Going Gluten Free

[jen-jen-bubbles]

After reading a lot of posts on this site and realising my symptoms of 10 years are exactly the same as others' on this site, I have decided to put myself on a gluten free diet to hopefully start feeling better. I began yesterday and am already starting to feel a little bit better. However today I have been having diarrhea (I am usually constipated and never have diarrhea). I was wondering if this was my body reacting to the new diet and maybe 'flushing' out the gluten or whatever? Or it could be because I went out for lunch today and am worried that something I ate had gluten in it. As I am new to this I would love some advice and information on what I should expect when changing to a gluten free diet? Thanks!

[mushroom]

Hi, jen-jen, and welcome. I hope you find some good answers here.

My first question is are you sure you don't want a formal diagnosis? Because if you do you have to keep eating gluten until the testing process is done.

If you are happy with just feeling better and knowing in your own mind that gluten is the problem, then by all means skip the testing.

The fact that you are no longer constipated when that is your normal state is a good sign; It means your body is readjusting. This process will probably go on for two or three weeks, fluctuating up and down maybe between C and D, feeling good and not so good, until everything gets adjusted to the new normal. To start with you probably should eliminate lactose in milk, cream, ice cream too because that will be hard to digest if the gluten has damaged your small intestine.

Then we have the thorny issue of eating out - best avoided at first until you get used to the diet and where gluten lurks and how to make sure that the restaurant doesn't cross-contaminate even if you are eating from a gluten free menu. It is best left until you have a bit of experience under your belt

If you find yourself feeling better without gluten then it would be a good idea to go to your PCP and get your levels of Vit. D, B12, iron/ferritin, folate, calcium, magnesium checked, also your thyroid because these are all things that are often screwed up by gluten.

You will find plenty of threads on here on how to degluten your kitchen and check your personal care products, scripts, OTC meds, etc. for gluten.

If you have any specific questions you can't find answers to, fire away.

[Mari]

Mushroom's comments offer good advice. I wanted to add that constipation was always a problem and I didn't get D uless it was food poisoning or bad food. I have been gluten-free for 5 years and have finally started to gain back some weight. Also now when I eat something with even a trace of gluten or some food I'm allergic to I develop D or loose bowel movements. I think that the inflammation in my small intestine is finally passing so food can go thru me faster. For me the D is a positive sign I'm finally healing.