trents

But there was no evidence of esophagial ulceration or neoplasm? Correct?

When is the last time you have had an upper GI done?

Commercial Playdough does contain gluten so if after handling it you put your fingers in your mouth or touch the straw/spout on your water bottle you might be getting a small amount of gluten contamination but given your state precautions, it seems unlikely.

Having said that, I would look for other sources of possible glutening such as changes in the formulation of foods you eat at home or infections not gluten-related that mimic the symptoms of being glutened. Small children are germ farms and then in the back of all of our minds is COVID-19.

There are often various withdrawal symptoms when going off gluten. 

Endoscopies are done to check for Celiac Disease. Damage to the villi (tiny finger-like projections in the mucosal lining of the small bowel) is the defining characteristic of Celiac Disease as opposed to a gluten allergy. The villi create surface area for the absorption of nutrients. When you have Celiac Disease, consuming gluten causes the body to attack those tissues and round those finger-like projections off. This reduces the surface area of the absorption process and causes nutrient deficiencies which in turn generates other health issues.

So you need to pin your doctors down and ask, "Do I have Celiac Disease or just a gluten allergy?" 

Either way, you need to educate yourself as to the myriad ways gluten is hidden in processed food products and the terminology used to disguise it. And you need to be become aware of cross contamination issues that happen in processing and food handling. A processed food item may not list wheat, barley or rye in the ingredients but may have been produced on equipment that does such that it incidentally will contain some gluten. Did you know for instance that most soy sauce contains wheat and most canned soups do as well. Read the labels of these products the next time you are in the grocery store and you will be amazed. Read the ingredient label on Campbell's tomato soup for a starter. Wheat starch is commonly used as a thickener and a texturing agent in processed foods. Many corn and rice-based breakfast cereals will contain malt flavoring which is made from barley, a gluten-containing grain. Wheat starch can also be used as a filler/binder in medication tablets and capsules.

Going gluten free is often confused with a low gluten diet. Just reducing major sources of gluten in your diet such as pasta, bread and pancakes does not qualify as gluten free eating. It is actually low gluten eating. 

You also need to start taking some good gluten free vitamin products to compensate for the loss of the nutrients added into many grain-based processed foods.

Yes, there is quite and education process involved in eating gluten free and it is also really challenging from a social perspective. It can be overwhelming at first.

Gluten allergy? Are you intending to ask about an allergic reaction to gluten or are you asking about Celiac Disease? Both conditions are related to gluten ingestion but they are very different. Celiac Disease is an autoimmune condition triggered by gluten and has many and can lead to many and serious health problems, some of which Cycling Lady listed above.

Ditto. Get this checked out by medical professionals as soon as you can. If by some chance the pain is being caused by colorectal cancer you want to get it addressed pronto. It would be a good idea for you to get a GUAIAC done. There may not be enough blood for you to see but a small amount could be present.

Hemorrhoids can be higher up, more internal and out of sight.

There is also something called proctalgia fugax which you should research. I have suffered from it in the past.

So have you been diagnosed with celiac disease or are you just doing testing the waters by going gluten free?

Scott,

I believe Amy's realizes that a lot of celiacs mistake being glutened with reactions to other ingredients or mistakenly identify a glutened event with a particular product when it was actually caused by gluten in another product they consumed around the same time. I'm guessing Amy's doesn't want to step into that quagmire on a forum, feeling they had more to lose than gain by doing so.

I've never had a problem with Amy's gluten-free frozen dinner products. Not sure if I have tried her lazagna, though. I mostly get the Asian dinners and sometimes the Mexican ones. I'm not a particularly sensitive celiac, however, so symptomatically I don't seem to react to minor CC. Thankfully, I don't have issues with soy and dairy like a lot of Celiacs.

I had elevated liver enzymes for years and that eventually led to Celiac disease testing and diagnosis. As soon as I started making a concerted effort to eat gluten free the enzymes returned to normal. Elevated SGPT can also be connected to heart disease.

The immuno-suppressant meds many people take for RA I believe can also be hard on the liver. 

I agree, some common sense is in order. A sack of potatoes will not likely be labeled gluten-free but it will be by the nature of what it is.

And you make a good point about many food producers not wanting to incur the expense of regular lab testing just to be able to put the gluten-free sticker on their product.

My concern is with packaged food products that go through some kind of milling or crushing process on machinery that also does that for wheat, barley or rye. Are they cleaned or thoroughly cleaned between runs of gluten things and non gluten things? The first few batches of the non gluten stuff might pickup more than a little cross contamination if things are not thoroughly cleaned and it won't be safe until later in the production process when the gluten remnants have worked their way out through dilution.

