Undigested Food

[GFreeMO]

After a glutening and after the D, I will have intestinal pain with mucus and undigested food. Is this part of the malabsorbtion thing that comes with celiac? I thought we were not digesting fats but this is actual pieces of food.

[cavernio]

You're right in that celiac disease causes malabsorption which includes fat malabsorption which can cause someone to have diarrhea.

However I don't think things like stomach pains, headaches, sore joints, diarrhea, brain fog, etc, that celiacs get after just 1 exposure to gluten have much to do with damaged villi. It's pretty clear there are other reactions a body can have to gluten. We just don't know a whole lot about the why and how. There is ongoing research though. Like leaky gut syndrome. Open Original Shared Link talks about very recent research into celiac disease that specialists probably wouldn't even know unless they were at the top of their game.

After all, gluten sensitivity is a very real thing too, one where someone can feel are sorts of bad to gluten but yet have good intestines.

In regards to what happens to you specifically, one theory I have about your problem specifically is that at some point your body has come to recognize gluten as a poison instead of a food, something that will make it sick, and so diarrhea and vomitting is like the body's natural way of getting rid of whatever it is that's making it sick in your digestive system.

For celiacs who used to have regular diarrhea but who don't get it when they accidentally eat gluten now, the diarrhea was probably because their intestinal flora was all messed up. I find it hard to imagine that small amounts of gluten would change what lives inside you so easily.

These are just my ideas though.

I think a lot of people like to think that current medicine is awesome and that even if we don't know exactly how to cure everything, we know all that there is to know about current medical conditions. The more I read now about celiac disease and what I learned trying to figure out why I felt like did when doctors told me I was healthy before I was diagnosed, the more I realize that there's just soooo much that we don't know about current health problems.

[cavernio]

Err, I guess you didn't specifically complain about the diarrhea but the pains afterwards and such. It all seems to me just like D that's long lasting and is more painful once your stomach is empty. Like when your digestive system first starts to speed up and push things along to get out, it will have lots of digested food and semi-digested food in it first, so that's what's first to leave. And if it's still spasmaming (gah, spazzing), then of course the most recent food won't be digested because it's only in your system a fraction of the time that's needed for it to get broken down.

I don't know why it would be more painful on an empty stomach, but that seems to be a known thing. Like for IBS they tell you to take fibre and eat less more often because it's supposed to hurt less when it has something in it, and one theory about IBS is that the colon spasms erratically for whatever reason. (This actually makes sense for my IBS specifically because I know I have peripheral neuropathy and often get muscle twitches elsewhere on my body. My colon's just another muscle.)

[GFreeMO]

Thanks for your reply. I use to have D all the time, now when I get glutened, I get D maybe 3 times and then it's mucus and undigested food with floating stool and it hurts like hell.

[JNBunnie1]

  On 6/26/2012 at 9:29 PM, GFreeMO said:

Thanks for your reply. I use to have D all the time, now when I get glutened, I get D maybe 3 times and then it's mucus and undigested food with floating stool and it hurts like hell.

I wanna say this sounds kinda like when I get glutened, I am lactose intolerant until I'm over it. Lasts a few weeks, and the PAIN. Oh lord, I literally cried out in pain. Never done that for any reason before. So maybe it's a lactose thing? Are you dairy free?

[Chad Sines]

I am severely fat intolerant until I recover. Eggs, 93% lean beef, even a few tablespoons of olive oil just to coat a pan. Then swollen belly, inflated feeling, and the same results as the OP.

[GFreeMO]

So, as long as there is still floating stool, mucus and cramps with undigested food, I am still malabsorbing? Is there anything that can be done about it other than staying 100% gluten free?

[Bubba's Mom]

The hormone CCK is made in your duodenum. It tells your gallbladder to squeeze bile to help digest your foods and your pancrease to release digestive enzymes. If you've ingested gluten it *could* cause enough damage to the duodenum to either stop making or stop sending CCK. The effects should last until enough healing has happened to let things function the way they should.

One way to help with digestion when this happens is to take digestive enzymes, and eat a milder diet of easily digested foods.

Supplementing with L-Glutamine might help speed the healing too?

[GFreeMO]

  On 6/28/2012 at 7:09 PM, Bubba said:

The hormone CCK is made in your duodenum. It tells your gallbladder to squeeze bile to help digest your foods and your pancrease to release digestive enzymes. If you've ingested gluten it *could* cause enough damage to the duodenum to either stop making or stop sending CCK. The effects should last until enough healing has happened to let things function the way they should.

One way to help with digestion when this happens is to take digestive enzymes, and eat a milder diet of easily digested foods.

Supplementing with L-Glutamine might help speed the healing too?

Thanks! I will check those out.