Hey, I'm New!

[ktotheroll]

Hello! I suppose you need some info on me. I am 21 years old. My symptoms all center around eating. When I start to get hungry, I essential lose ALL energy. It's like I haven't eaten in months. That alleviates when I'm eating. After I eat, though, I again lose all energy. So much so that I can't think or even keep my eyes open. About 10-20 minutes after I eat, I get severe diarrhea. Following this, my energy level stays relatively low for another hour or so. It starts to get better, and then just a little bit later I feel hungry again, so it starts all over again! I'm always really weak, and since nothing ever stays in me long enough to be digested, my weight stays lower than it should be. Needless to say, my life is negatively impacted.

I went to the doctor, explained all the symptoms to her, and she suggested I get tested for Celiac Disease. They took blood and I went home to learn as much about Celiac as possible. Everything I was reading described my symptoms extremely well. When the tests came back, though, they were negative. She said it's probably IBS and gave me an anti-spasmadic, which didn't help at all.

That was last November. Since I was fairly used to the pattern and really busy with school and work, I decided to hold off on pursuing it further. When summer began, I started thinking again about finding an answer. However, I didn't really want to go back to the doctor as she openly admitted that she didn't know what else it could be and that hopefully the IBS meds would help. I've been thinking about going gluten-free just to see if it would help, because really, if something helps, I don't really need to know why. I've done a lot of research on what all goes into it and just needed to get up the courage to start.

So I did. I've only been on it for a week, so I'm not expecting full results for a few more weeks. I am a little concerned, though, about how my digestive system is being affected by the change in diet. I started a week ago Monday. That Sunday, I had my usual bouts of diarrhea, etc. On Monday, when I started the diet, I had no BM at all. Same with Tuesday-Friday. Very weird. On Saturday, I had diarrhea once, same with Sunday. But Monday and today (Tuesday), again nothing. My friend thought it might be because I am eating healthier now, but I ate pretty healthy before, since I was trying to avoid greasy foods because I thought they may be the cause of my symptoms. However, several of my meals were sandwiches and if gluten is my problem, my version of "healthier" probably made me worse.

Maybe I shouldn't be worried at all, but 5 days without a BM concerned me a lot. Any thoughts on this at all would be appreciated!

[WheatChef]

First off, there's no such thing as an IBS disease so find a new doctor next time you decide to go see one. Your last one already gave up on you when they decided to treat you for what is literally just a random collection of symptoms of other diseases.

The fact that you're experiencing some changes as a result of going gluten-free means that something is indeed happening. Many people get unfavorable results for the first week or so of the gluten-free diet as their body adapts to no longer having a constant stream of poison incoming. The mere presence of any results (favorable or unfavorable) as a result of cutting nonessential compound out of your diet simply stresses the need to stay on the diet. If your body wasn't primed to react to gluten then it wouldn't notice the removal of it from your diet. These sort of irregularities should iron themselves out as you progress through the healing process.

[Philippa]

Hello! I suppose you need some info on me. I am 21 years old. My symptoms all center around eating. When I start to get hungry, I essential lose ALL energy. It's like I haven't eaten in months. That alleviates when I'm eating. After I eat, though, I again lose all energy. So much so that I can't think or even keep my eyes open. About 10-20 minutes after I eat, I get severe diarrhea. Following this, my energy level stays relatively low for another hour or so. It starts to get better, and then just a little bit later I feel hungry again, so it starts all over again! I'm always really weak, and since nothing ever stays in me long enough to be digested, my weight stays lower than it should be. Needless to say, my life is negatively impacted.

I went to the doctor, explained all the symptoms to her, and she suggested I get tested for Celiac Disease. They took blood and I went home to learn as much about Celiac as possible. Everything I was reading described my symptoms extremely well. When the tests came back, though, they were negative. She said it's probably IBS and gave me an anti-spasmadic, which didn't help at all.

That was last November. Since I was fairly used to the pattern and really busy with school and work, I decided to hold off on pursuing it further. When summer began, I started thinking again about finding an answer. However, I didn't really want to go back to the doctor as she openly admitted that she didn't know what else it could be and that hopefully the IBS meds would help. I've been thinking about going gluten-free just to see if it would help, because really, if something helps, I don't really need to know why. I've done a lot of research on what all goes into it and just needed to get up the courage to start.

So I did. I've only been on it for a week, so I'm not expecting full results for a few more weeks. I am a little concerned, though, about how my digestive system is being affected by the change in diet. I started a week ago Monday. That Sunday, I had my usual bouts of diarrhea, etc. On Monday, when I started the diet, I had no BM at all. Same with Tuesday-Friday. Very weird. On Saturday, I had diarrhea once, same with Sunday. But Monday and today (Tuesday), again nothing. My friend thought it might be because I am eating healthier now, but I ate pretty healthy before, since I was trying to avoid greasy foods because I thought they may be the cause of my symptoms. However, several of my meals were sandwiches and if gluten is my problem, my version of "healthier" probably made me worse.

Maybe I shouldn't be worried at all, but 5 days without a BM concerned me a lot. Any thoughts on this at all would be appreciated!

Hang in there...the first week of being gluten free can be tough. I felt a lot worse for about 10 days after starting the diet, and then I started to improve. I think you should know if it's helping by 2-4 weeks, although for some people it can take even longer.

Have you been tested for other bowel diseases (like Crohn's, or ulcerative colitis)? You could definitely be gluten intolerant/celiac despite the negative bloodwork, but you wouldn't want to overlook some other problem.

As far as the constipation is concerned, you could be eating things that would make that worse. Some forms of the gluten-free diet are rather low in fibre (if you eat a lot of packaged gluten-free foods, rice bread, etc). If you are sure you are getting enough fibre then it's probably just your system reacting to the change.

Hope you are feeling better soon.