Papa Johns Pizza, Vitamin A, DH...

[Bob Jones]

I'm a self diagnosed celiac in that I had for several years the common traits of celiac disease(I had no idea about the disease before). It was most likely entirely due taking accutane but showed up gradually over a few years.

In any case once I started cutting out the gluten I stopped getting sick(mainly the s$#&s and stomach aches). It seems any time I eat gluten I can have a rather quick reaction and usually know I've made a mistake.

I've noticed though that I never had much problem with pappa johns pizza. I've been rather gluten free(for the most part) for about 1/2 a year but I'm pretty sure I've had some stuff that was contaminated.

This weekend I ate 2 pizzas 1 per day and had very little if any reaction. This is very surprising to me since even a something mild as a cracker can sometimes send me running. I did drink A LOT of water when I hate the pizzas(about 4 bottles over a 30min period) and I took some vitamins while I was eating the pizza. (I repeated this the next day to see if it was going to cause any problems and it didn't seem to).

From my understanding I should have definitely had some reaction. It is possible I had a mild reaction but wasn't severe enough to cause problems. Also, the week before I was eating nothing but potatoes and apples because I ran out of gluten free products.

While I can't be 100% sure I'm a celiac I would bet the chance is 95%+. All the symptoms are there to a 'T' and obviously removing the gluten seems to solve the problem. What's weird is that sometimes having gluten doesn't give a reaction and sometimes it does.

So I have a few questions:

1. Is there anything "special" about the bread in PJ's pizza that may make it less likely to cause symptoms?

2. What is the normal digestive reaction time when indigestion gluten to cause the intestines to go into shock(the runs!). It almost seems like the intestines are trying to flush out all the material as a normal reaction. (It's almost more like water coming out than anything else).

3. Suppose that for some odd reason I am not having the obvious reaction to PJ's as others. Am I doing harm to my gut if I eat the pizza? Obvious answer is yes but can I splurge every once in a while or am I doing more harm than good. (Gets old eating the same crap because of the limited gluten free foods around)

I'm just wondering if I don't have a physically noticeable reaction if something that is just as serious could still be happening. i.e., the destruction of the intestines just as much as any other case.

4. Has anyone noticed if certain things help reduce the symptoms when eating gluten such as certain vitamins, fruits, etc or if certain "forms" of gluten seem to have less of a reaction?

Since it seems that accutane is almost surely created celiac in most people that use it and it is a vitamin A derivative maybe there is a connection between gluten and vitamin A.

Just curious!!!!

[rosetapper23]

Wow--lots of questions! I may not have the "answers," but I'm going to guess on a couple of them.

I read not long ago that sourdough bread has a component in it that causes some people not to have a reaction to gluten, so maybe Papa John's uses a sourdough-type crust (??). Just hazarding a guess here....

However, I also really missed pizza, so there was a period of time when I ate it once a month...and I didn't seem to have any reaction to it. That said, after about six months, my ferritin level fell and could NOT be raised no matter how much oral iron I took, so I had to go on iron infusions for years. Apparently, even though I wasn't suffering from any symptoms, damage was still being done. Nowadays, even the slight gluten contamination causes illness and horrible nutritional deficiencies. I got glutened in April 2010, and I'm still suffering the effects of that mistake.

Regarding Vitamin A, there was a recent study that showed that Vitamin A is highly inflammatory for people with celiac disease. I've never been able to take Vitamin A because I'd get immediately ill, and when dermatologists (don't get me started on those idiots!) thought I had a severe case of acne rather than Dermatitis Herpetiformis (DH), they prescribed Retin-A, which completely burned the heck out of my skin. Took years to get rid of the scars.

Are you sure that what you have/had is actually acne? It could be that you suffered from DH. Also, it's possible that a number of celiacs, not knowing they had DH rather than acne, were placed on Accutane....so it might not have been the Accutane that triggered celiac but, rather, a misdiagnosis from the very beginning.

[psawyer]

Are you sure that what you have/had is actually acne? It could be that you suffered from DH. Also, it's possible that a number of celiacs, not knowing they had DH rather than acne, were placed on Accutane....so it might not have been the Accutane that triggered celiac but, rather, a misdiagnosis from the very beginning.

This is a very important observation. A correlation between two events does not mean one causes the other.

[sreese68]

Are you sure that what you have/had is actually acne? It could be that you suffered from DH. Also, it's possible that a number of celiacs, not knowing they had DH rather than acne, were placed on Accutane....so it might not have been the Accutane that triggered celiac but, rather, a misdiagnosis from the very beginning.

Slightly off topic, but

[Lori2]

Regarding Vitamin A, there was a recent study that showed that Vitamin A is highly inflammatory for people with celiac disease. I've never been able to take Vitamin A because I'd get immediately ill, and when dermatologists (don't get me started on those idiots!) thought I had a severe case of acne rather than Dermatitis Herpetiformis (DH), they prescribed Retin-A, which completely burned the heck out of my skin. Took years to get rid of the scars.

Could you give us a reference on the Vitamin A being inflammatory. I would like to study this a bit.

[newyorkyankz]

Why not have the test to be 100 % sure you have it?

[AHopewell]

I'm a self diagnosed celiac in that I had for several years the common traits of celiac disease(I had no idea about the disease before). It was most likely entirely due taking accutane but showed up gradually over a few years.

