Did I Cause All This?

[hollyhock]

Here's the scoop. I went on a gluten/casien free diet to see if my bipolar conditon would improve. At the beginning I had NO noticable symptoms from food...well maybe mood things, but I didn't notice any connection, just heard it COULD be. NOW I have bad allergy/intolerance symptoms that started upon reintroduction to gluten after being gluten-free for five weeks. I'm reacting with GI issues, achy joints, fever and sometimes facial hives along with it. I used my makeup through the entire elimination with no issues but the day I reintroduced gluten my face reacted really bad and now I can't wear non-gluten-free makeup! It's so weird.

I'm frustrated. I have no choice now but to go totally gluten-free. Obviously my body doesn't like gluten, but I feel like I did something wrong to create this crazy chain reaciton. The worst part? I'm not sure if I'm seeing any mood improvment. Of course I'm having reactions which could account for the bad moods as of late, not to mention the total situational frustration. I'm hoping my system will clear and I'll notice some improvment over my former mental/emotional state. If not...I guess all I did was create a mess for myself, or did I do the right thing?

I am being tested for Celiac next week. I guess if it's positive then I did something right. Unfortunately, I learned a bit too late that a gluten-free diet can botch results. I'm asking for a biopsy. Is that more reliable than blood work?

[Sweetfudge]

From my understanding, what you experienced is quite common. Many people notice that once they stop eating gluten, they have a stronger reaction to it when they do eat it. For five weeks your body was healing, and recovering for something that was potentially harming it. It basically threw a tantrum when you brought that back into your system because it felt better when you avoided it.

I'm not sure about the mood thing. Hopefully someone else will have an answer for that.

As far as being tested next week, how long have you been back on gluten? Because if you have been gluten-free for the last 5 weeks, it won't show up as strongly in your system. I would suggest eating gluten every day until your tests. Everything I have read says that the biopsy is more reliable than the blood test, which can often have a false negative. I had both though, the bloodwork came back positive, and my GI wanted to be sure.

Good luck

[dilettantesteph]

It took me months to notice mood improvement.

[zeta-lilly]

Aw, that would be frustrating. A word of warning: You will probably test negative on your upcoming test. Especially if you're already doing gluten free. If you do have celiac disease, your intestines are starting to heal and your bloodwork will show few antibodies (if you're still doing gluten free). I think you should stick with it, although it doesn't sound like you have much of a choice! It didn't take me long at all to feel better after going gluten free, but some people say that it took months. Maybe that's the case with you. What you're describing is pretty normal. When you eat gluten at every meal, you don't notice it's effects because you have lots of antibodies circulating. But when you stop eating gluten, your body starts healing and stops producing antibodies. When you start eating it again, it freaks out and starts producing antibodies again. Because there are none circulating, you notice the ill effects. Based on this, it sounds like you probably have celiacs. Keep at it, I hope you start to feel better soon!

[CeliBelli]

Biopsy is considered the gold standard for celiac diagnosis. If you've been gluten-free for five weeks, that could skew the results, depending on the degree of damage you may have had prior to going off gluten.

You may wish to also ask for a genetics test in addition to the biopsy, since that won't be affected by what you've been eating. The most highly recommended labs are Prometheus and Kimball Labs. You can find more information on the genetics testing here:

https://www.celiac.com/authors/45/Dr.-Scot-Lewey

Good luck!

[Nancym]

I heard allergists talking about how allergies work, gluten isn't an allergy per se but it might be similar. Anyway, sometimes when you've gone a period without exposure you have a much stronger reaction when re-exposed. So chances are you had a problem but it wasn't quite so obvious until you removed and reintroduced the offending thing.

Or, perhaps it is an actual allergy as opposed to celiac disease or gluten intolerance.

I am being tested for Celiac next week. I guess if it's positive then I did something right. Unfortunately, I learned a bit too late that a gluten-free diet can botch results. I'm asking for a biopsy. Is that more reliable than blood work?

Well... clearly you'll run into a lot of people on the forums that had negative blood work AND negative biopsy that have horrible, horrible symptoms and feel vastly better on a gluten-free (sometimes a casein free) diet. So just be aware that a negative biopsy doesn't really rule anything out. Some of us even question, why bother when a dietary trial tells you pretty well anyway.