Spouse Now Having Reactions To Food Gah!

[CaliSparrow]

Okay, now I'm utterly confused. I've been sick for about ten years now. Becoming gluten-free reduced many of my symptoms but the symptoms also became more pronounced after eliminating gluten from my diet and then ingesting it. This seemed to be THE ANSWER to my search of what is wrong!

My husband joined me in becoming gluten-free for reasons of solidarity. He has had a problem with corn for quite some time but haven't noticed him sensitive to much else (except junk food). He is very healthy and is enjoying the last bit of fat melting from his body by simply excluding gluten.

While we were at his parents' house over new years, I started glutening myself to ready my body for testing (and since it seemed futile to try to avoid gluten while there). Needless to say, I couldn't handle it and discontinued my plans to be tested.

In the meantime, my husband has become sensitive to gluten. He has some of the same symptoms and I'm worried. What is the chance he could be gluten intolerant or a Celiac along with me? Is there some guy ready to snap my picture saying I'd been punk'd? Does EVERYONE have a problem with gluten??? Do our bodies reject whatever we completely exclude from our diets after a certain amount of time? We are also noticing the impact refined sugar has on our bodies. That's the next thing to go and I am sick of researching the ill effects of everything.

Is there anyone who knows someone who excluded gluten out of their diets who added it back in with little effect? I really am wondering if this is poison to everyone or if there is something that happens when we exclude food from our diets (as in, CAUSING ourselves to be sensitive). I know Celiac is real and so is gluten sensitivity but this is just unreal. I don't want my husband to become sick because of food elimination. Is that possible?

Please share your thoughts and experiences on food allergies and if you have noticed sensitivity to additional types of food.

Cali (Day 3 without gluten & feeling LOUSY & worried about hubby)

[mushroom]

If your husband did not have problems digesting gluten he would not react to it upon its reintroduction to his diet. It is the same with all foods; no intolerance, no problem with consuming / not consuming and then resuming.

If we are intolerant, our bodies do their best to adjust to and handle the gluten load, but when given a reprieve they are relieved, and often react more strongly upon its reintroduction.

My husband was one of those who decided to go gluten free to make life easier. Mind you, he was not symptom-free by any means; he would frequently suffer from GI distress "on the trail". This improved when he went gluten free. However, he was not a true believer and felt he could 'cheat' when he was eating alone, which he eventually did with sourdough french bread and beer. Not only did his GI symptoms return, but eventually he also broke out in dermatitis herpetiformis on his forehead. He became a believer, although he still gets away with being a bit careless at times

[CaliSparrow]

Thank you!

[Skysmom03]

I believe a lot more people have it than they think, but because some have few to little 'noticeable' symptoms it isn't even considered! Some physicians, believe it or not, no very little about the disease or understand it!

[cavernio]

"If your husband did not have problems digesting gluten he would not react to it upon its reintroduction to his diet. It is the same with all foods; no intolerance, no problem with consuming / not consuming and then resuming."

Ignoring celiacs for the time being, why do people become lactose intolerant and why is it thought that if you stop ingesting lactose, you're likely to stop the ability to digest it completely? I think we can both agree that the ability to digest milk is present in all (well, most) people when we're born, as milk is all we have to sustain ourselves, and it's quite clear that many, many people react to milk at some point when they're older, be it the sugar or the protein. Is it just time related? Is it genetic? Is there some other trigger? Why would we think that stopping the ingestion of milk creates a problem with it if that weren't a trigger?

I've read up some (not a lot) about lactose intolerance and some people say it's all hereditary and has nothing to do with what you eat, but those explanations are just as much speculation as the idea that if you stop having lactose you will lose the ability to digest it.

If we can stop drinking milk and then become lactose intolerant, I don't see why you couldn't stop eating gluten and develop gluten intolerance or sensitivities or celiac disease. And what about people who aren't celiacs but will go on to develp it or gluten sensitivity in 10 years? Do they constitute as already having a problem with gluten even though they might have no signs or symptoms currently-essentially don't have the disease yet? What if they stop eating gluten and then develop issues with it in 6 months instead of 10 years? Do you think that could happen? If it could is not eating gluten the cause or merely aggravation?

"Do our bodies reject whatever we completely exclude from our diets after a certain amount of time?"

This is obviously not the case, not in full. As someone else posted at some point, they only eat watermelon in the summer. Yet going 10 months without watermelon hasn't made the watermelon indigestible. IF excluding foods can eventually cause people to have sensitivities to them, it would have to be food specific. And if it were food specific, I'd be wondering if that food should ever be a food in the first place.

As to developing other food sensitivities after going gluten free, many people on the forum do find they have issues with other foods. For celiacs though, this means their leaky guts aren't so leaky anymore and that means lots of foods that might have passed through the bloodstream whole are instead sitting in their guts without much help to break it down because the villi are still going to be damaged for awhile. The biggest thing though, once you start to feel better is when you start to notice things that make you not feel so good, but it's hard/impossible when you never feel good to distinguish anything.

My husband is mainly gluten free right now too. I'm not worried about him developing issues though because he seems to be doing better being gluten free than he was before. Plus he's got some cousins who are gluten sensitive/celiacs and others on the other side of the family who some pretty bad bowel issues.

[Jestgar]

Most adults don't digest lactose very well because lactose digestion is specific to lactase, an enzyme produced by your body. This enzymes is produced in abundance in babies, because babies are fed milk. Some people continue to produce lactase at high levels throughout their lives, some produce a little in response to constant exposure. Some adults can't produce any lactase at all.

If you produce high levels, starting and stopping milk products will have little effect.

If you stop producing lactase as you reach your teens, nothing will turn it back on.

Those people in the middle are ok with some milk, but feel it if they stop consuming it, and then start again.

Many people (temporarily) lose the ability to digest red meat if they stop consuming it for long periods of time.

Your body doesn't waste energy producing something you aren't using.

[CaliSparrow]

Yes, you're right. The other day I mentioned it to a doctor in passing and we got to talking about it and how my symptoms are those of an autoimmune disease (and have been for more than a decade but every specialist is a hammer looking for a nail, right?). He chided me and said, "Celiac isn't an autoimmune disease". I answered, "Celiac is the only autoimmune disease where the trigger is known". He got poopy after that.

My hematologist is the only doctor to say he believed my GI doc failed along the line. He's the one to point out my tender abdomen and tell me the problem is that no one doctor has the whole picture of me. He clued me into my varying symptoms and that's when all of THIS started.

I'm looking forward to being in good health and turning around my anemia & vitamin deficiencies through this process. Then, we will know for sure it's in my hands and life will be much easier to enjoy. And now I have someone else to look after as well. We have sworn off restaurants for the next three months so that hopefully the ride will be smoother.

Here's to good health.

[mushroom]

Ignoring celiacs for the time being, why do people become lactose intolerant and why is it thought that if you stop ingesting lactose, you're likely to stop the ability to digest it completely?

Here is how one person phrased the answer to your question:

Open Original Shared Link

[Takala]

My spouse can switch back and forth between going gluten free for days at a time, even a week or more at a time, then eating some out at restaurant or business meal, with no problem. This is because he doesn't have a gluten problem. I'm the one with the gluten problem, and I can't do that at all. He also can eat oatmeal, and I can't. Feel free to use him as an example of a "normal glutenoid...."

[CaliSparrow]

Thanks. It's good to know I'm not caught in some cosmic joke! :-)