Compare Gluten Reactions (This might not be pretty)

[jage]

Based on some other threads I started wondering what "having a reaction" or getting sick means to everyone else.

I'll try to keep it clean, but this is for science! If you can't think of any other way to describe it just throw it out there.

Here's some smilies in case you don't want to read this, scroll down if you're interested:































Ok... here we go...


Wheat/gluten - Severe lower abdominal pain, usually on the left side combined with painful bowl movements and exhaustion. Feces is usually very soft, orange an has a distinct odor. Eating glass and drano might have a similar effect if it ever got to the lower intestine. Feeling and pain can last for days after exposure depending on level of gluten. Also comes with an "emergency" feeling, a need to go to clean out system. Can recur every hour, often times feeling of needing to go unnecessarily, sitting on the bowl trying to go an nothing. Exhaustion after (or between as the case is) going.

Wheat/gluten trace amounts - pain and orange poop. Usually only lasts 1 or 2 poops, not much after effect.

Malt (trace) or Corn (whole) - Chunky diarrhea, feeling of urgency to defecate, a lot like pooping water and chunks. Malt makes it orange (gluten) and corn doens't change anything. Both contain undigested food. Imagine just after a Campbell's chunky vegetable soup enema. (I didn't say I wouldn't be colorful!) Anyway, the pain is not there but the intense need to go and exhaustion afterwards are there.

High Fructose Corn Syrup, other processed corn, Chocolate - some urgency, but usually manageable, soft stool, loose but not watery. Very difficult to clean up. Chocolate especially seems to become especially tar-like poop. I definitely feel better after going and can repeat once or twice if I've eaten a lot.

Cheese/Dairy/Soy - No reactions with the exception of possibly Blue Cheese Crumbles, I had diarrhea twice after having salad with them so I stopped having. Could have been something else.

If you've made it this far, well you should share back. I am really curious how typical my reactions are.

The only other thing to note is that when I eat gluten sometimes I get sort of a bloated feeling my stomach, but at other times I've had this feeling (psychosomatic I think) when I *think* what I've had had gluten, but it turns out I'm wrong- e.g. halfway through a dish at a restaurant I realize the sauce could have flour, and I should have asked only to ask and find out it's safe.

[edgeyveggie]

I just puked.
Just kidding, that was kind of hard to read though.
I never seemed to have any varying "reactions" depending on whether or not I had malt or blue cheese, any type of gluten contact seemed to bring about a rather uniform series of symptoms. They are as follows:

Bloated feeling, diarrhea (along with the 'urgency'), painful gas, stomach cramping, and now after being on a gluten free diet when I do ingest gluten, my head gets very peculiar and odd feeling, very disoriented, almost on the verge of hallucinating on some occasions.

I got lost looking at those smilies for a few minutes, good idea for a thread I'll sticky this.

Edit: I forgot to mention itching (mostly on my head) after eating gluten.

[hathor]

Eeep. Now I will try to forget all that

I guess I should count myself lucky.

Gluten -- Often, my first reaction seems like an allergy (maybe I have one, too?) My sinuses start hurting and nose may start running. An hour or so later, I may have bloating and abdominal cramps, although this is variable. The big thing is that the next 2 or 3 days I have a bad headache, brain fog, & nausea.

Casein -- Lots of gas & bloating. It seems to take several days to resolve.

Egg -- OMG My stomach hurts and it seems like I can't digest food for several days. It just sits there and my stomach hurts more & more. I think it somehow triggers my gall bladder not to work or something. The symptoms are like that. I sometimes have similar reactions to any significant infusion of fat. A couple times recently I had problems after peanut butter. (Yes, folks, I've been tested for gall stones, twice, and they never found anything. It is more like, "Doctor, it hurts when I eat this! ... Well, don't eat that.")

Soy -- Very subtle. My joints hurt a bit more than usual, I have a few more hot flashes than usual, and my face breaks out.

Yeast -- Never noticed a response, but Enterolab said I was creating antibodies.

For the first four, my reaction poowise is constipation, my lifelong problem. It takes some days to, er, resolve.

Occasionally my body will decide to have diarrhea for no apparent reason, though. I've never been able to link it to anything in particular.

[jage]

See? I was pretty sure that there were at least a few more people around here who poop!

Something that reminded me of, I feel like when I eat too much (of what I can't really say? it's usually when I am overfull) I get an asthmatic scratch in my throat. I usually hit the abueterol once or twice to open things up, and it's never been anything approaching anaphalactic shock, just annoying.

[VeggieGrl]

Gluten: for me it's all those icky things plus my mood just really tanks. Foggy brain, depression, irritability. Feeling "blue", like there's not much hope for the world. But if I go a while without any gluten my mood/outlook is so much better! Who knew it was gluten all this time...

[morumotto]

Hi, I'm Sam. Just diagnosed.
Gluten causes me to make orange poo as well. And gives me lower back pains, amenorrhea from iron deficiency anemia + an endless amount of putrid-smelling gas. Still having trouble getting my hand out of the Cheerios box though.

[hathor]

Hi Sam & welcome!

Have you tried Perky O's yet, like Cheerios only without the barley malt?

[jage]

Let's keep it to disgusting bowel movements people!

By the way, I'd stay away from any Amaranth based cereals- yarg. (don't know what Perky O's is)

[Valerie]

I wanted to thank you all for posting your reactions. I've been feeling bad for so long I guess I started to think it was normal. And my dh has lately told me he thinks "all this food reaction stuff might be in your head." Don't worry, I gave him an earful for that.

Hathor, interesting that you mentioned acne as a side effect to eating soy. I've had some degree of adult acne for about 10 years now. That's more or less when I stopped eating meat and started eating soy. Hmm. In the past my skin has gotten a little clearer but I've never been able to pinpoint why. So since I read your post I stopped eating soy as an experiment. It's only been 3 days but it does seem to be getting a little better. I can post an update in a couple of weeks.

Since I've only been gf for about a month I was hesitant to post any reactions. I did once have a reaction after eating at Great Sage Restaruant, which supposedly gave me a gf sandwich. It took about a day and then I had orange poo, horrible cramps, gas and the worst headache EVER. Took a full day for the headache to resolve and 3 days for my intestines to calm down. I've had similar headaches but briefer since and wondered if it was due to contamination of some kind.

[morumotto]

Off topic but thank you Hathor!!!
Perky O's look terrific...I just ordered some.

Hey guys, I was wondering how all your food reactions began? Did you always have celiac symptoms, have a known trigger of the symptoms (pregnancy, stress) or were you like me, whose problems seemed to start out of the blue this summer? I can't make sense of mine, and I need some ideas.

Feel free to disable my account if you think this is also off topic, I'm new to this.