How Do I Know If I Am Gluten Intolerant

[chrystie]

I was put on an elimination diet a month ago and last week started testing wheat and dairy, etc. Wheat/gluten was the first thing I tried. The doctor's directions had me eat a bowl of cream of wheat two days in a row. The second day I was tired and spacey. I felt like it was exctemely hard to concentrate and like I just wanted to go home and sleep. The second day I had all over muscle and joint aches along with the spacey feeling and each day after that, for a couple more days, was the same. I immediately thought I must be gluten intolerant. So I'm continuing to test other things like dairy, soy, etc and haven't really had any other major symptoms like that.

I've been searching all over the internet trying to figure out - - Am I gluten intolerant? Was the spacey feeling and muscle aches enough to say that I'm intolerant? Should I continue to try other things that have gluten in them to see if I get the same reaction?

Please help.

Thanks

[Amyleigh0007]

How did you feel before you started your elimination diet? What were your symptoms? I am confused as to why your doctor had you eat cream of wheat for two days in a row. An elimination diet typicaly concentrates on one food at a time so I wouldn't try to eliminate everything at once. If you do and feel better you won't know which food caused your symptoms. I would keep a detailed food diary and write down what you eat, when, and how you felt after eating it (up to several hours if necessary). If you see a pattern with a certain food (you feel tired and bloated 30 minutes after eating dairy for example)then eliminate it and see if you feel better. It's much easier to see patterns when they are on paper. Please remember if you choose to get tested for Celiac you must be consuming gluten for the tests to be accurate.

[chrystie]

The diet my doctor put me on was a three week diet where I eliminated foods that people are commonly allergic and intolerant to. I have excema and, along with that a weak immune system. I've been seeing a holistic doctor that practices in the office my regular doctor works in. Every doctor wants to prescribe creams and pills and I'm looking to solve the problem from the inside out. I removed wheat/gluten, dairy, soy, corn, tomato, eggs, citrus and sugar. I felt great starting about a week and a half into it, my whole mood and outlook on life went way up. Then I was supposed to 'challenge' or 'test' all the foods one by one to see what symptoms I got from them. He said the cream of wheat would be the simplest form of wheat to try, so I ate that. I've found this on the internet as well, so it's not just something he made up. I had total brain fog the next 3-4 days and achy muscles and joints. I just want feedback from others that have experience with this as to if this means I'm gluten intolerant.

side note -- I just tested tomato a couple nights ago and the next morning woke up with a red and itchy chin, then later that day started to get an achy back followed by massive abdominal cramps. I've been doubled over for almost 24 hrs now. It's getting better, finally, but it was a horrible experience. The only other time this happened to me I had large slices of raw tomato the night before as well. I thought I had salmonella poisoning last time, but maybe I'm intolerant to tomato/nightshades? Any feedback on that would be good also.

Thanks!