Cross Contamination

[dhiltonlittle]

just wondering if you all get the same effects from cross contamination as you would eating a whole piece of bread. is it the same reaction either way or is it less depending on how much gluten you're actually exposed to?

[Jestgar]

I think this is different for different people. Some report that the tiniest bit of gluten will give them a full-blown response, and others say that their response varies depending on how much gluten they've consumed.

[Lgood22573]

Full blown for me = all the gastro symptoms, bad stomach pain, bloating, frequent bathroom trips, feel horrible and joint pain.

Tiny bit = just joint pain

It is a bit strange. But I can tell within 15 minutes of ingesting it- my hips start to ache.

[juppygirl]

I get major symptoms from tiny amounts including some 'safe - less than 20ppmillion' items and am just really sensitive

[dilettantesteph]

I get major symptoms from tiny amounts including some 'safe - less than 20ppmillion' items and am just really sensitive

Me too. I get sick of always cooking from scratch, but I got more sick of getting glutened.

[buffettbride]

I get major symptoms from tiny amounts including some 'safe - less than 20ppmillion' items and am just really sensitive

So does my daughter.

[bluebonnet]

i felt just as horrible after a cross contamination from eggs and a grill and then a different occassion accidentally tasting a bite of something with gluten. i got ibs for a week and my joint pain got intense. not to mention sleep/insomnia worse. and it seems like it is harder to recover from these incidents. i don't understand it.

feeling like i did just from a small amount makes me way to scared to eat something like a slice of pizza or donut. yikes!

[i-geek]

It's a sliding scale for me. If I eat, say, a piece of bread, within 90 minutes I will have a migraine and such exhaustion that I will want to pass out, followed by several days of fatigue and GI issues. If I get CC'd, I can tell pretty quickly (I get a tightening in my throat while eating gluten followed by racing pulse, regardless of the amount) but the headache and other symptoms might take 24 hours to set in and generally aren't as debilitating.

Edit: I should clarify that I am no longer knowingly eating gluten and have not since 12/27/09 when I ate a piece of special holiday bread at the in-laws' and ended up with mouth sores so painful that it hurt to talk (on top of the other symptoms). The month of December 2009 was spent experimenting with stretches of on/off gluten and cataloging my symptoms, since the doctor I was seeing proved to be less than helpful (no surprise, I've had the same experience for 15 years). I'm actually afraid that, considering how bad my reactions were getting those last few months even while I was still consuming gluten semi-regularly, a big deliberate intake now might put me in the hospital. Cheating would so not be worth it and I'm not willing to find out how bad it could get.

[Hawaii78]

It's a sliding scale for me. If I eat, say, a piece of bread, within 90 minutes I will have a migraine and such exhaustion that I will want to pass out, followed by several days of fatigue and GI issues. If I get CC'd, I can tell pretty quickly (I get a tightening in my throat while eating gluten followed by racing pulse, regardless of the amount) but the headache and other symptoms might take 24 hours to set in and generally aren't as debilitating.

i-geek - I get almost the exact same symptoms as you. If I eat some wheat or gluten, I will have some small stomach pains within 30 min. to a few hours, but they go away. Then after around 6 to 8 hours, more stomach pains followed by shallow breathing, sometimes racing heart beats, really bad headaches, and all of a sudden have to take a crap right away. But aren't some of these anaphylactic characteristics, too? According to what I've read online, these can be fatal. I hope to be tested for these some time soon, and I'm wondering if I need to carry around an epi-pen. I sometimes get the throat tightening after eating a product containing peanuts. Stay well, and be safe!

[i-geek]

i-geek - I get almost the exact same symptoms as you. If I eat some wheat or gluten, I will have some small stomach pains within 30 min. to a few hours, but they go away. Then after around 6 to 8 hours, more stomach pains followed by shallow breathing, sometimes racing heart beats, really bad headaches, and all of a sudden have to take a crap right away. But aren't some of these anaphylactic characteristics, too? According to what I've read online, these can be fatal. I hope to be tested for these some time soon, and I'm wondering if I need to carry around an epi-pen. I sometimes get the throat tightening after eating a product containing peanuts. Stay well, and be safe!

You know, I wonder sometimes about allergy (I don't doubt I have intestinal intolerance, based on chronic symptoms leading up to going gluten-free indicating intestinal damage that have since begun to resolve). Back in December when I was trying to figure all of this out, I broke a gluten fast with a slice of homemade pizza (with extra flour all over the crust) and had an immediate allergic reaction (eyes/mouth/throat itching, sneezing, etc.). I blamed it on the new Christmas candle we'd bought earlier that day, but I'd been sitting on the sofa within a few feet of said candle for at least an hour before dinner and had no problems until that first bite of pizza. Now I'm wondering if it wasn't flour inhalation, especially since I've not had a reaction like that since. Thanks for the reminder. I hope you get some answers for your allergies.

[sandsurfgirl]

I have only been gluten free for a couple of months and I don't ever intend on cheating. But I have been accidentally glutened a couple of times and I got a short bout of symptoms lasting a few hours. I guess I'm blessed that I don't get sick for days, but I do know that it could change in the future. I hope I don't get glutened again but I know that it's always a possibility.

[1morething]

I was like you when I first started on the gluten free diet. Few symptoms, mild reactions to gluten. But now, 18 months into the gluten free journey, the symptoms are immediate and last up to a week. I don't understand why we get worse as we heal....is that typical??

[Shannonlass]

My consultant told me that the amount of antibody your body produces in response to gluten is directly proportional to how much gluten (i.e. the antigen) that your body is exposed to. So if you get a few crumbs by CC, in theory (unless you are EXTREMELY sensitive) the reaction should be a lot milder then if you were to say consume a slice of bread. I am a biochemist by profession so this makes perfect sense to me but I wanted it confirmed by the expert. Our bodies are not designed to be wasteful. They will not invest resources to produce a huge amount of antibody unnecessarily.

[Jestgar]

However the degree to which everyone reacts to the amount of antibody may not be the same.

[i-geek]

However the degree to which everyone reacts to the amount of antibody may not be the same.

'Tis true, and the isotype of antibody matters too, because that affects which effector cells are acting in the inflammatory process. So it's also dependent on which and how many inflammatory cells one has in the gut.

[kayo]

I was cc'd the other night by some Spanish rice and there were some clues about 30 minutes after eating it - rumbling stomach, 'hunger' pangs, inability to satiate my hunger. Then around 4 am the pain woke me up and I had the Big D for about an hour and cramps for an hour after that. My stomach is still bloated and tender/sore but no other symptoms. I've been taking Pepcid AC to help with the bloating and eating very carefully and as close to the Earth as possible. I haven't purposefully eaten gluten since going gluten-free so I'm not sure how I'd react if I were to have a piece of bread. I have walked into a restaurant where they have a pizza making area with grille and I had an immediate allergic reaction - sinus congestion, watery eyes, scratchy throat. S far as I know I don't have wheat allergy. Previous skin tests came up negative but I do wonder if I have developed one since.