I Thought I Just Ate A Gf Dinner...

[lorka150]

I am highly suspicious that I have celiac disease, so after some recommendations from some nice people from this board and personal debating, I have decided to do a gluten free diet and seeing how I feel.

My question is, I've been VERY careful and I know I did not consume anything with gluten today (or yesterday, or for about five days). I haven't even used anything prepared - everything has been fresh (except a salad dressing), becasue I've been so worried.

Anyway, after dinner today (fresh tilapia, a salad with lots of veggies and a gluten free dressing from President's Choice that I called about it, and steamed green beans), I got very tired, almost immediately. Also, I feel dizzy... it's weird, because I didn't feel like this before dinner.

Does this have anything to do with the disease? Does it happen no matter what I eat, because I just started this new way of life?

In addition, about ten minutes ago, a lady from celiac Canada called me (I called last week inquiring her opinion about going gluten free, but they didn't call back til now) and she recommended NOT going gluten free. Now I am so confused, but I think I might already be feeling a little better.

I'm so confused. Any help, please?

[Guest nini]

you are going to hear opinions from both sides of the spectrum regarding self diagnosis. If you are comfortable with self diagnosing based on how you respond to the diet, then by all means continue on with the gluten-free diet. BUT if you are going to want a definitive diagnosis from a Dr. you are going to have to be consuming gluten (and lots of it) in order for the testing to be accurate, and even so, you may still get a false negative result.

My personal opinion is give the diet a good try for a while and see how you do. You will make some mistakes and if there is damage there will be some good days and bad days until your system heals. It's very possible that it's the roughage that is making you feel a little ill after eating, especially if you do have celiac and have significant damage to the intestines, then your system may just be having a hard time with the roughage.

If after a significant amount of time, say 3 or 4 months, you aren't feeling any better, then I would say reintroduce gluten for at least 3 months and then go see a specialist. But if you are feeling even a small bit better, keep at it and while you may never know if it's truly celiac, you will know that your body doesn't like gluten.

Good luck and keep us posted!