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Can A Person Have Malabsorption/weight Loss Without Diarrhea?

breakaway

By breakaway
in Coping with Celiac Disease

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breakaway Newbie
breakaway
Posted

It seems that most people with Celiacs have diarrhea. I was wondering because I don't really have diarrhea...and yet I mysteriously lost 20 lbs and I used to get lots of weird symptoms that seemed related to food. If anything, I actually get constipated about once a week.

Thanks

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mushroom Proficient
mushroom
Posted

It seems that most people with Celiacs have diarrhea. I was wondering because I don't really have diarrhea...and yet I mysteriously lost 20 lbs and I used to get lots of weird symptoms that seemed related to food. If anything, I actually get constipated about once a week.

Thanks

While diarrhea predominates the symptoms, constipation runs a close second. And some people alternate between the two. It is not necessary to have diarrhea to suffer from malabsorption; in fact, many people have silent celiac where they suffer no self-reported symptoms. So do not be surprised that you can lose weight without having diarrhea. Do be aware though that with food malabsorption and weight loss you will not be getting the essential nutrients you need.

I see that your endoscopy was negative. Did you have positive celiac blood testing? Or are you left in no-man's land with negative everything? From your previous topic you asked a question - I am not sure if this is the answer, but you can have a pill-cam test where you actually swallow a mini-cam and it takes pictures throughtout your digestive tract, and then is recovered at the end. But a doctor may not be willing to order that if your other testing has been negative.

Some of us will never pass the tests, yet are non-celiac gluten intolerant with many of the same symptoms and complaints as celiacs. We also need a gluten free diet. We just don't have doctors telling us (well most of us don't) that that is what we should do. We have to take the initiative ourselves.

burdee Enthusiast
burdee
Posted

It seems that most people with Celiacs have diarrhea. I was wondering because I don't really have diarrhea...and yet I mysteriously lost 20 lbs and I used to get lots of weird symptoms that seemed related to food. If anything, I actually get constipated about once a week.

Thanks

Some celiacs (including me) had constipation, rather than diarrhea, as their chronic symptom. I also had cramping pain and bloating. 4 years after I was dx'd with celiac, I was dx'd w/ Hashimoto's hypothyroidism, which commonly occurs among people w/ gluten intolerance. Because my doctor rigidly used the classic profile for celiac (diarrhea, short, thin and fatigued), she dismissed my last 3 symptoms, because I didn't have diarrhea. Hashimoto's often causes constipation and weight gain, because it slows metabolism. So the same doc dismissed my other Hashimoto's symptoms, because I didn't have a weight problem (I was underweight because of celiac disease). Symptoms of one disease masked the other disease. SIGH So I learned that you don't need ALL the classic symptoms to have a disease like celiac disease or Hashimoto's thyroiditis. I wonder how long doctors will continue to hold rigid views of (and profiles for) various autoimmune diseases.

So you could have celiac disease even w/o diarrhea or other 'classic' symptoms.

adab8ca Enthusiast
adab8ca
Posted

I had neither diarrhea NOR constipation but had maladsoprtion AND weight loss (30 pounds in 5 months)...That was a big part of diagnosis, because I didn't have THOSE symptoms.

ndw3363 Contributor
ndw3363
Posted

I was the same way - I was losing weight so fast (and I DON'T have the weight to lose). All my tests came back "normal" or negative. But once I cut out gluten (and most carbs), started eating better, and religiously taking my supplements, the weight started to come back. I never really had a lot of digestive trouble - mostly just bloating and gas. But I had classic neurological symptoms - I can tell almost instantly if I've been glutened because the headache I get from it is unlike any other that I've had. A couple days later, I will be angry and anxious.

mommida Enthusiast
mommida
Posted

Yes a person can have a nutritional defiency without having "D".

Katrala Contributor
Katrala
Posted

I didn't have diarrhea but lost 70 pounds over a 9 month period. Constipation was more common for me.

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health nut Newbie
health nut
Posted

I had lost weight years ago (probably when I first developed celiac, although I just got diagnosed last summer) but was then stuck at a very thin weight and couldn't gain a pound to save my life. I was starving all the time and ate like 4000+ calories a day, but did not have any bowel issues. When I finally had an endoscopy it showed complete villous atrophy so I was clearly malabsorbing, but no diarrhea. The portion of the GI tract that is not damaged does have an amazing way of compensating (to an extent) for the damaged portion by taking on more absorbtion capabilities- which is also why many people diagnosed with celiac can also be overweight, when you would assume they would all be underweight.

BabsV Enthusiast
BabsV
Posted

I had neither C or D but loosing 20+ lbs in less than a month is what finally got my doctors worried and got them to move away from the "it's all in her head" diagnosis!

beebs Enthusiast
beebs
Posted

I lost weight without D as well. And like the above posters no one would consider celiac because of it even though my mother was diagnosed :angry:

And now I don't lost weight anymore - I put it on instead - doh! :lol:

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