Trigger?

[gigantor98]

Does anyone out there believe that celiac disease is not triggered by something such as a virus, stress, or child birth? Does anyone out there believe that this is something you had since conception and that over years of gluten exposure and ignoring the small almost minimal early symptoms and just explaining those symptoms as just getting older or the gallbladder surgery you had in 97 or the tiredness is from having 3 kids and nothing else was your clear warning you have celiac disease?

Here is what I am getting at I heard some where you have enough villi hair to fill a tennis court. I had a stomach virus 3 years before diagnoses of celiac disease that docs thinks was my trigger. I believe it was my body screaming enough is enough and since I did not listen to that warning sign b/c I had not idea what celiac disease was yet alone gluten I kept on ingesting the gluten. Til finally it starting breaking down my neuro side to my body. Now I am about a 1/4th of a tennis court left of villi hair. I do not believe that in the short 3 years since that virus that I lost almost a whole tennis court of villi hair. I believe that this is something that over time just wore me down. I have always been somewhat healthy nothing major so why out of the blue. Nations don't crumble overnight and neither to relationships. So why your body designed in the image of your creator crumble in that short of time?

Does anyone have theory on this or has a related topic to research. I am debating this b/c my kids have not tested positive for celiac disease in their blood test even tho, I their Mom, am a celiac disease. I feel that I need to experiment with them on the celiac disease diet to see if it helps them in any way. The show a few of the what I call early warning signs. And if this diet helps them it would have me believe that this is not a trigger. That by the time you get to a 1/4 of a tennis court thats when some one catches on to test you for this disease. Again this is just a theory but it seems more understandable to me. Can anyone relate?

[tarnalberry]

As far as I understand it, it's not one or the other. For some people, it is a trigger. For some people, it's "asymptomatic" until they cross a threshold. And for some, it's both! (A trigger a long time ago starts a slow process.) As environmental factors can literally turn some genes on and off, I quite do fully believe that there is a trigger, a light switch, if you will. For some, it's on from the moment of conception; for others, it comes on later - from infancy to adulthood.

If you feel that you want to try the diet out on your kids, because you have observed things that make you think they may have subclinical signs of it (but not enough antibodies to show up on a full celiac panel), then try it! If you want a good test, you need to take gluten out for two or three months, then add it back (and not some tiny gradual process!), but you can certainly do so.

[gigantor98]

thanks this at least gives me a time frame of how long to try this on my kids. I was not for sure of how long. thanks for your info.

[GFinDC]

Hi Gigantor,

Hi Gignator,

I think I had celiac when I was a youngster actually. They said I was cranky and would tip my bowl of cereal upside down on my head as a child. What more proof do you need?

But then as a teenager I would sometimes get gut convulsions, where they would sort of twist up and hurt like the dickens for bit. I mean they really let you know they were around.

Then in the military (20's) I was stationed in Korea for a few months on TDY. I went on a educational tour of the downtown drinking establishments one night with some buddies. I remember we hit the Atomic Club pretty hard, and the Atomic bowl. I seem to recall them saying it was something really special. Anyway, one of my buddies ended up in the hospital the next day, and I got pretty sick too, but stayed in the dorm. I had green stool for years after that fun night. But the hangover and dry heaves went away after just a few days.

Flash forward to 40 years old and a real job. I got a virus that was passing around the office and making everyone's muscles and joints ache. That week I became lactose intolerant. 10 years later or so I developed a thyroid cyst (sounds better than a goiter). That led to me being diagnosed because of the connection between thyroid problems and celiac and GI issues. I was having plenty of GI issues for those 10 years also.

So, while I think I had celiac probably my whole life, I also think it was kicked into high gear at certain points due to exuberant stupidity in the first case (the Atomic Club) and also noxious disease in the 2nd case ( office virus).

FWIW, one of my younger brothers had Crohn's Disease and celiac diseaese from birth, and also there are other autoimmune diseases in my fathers side of the family. You might want to search on celiac and related condition, or associated condition. You can easily find several lists of related conditions (autoimmune diseases) that doctors say show up more often in celiacs than the rest of the population. Check out your family history of disease and see if any of them have a related condition, could be educational. You might be able to figure out which side of the family it is in. Your sibs or cousins might need to know about it also.

[OptimisticMom42]

My first round of "can't digest anything" was during my divorce. I dropped from 140lbs to under 100lbs. The second round and my diagnosis of celiacs was when my 17yr old son was jailed and diagnosed as bi-polar. I swelled up like I was wearing a life jacket and had horrible D from dairy and soy and couldn't pass anything else at all. So for me it was triggers.