone here also have Afib

      By knitty kitty · Posted

      Fascinating.
    • DebJ14
      Does anyone here also have Afib

      By DebJ14 · Posted

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

NOTICE: This site places This site places cookies on your device (Cookie settings). on your device. Continued use is acceptance of our Terms of Use, and Privacy Policy.