In any case once I started cutting out the gluten I stopped getting sick(mainly the s$#&s and stomach aches). It seems any time I eat gluten I can have a rather quick reaction and usually know I've made a mistake.

I've noticed though that I never had much problem with pappa johns pizza. I've been rather gluten free(for the most part) for about 1/2 a year but I'm pretty sure I've had some stuff that was contaminated.

This weekend I ate 2 pizzas 1 per day and had very little if any reaction. This is very surprising to me since even a something mild as a cracker can sometimes send me running. I did drink A LOT of water when I hate the pizzas(about 4 bottles over a 30min period) and I took some vitamins while I was eating the pizza. (I repeated this the next day to see if it was going to cause any problems and it didn't seem to).

From my understanding I should have definitely had some reaction. It is possible I had a mild reaction but wasn't severe enough to cause problems. Also, the week before I was eating nothing but potatoes and apples because I ran out of gluten free products.

While I can't be 100% sure I'm a celiac I would bet the chance is 95%+. All the symptoms are there to a 'T' and obviously removing the gluten seems to solve the problem. What's weird is that sometimes having gluten doesn't give a reaction and sometimes it does.

I have figured out the same exact thing. For some reason Papa John's pizza does not affect me like others when I am brave enough to try it. Wish we knew the WHYs.

[Ryniev]

I have figured out the same exact thing. For some reason Papa John's pizza does not affect me like others when I am brave enough to try it. Wish we knew the WHYs.

I always tried to avoid Papa John's in particular when I still ate gluten because it hurt my stomach worse than anything. My stomach would swell up to three times it's normal size and along with the diahrea, cramps and never-ending gas!

I know I'm not your mother (or your doctor) but I'm throwing this out there as a life lesson. Five years ago I suspected I had celiac disease. I finally got a dr. to do a blood test and it was negative. Went back to eating gluten gradually and for a while it was okay.

It eventually caught up to me in spades. I got to the point where if they told me all I could eat for the rest of my life was bananas to feel better I would do it. At this point, I don't even mess with "trying just a little". Please don't take this as a lecture, I just truly want to spare people what I've been through.

[squirmingitch]

I've noticed though that I never had much problem with pappa johns pizza. I've been rather gluten free(for the most part) for about 1/2 a year but I'm pretty sure I've had some stuff that was contaminated.

This weekend I ate 2 pizzas 1 per day and had very little if any reaction. This is very surprising to me since even a something mild as a cracker can sometimes send me running. I did drink A LOT of water when I hate the pizzas(about 4 bottles over a 30min period) and I took some vitamins while I was eating the pizza. (I repeated this the next day to see if it was going to cause any problems and it didn't seem to).

From my understanding I should have definitely had some reaction. It is possible I had a mild reaction but wasn't severe enough to cause problems. Also, the week before I was eating nothing but potatoes and apples because I ran out of gluten free products.

So I have a few questions:

1. Is there anything "special" about the bread in PJ's pizza that may make it less likely to cause symptoms?

2. What is the normal digestive reaction time when indigestion gluten to cause the intestines to go into shock(the runs!). It almost seems like the intestines are trying to flush out all the material as a normal reaction. (It's almost more like water coming out than anything else).

3. Suppose that for some odd reason I am not having the obvious reaction to PJ's as others. Am I doing harm to my gut if I eat the pizza? Obvious answer is yes but can I splurge every once in a while or am I doing more harm than good. (Gets old eating the same crap because of the limited gluten free foods around)

I'm just wondering if I don't have a physically noticeable reaction if something that is just as serious could still be happening. i.e., the destruction of the intestines just as much as any other case.

4. Has anyone noticed if certain things help reduce the symptoms when eating gluten such as certain vitamins, fruits, etc or if certain "forms" of gluten seem to have less of a reaction?

Do you believe in magic? I don't.

[sa1937]

The OP only made one post on the forum on July 9...so it's doubtful that he'll even see these last responses.

For anyone else reading...it is NOT okay to eat Papa John's pizza on a gluten-free diet!!!

[squirmingitch]

Thanks for pointing that out Sylvia. Makes one wonder if someone was pulling a prank doesn't it?

[sa1937]

Thanks for pointing that out Sylvia. Makes one wonder if someone was pulling a prank doesn't it?

It sure does or they simply don't want to deal with the answers they get. We also have a number of people come on and post once or twice and then simply disappear never to be heard from again.

[Ryniev]

It sure does or they simply don't want to deal with the answers they get. We also have a number of people come on and post once or twice and then simply disappear never to be heard from again.

I didn't even look at the date, I just saw the topic and thought, "wow! Papa John's doesn't make someone sick". I was one of those people that posted 5 or 6 times several years ago and left. Some of us come back. When my blood test came back negative several years ago, I didn't think I belonged. Come to find out, I do.

[sa1937]

I didn't even look at the date, I just saw the topic and thought, "wow! Papa John's doesn't make someone sick". I was one of those people that posted 5 or 6 times several years ago and left. Some of us come back. When my blood test came back negative several years ago, I didn't think I belonged. Come to find out, I do.

We can dream, can't we! Hopefully everyone reads past the first post when a title like that catches their attention!!! If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

And welcome back!!! Now you know that you belong here with us!