Why The Drastic Reaction?

[vintagegyrl]

Can someone explain or point me to a book/website on how the gluten affects us so quickly after we have begun the healing process?

I had been gluten-free/Grain Free as well for 4 weeks. Then last week we went on vacation and got a little messed up. I think i had gluten 2x - once on chicken @ taco bell and once on fried tortilla chips in a restaurant.

just wondering how the chips can affect me and my kids so quickly and drastically if we had already begun healing? I don't understand it. For 2 days I have just been extremely weak, lethargic, irritable and unable to focus. That's my normal self when on the SAD (standard American Diet)

THANKS!

jen

[ravenwoodglass]

Your body is reacting more drastically because it really, really wants you to be gluten free. Celiac is an autoimmune disease in which your body forms antibodies. When you get even just a little bit it causes those antibodies to 'flare' and the body reacts, often even more violently than before we went gluten free. The reaction is your bodies way of saying 'please don't do that again'. Hopefully your reaction will subside soon.

[AlysounRI]

Hi guys:

I had an interesting reaction this weekend.

I've been gluten free for about a month now and I wanted to see what it would do to me, having been feeling really, really good over the last three weeks.

So, while getting some onions and some mushrooms at the store, I looked at the soup the the local IGA makes.

They had cream of broccoli and I looked at the ingredients. The soup was obviously thickened with wheat because it was

listed as one of the ingredients.

I bought a cup and ate it when I get home. I figured it wasn't like me eating a piece of bread and I wanted to see what happened.

About 15 minutes later, my heart began to race, I started to get a headache, my limbs got all heavy and achy with a real dull ache in my neck

and I felt exhausted, like I used to feel before I went off gluten. Thankfully the feeling passed in a few hours but I was not my (now) normal peppy self

until I woke up this morning.

I wanted to try because I am going to be tested to celiac at the end of March and I wanted to see what would happen in case the doctor wanted me to go back on to the poisonous stuff, so I could tell him what it did to me. I know that I definitely DO NOT want to go back on the gluten now I will have to think long and hard about that suggestion, should be make it to me.

I can understand what vintagegyrl is feeling.

I also understand Raven's answer.

[AKcollegestudent]

I wanted to try because I am going to be tested to celiac at the end of March and I wanted to see what would happen in case the doctor wanted me to go back on to the poisonous stuff, so I could tell him what it did to me. I know that I definitely DO NOT want to go back on the gluten now I will have to think long and hard about that suggestion, should be make it to me.

I can understand what vintagegyrl is feeling.

I also understand Raven's answer.

For the test to work, unfortunately, you're going to have to be on gluten. There are some doctors willing to diagnose even if you're off of gluten (based upon positive results from diet only), but many want you to do the blood test and endoscopy--both of which require gluten consumption.

[AlysounRI]

For the test to work, unfortunately, you're going to have to be on gluten. There are some doctors willing to diagnose even if you're off of gluten (based upon positive results from diet only), but many want you to do the blood test and endoscopy--both of which require gluten consumption.

[AlysounRI]

For the test to work, unfortunately, you're going to have to be on gluten. There are some doctors willing to diagnose even if you're off of gluten (based upon positive results from diet only), but many want you to do the blood test and endoscopy--both of which require gluten consumption.

In a way I realize that, in a way I don't.

What I DO want to do is wait until I run things past this guy and tell me what he thinks.

If I have to feel crappy for another 4-6 weeks, then I will do that.

But it will be to an end.

I want to feel as good as I can until then, you know.

My little experiment told me a great deal, though.

~Allison

[AKcollegestudent]

In a way I realize that, in a way I don't.

What I DO want to do is wait until I run things past this guy and tell me what he thinks.

If I have to feel crappy for another 4-6 weeks, then I will do that.

But it will be to an end.

I want to feel as good as I can until then, you know.

My little experiment told me a great deal, though.

~Allison

Good luck then. And hopefully, you have an awesome appointment with the doctor.

[GFinDC]

In a way I realize that, in a way I don't.

What I DO want to do is wait until I run things past this guy and tell me what he thinks.

If I have to feel crappy for another 4-6 weeks, then I will do that.

But it will be to an end.

I want to feel as good as I can until then, you know.

My little experiment told me a great deal, though.

~Allison

Hi,

The only testing you can do without being on gluten is the Enterolabs tests, as far as I know. The blood antibody tests are no good if you aren't on gluten for a while, and the endoscopy is also not going to be reliable. It seems like your body may have provided you with a better test anyway. If you have a clear cut negative bodily reaction, it doesn't seem like further testing is going to tell you anything that will change that reaction. Walks like a duck time? :-) Just a thot. Oh, you could have the genetic tests at anytime, but those don't prove celiac anyway.

[AlysounRI]

I know

I am on a quest to put a name to what I have been going through for twenty plus years now.

My gluten-free diet told me a great deal.

I posted in the pre-treatment section that I am not back on the gluten and I am just so tired and achy and headachy ... but I am doing this to an end.

Regardless of whether I can put a name to this, I will be going back to gluten-free living.

Never felt more healthy, more strong and truly WELL than when I went off the gluten for those three weeks.

I really did become a new woman.

But I just want to put a name to this - I have insurance.

It will cover the testing and I feel, instinctively, that I must go through the doctor visits.

I may do an enterolab test later on, we'll see, but I already know I have sensitivities to most dairy (except yoghurt) and the nightshade group of veggies.

This is all part of the journey, you know

Thanks for all your responses, all, I am very grateful for all the help.

And I will promise to report what the test outcomes are.

~Allison (who is tired and achy and irritable and will be eating something glutinous when I get home ... sigh)