First Time Glutened? CVS Med To Blame?

[GFshay]

I had my official diagnosis for Celiac 2 days ago but was able to start my gluten-free lifestyle one week ago (yay!) after my endoscopy. I have been starting to feel much better, but then today I took CVS Extra Strength Headache Relief (the generic for Excedrin), in the rapid release capsules because of a headache. I then cooked a lovely, carefully gluten-free meal.

Literally 15 minutes after finishing the meal (and maybe 20-30 min after taking the meds), I experienced rapid bloating and painful gas. It seems to be stabilizing now so I'm not getting any sicker than that, but it's frustrating. Could it be something from a cross contaminated kitchen (I'm still working on cleaning it fully), or is it the medication?

I saw on some other discussions that CVS in general varies greatly in terms of ingredients... the inactive ingredients were listed only on the outside box, which I threw away and only kept the bottle. I did find ingredients for the coated tablets. They are:

cellulose, hypromellose, polyethylene, glycol, povidine, propylene glycol, sodium lauryl sulfate, sodium starch glycolate, starch, stearic acid, titanium dioxide.

Could the starch or something else be the culprit? Do you recommend name brands? Are they more stable? Help!!

[mushroom]

Unfortunately, medications (whether scrip or OTC) are always a crapshoot when it comes to starch. Often even the manufacturer cannot tell you whether the starch is wheat or corn because their suppliers don't tell them. It is so frustrating There is currently a petition running on the forum to try to get the FDA to force them to label gluten. Sign it!

And by the way, welcome to the forum!

[psawyer]

In foods in the US, the single word starch must be corn starch.

There is no similar rule for pharmaceuticals, although the most common starch is, in fact, corn starch. In North America, corn is plentiful, and is generally the cheapest starch available, which is why it is the most common.

[mushroom]

I agree with Peter that corn is the most commonly used starch in the U.S. However, I had a prescription filled at Walmart and found that it was manufactured in Mumbai!!

[T.H.]

Could be the pills, could be your food. For the meds.

gluten-free food can pretty easily be contaminated, or have higher levels of gluten than your body can tolerate. That's one of the frustrating parts about celiac disease. We all have differing levels of sensitivity, and 'gluten free' is merely 'gluten less than a certain amount', so we often have to feel our way rather blindly among the gluten free foods, discovering which ones we can tolerate, and which ones we can't.

Did you use any new product for your food? A flour, starch, oil, anything? Might be a good one to steer clear of, if you did. Or if you're feeling up for some pain, you could try just that new product and see how you feel, ya know?

[GFinDC]

It's good that you went gluten free. The somewhat common thing is for people to get more sensitive to gluten after going gluten-free than they were before. At least that's what happened to me. I was surprised when I had reactions to crumbs from my old toaster not long after going gluten-free. People on this board told me that could happen but I didn't take it seriously until I found out for myself. Duh!

The diet can be a bit tough when starting out, and I remember thinking I was reacting to all kinds of things as first. Some of them I was right and others it was my body adjusting. It seemed like my gut was hypersensitive for a good while after going gluten-free. Then again I have eliminated lots of foods that began to very noticeably affect me in the 3 years since.

If you start a food diary it might help you pick out foods that cause reactions. Eating simply with whole foods that are home-cooked with minimal spices is a good way to start.

[GFshay]

I ended up sick all night... it seems like it was some major exposure... I didn't start to feel back to normal till last night and even now am not back to the health I had been feeling last week.

My best guess is the meds since the food was very simple. Nothing new. Ingredients were just fish, OJ, lime peel, and garlic with rice and broccoli. However, cross-contamination is definitely a possibility. Do you guys recommend getting a new colander, even if it's stainless steel? I washed the broccoli in my colander, which had in the past been used with pasta often. Also, our rice cooker might have had some contamination because it's also a slow cooker and has had beef stew with gluten inside it in the past.

Very annoying. Do you all recommend buying brand name over the counter drugs to keep safer from gluten ingredients?