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How Much Gluten Should I Be Eating Before Testing?

koolsharkz

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koolsharkz Newbie
koolsharkz
Posted

Hello! After years of stomach problems, I decided to try and solve them by changing my diet. I lessened my gluten intake for a while, avoiding those foods because I felt lousy after eating them. About three or four weeks ago, I decided to go gluten-free (more or less... I didn't use exclusively certified gluten-free products, so I must have gotten some). I felt a lot better, but the problems weren't completely solved. Another super neat thing that happened was I felt significantly less depressed than I have in a long time... years, even! Now I'm finally seeking testing for gluten intolerance (so that I can prove to my college that the food they provide is damaging). I started eating gluteny products about four days ago, and feel a little bit worse but it's not awful yet.

My question is, to have an increased chance of an accurate blood test result (which I understand is sort of unlikely anyway), how much gluten do I need to be eating? I've been eating about one serving a day of wheat crackers. Which is not much. How much gluten should I be eating, and is it likely that I need to continue eating it for 3 months? My diet has been low on gluten (but not devoid of it) for a few months.

Another question I suppose... If I were gluten intolerant in some way, should I expect to feel dramatically worse after reintroducing gluten? Because I don't, at least not most of the time. It's just a slightly lousier feeling. Less energy, more gas, more discomfort, you know... all the fun things!! Sometimes I think that going gluten-free was just a placebo for me... I expected to get better, and so I did. And now that it's back, I expected to feel a little worse, and I do. I know you all know how it is, sick of guessing and waiting and feeling lousy, and just wanting a solid answer... that's where I'm at.

Thank you all so much for your help, reading all of these posts from people who are just as confused as I am is incredibly helpful for keeping hope alive :)

-Emily

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ravenwoodglass Mentor
ravenwoodglass
Posted

To have the best chance of an accurate test you need to be eating at least 4 to 6 slices of bread a day for about 3 months. You may still have a false negative. Once testing is done then go strictly gluten free for a couple of months. Since gluten intolerance and celiac are autoimmune reactions you really need to totally eliminate it to stop the antibodies.

MsCurious Enthusiast
MsCurious
Posted

From Mayo Clinic: Open Original Shared Link

"Gluten-challenge testing requires adequate gluten intake for long enough to develop gut lesions. Four slices of whole wheat bread daily for 4 weeks usually suffices. However, it will make patients ill and they can become quite symptomatic. There are some patients who are delayed responders and if a patient has had no symptoms develop by 4 weeks, I will usually perform serology. If it becomes positive at that point, we

koolsharkz Newbie
koolsharkz
Posted
  • Author

Thank you both for your help!

love2travel Mentor
love2travel
Posted

My question is, to have an increased chance of an accurate blood test result (which I understand is sort of unlikely anyway), how much gluten do I need to be eating? I've been eating about one serving a day of wheat crackers. Which is not much. How much gluten should I be eating, and is it likely that I need to continue eating it for 3 months? My diet has been low on gluten (but not devoid of it) for a few months.

Another question I suppose... If I were gluten intolerant in some way, should I expect to feel dramatically worse after reintroducing gluten? Because I don't, at least not most of the time. It's just a slightly lousier feeling. Less energy, more gas, more discomfort, you know... all the fun things!! Sometimes I think that going gluten-free was just a placebo for me... I expected to get better, and so I did. And now that it's back, I expected to feel a little worse, and I do. I know you all know how it is, sick of guessing and waiting and feeling lousy, and just wanting a solid answer... that's where I'm at.

Thank you all so much for your help, reading all of these posts from people who are just as confused as I am is incredibly helpful for keeping hope alive :)

-Emily

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      Thanks to those who have replied.  To Cristina, my symptoms are as follows: Dizziness, lightheaded, headaches (mostly sinus), jaw/neck pain, severe tinnitus, joint stiffness, fatigue, irregular heart rate, post exercise muscle fatigue and soreness, brain fog, insomnia.  Generally feeling unwell. To Trents, We didn’t do any of the construction but did visit the job site quite often.  While getting the old house ready we stirred up a lot of dust and I’m sure mold but haven’t been back there for over a month.
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      Thank you so much for your response! I have a follow-up appointment with her pediatrician next week, and also an appointment with her pediatric GI Dr. Your message gives me some ideas for questions to ask the doctors. My daughter went strictly gluten-free in January following her first endoscopy so I’m guessing her diet is pretty solid. She is compliant but also reliant on others to make her food (at school and home) but she didn’t have this problem prior to the gluten challenge when she went strictly gluten-free. It really makes sense to me that the gluten challenge inflammation hasn’t healed and I will be asking her doctors about nutritional issues. I ask for anecdotal stories because the research surrounding the gluten challenge seems to be inconsistent and inconclusive (at least what I’ve been able to find!). Thank you so much for your response!
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      Were you doing any of the new home construction yourself? Drywall compounds and adhesives used in construction have been known to cause problems for some celiacs.
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