So that is a weight loss of around 13 lbs? Sorry, not familiar with stones as a unit so had to rely on a conversion tool. What is the second number after the stone? 9st 7 ish. Is the 7 in ounces or is that 9.7 stones?

This is odd as your caloric intake seems not to have changed much according to what you say. It is not uncommon for people to lose weight after going on a gluten-free diet since that usually means eliminating a lot of starchy wheat products but that doesn't apply in your case. One thing to be aware of is that commercially made wheat bread and wheat pasta generally contain vitamin supplements, particularly niacin and sometimes other B vitamins (at least here in the U.SA.), whereas gluten-free replacements generally do not.

With you having only recently gone gluten-free, it is possible that your body is going through some kind of adjustment phase. Healing of the small bowl villi can take years even after going gluten free and even after villi recovery you may never have completely normal nutrient absorption as so-called "leaky gut" may and likely still be an issue.

Having said all that, it might be a good idea to get a checkup and blood work done in case there is a medical problem not related to Celiac Disease.

Have you tried using Zyrtec or one of the other second gen antihistamines? For most people, there is little or not sedation associated with using them and as far as I know, no other side effects. I've been taking Zyrtec for years for nasal allergies and it works well for that. It's also used for allergic itching.

Have you figured out what kind of foods cause the itching? Is it tied to natural food ingredients or to additives and preservatives in your diet?

New guidelines allow substitutions without notification during pandemic-related supply chain disruptions: https://www.beyondceliac.org/celiac-news/fda-loosens-some-food-labeling-rules/?utm_campaign=Research Opt-In&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=88626485&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-94Gf8sLRJGmBZgPUxhuCG1AzqzIWgsLYE5em2fN0vYWYu1dBh6FKoyLStCXli-74YxgwpUgnkxJuF-X0YRxrXP5BaDRg&_hsmi=88626485

It's important to realize these are "guidelines" and with no enforcement power. One very important point made in the article is the need to rely more heavily on trusted, gluten-free food outlets.

Well, at least you have some answers.

No. Eating beef doesn't make most people stink. But because of individual body chemistry, eating certain things can produce odors that only some people can detect. A classic example is the peculiar odor some people report when urinating after eating asparagus. Only 25% of the population can detect that odor. There's no difference in the urine after eating asparagus from one person to another. The difference is in who can smell it. From what you have shared, it sounds much the same in your situation. You smell it but you say others don't.

There is something called "meat sweats" but it doesn't seem to fit very well with what you describe: https://www.healthline.com/health/meat-sweats#5

Does this effect present itself with other meats, eggs, dairy, soy . . . other things high in protein?

Do you get these smelly sweat episodes when eating other beef products? Does this only occur at night? It is odd that you have no GI distress in conjunction with these episodes. 

As an aside, have you inquired about how Wendy's cooks the beef patty for that lettuce wrap burger? Are they cooking it on the same grill that they use for things like breaded chicken patties? 

Three things:

1. Recent studies, and there have been a number of them, show that most people who report being diligent about avoiding gluten in their diets are not as successful as they imagine. They are actually practicing a "low gluten" diet rather than a "gluten free" one. This is due to a number of factors including misleading and erroneous labeling by food and drug companies , inconsistent or uninformed food handling practice by eateries, and  inconsistencies by the Celiac Disease individual themselves. One such recent study showed that most breeches in the gluten-free diet occur on weekends when people tend to relax their standards and/or eat out more often. 

2. It may take many years for substantial villi healing to take place. I have been making a diligent effort to eat gluten-free since being diagnosed as a Celiac almost 20 years ago. But a followup endoscopy several years after initial diagnosis showed no substantial healing. Another endoscopy done less than two years ago did show that the villi were healed. This most recent endoscopy was 15-16 years after my original diagnosis and after I had been retired for about 5 years. My suspicion is that during my working years I was getting gluten contamination from the company cafeteria and from restaurants despite playing the food detective. There are always those work-related meetings that happen in restaurants or catered affairs where you do the best you can to check on things but . . . when you eat outside of your own house, you are at the mercy of others and I think that's when a lot of cross contamination happens.

3. You do not mention your age but I'm sure it takes considerably longer for villi healing to happen for those who are not young anymore, as it does for most medical problems. Have you had a followup endoscopy to check the status of your villi?

4. Have you been checked for pernicious anemia? This is a condition where B12 absorption fails because of a missing enzyme called "intrinsic factor". B12 is necessary for iron absorption by the body.

Amazing! I would say there is a link.

There is a lot of trivial media these days, isn't there! Nothing else on TV to watch that is new but the news and it is not very uplifting these days.

Not far from me, then. We're about 30 min. south of Olympia.

I take it you are not in the US.

The Mother,

Does your son's healthcare insurance allow him to directly schedule appointments with specialists? Seems like to me he needs to be connected with a gastroenterologist.