Possibly gluten intolerant....question...please help
 

I have been suffering with gerd, stomach pain, change of bowel habit and just about any other gastrointestinal problem you could think of for almost 2 months. I was placed on Prevacid and Sulcrofanate (sp?) and that didn't improve the symptoms much so I had an endoscopy which showed nothing. The dr. told me to double up on the Prevacid and see him in a month. In the meantime, went to gynecologist and he suggested a gluten free diet. Said I had classic gluten sensitivity symptoms. Soooo, I have been on the diet for approximately 3 weeks and my symptoms improved greatly. Everything but the heartburn all but disappeared and that was greatly improved. All of a sudden today my heartburn came back full force and am having spasms of the esophagus. Is this normal? How long can I expect to be on the gluten free diet before I see consistent and sustained improvement?

You may have been 'contaminated'; which basically means you accidently ate gluten. Staying gluten free 100% is extremely hard. You have to be careful, because 'contamination' can occur at any time in any food (even some food you do not expect).

For me, it took a few months GF before being able to eat a little bit of gluten here and there and not being too affected by it. However that is not an excuse to go out to Olive Garden (lol!!), it just gives me a little wiggle room in case of contamination of gluten.

Also: depending on how sensitive you are, you might have to eliminate other foods (like caffeine, processed food or other oats), and you may have to be even more careful to eliminate gluten out of your diet completely. It's difficult, but it is possible. And very worth it :)

Good luck :)
Sweets

PS remember that "Gluten Free" labeled food does not necessarily mean completely gluten free. It just means it either it is only '20 parts per million' or it is 'not made with gluten'. That basically means there might be gluten in it; it might be made in the same facility as gluten products or it might contain gluten during the process.

Also Secondhand:

Gluten free for 3 weeks is very good you should be proud of yourself :)

However it may take a couple of months (possibly longer) to see ultimate results. It also depends though, on how sensitive you are and exactly what gluten does to your body.

And remember, gluten contamination is very possible. So if you feel better, then keep up with the good work!

Again, good luck to you!

Hi there, I am the mamma to a rather extreme Celiac. My girl was diagnosed last year and it probably took about 6 months before she felt decent all the time. When we first started pulling the gluten from her diet, she felt relief quite quickly but would still have bouts of extreme "discomfort". We looked at our kitchen for areas that could be cross contaminated and bought her a seperate toaster/seperate condiments etc. It improved somewhat more but she still had periods where she was ill. I made an appointment to see a dietician and found out there is alot of "hidden" gluten in food labels that I didn't know about (both hyrolized plant and animal protien for example). Once we got that straightened out she has felt consistanly better. I find now that the whole family tends to eat gluten free just because it is easier than cooking two meals!!

I had similar symptoms that also improved greatly with a gluten free diet.
But regarding my problems with GERD, it seems that gluten or no gluten did not make much of a difference and the only thing that helped was to follow the diet recommended in the book of Dr Jamie Koufman.
Basically avoiding coffee, tea, chocolate, seltzer, tomatoes, spices, garlic, onion, milk products, fat (particularly animal fat), citrus, and all foods with Ph level below 5.
I eat chicken breast, lentils, beans, lean fish, rice, potatoes, most vegetables, bananas, melon, watermelon, oatmeal, salt, water Ph 8.8 between meals, and no more than a few nuts and a tea spoon of olive oil per meal.

I am taking also DGL licorice in tablets to chew 3 times a day 20-30 minutes before each meal and it is incredibly helpful.