Double Edge Sword
Posted by Mike in Mike's JourneyJan 14th, 2009 | 7 responsesI was diagnosed with Celiac while showing no, or very little, symptoms. My blood work showed I had it and my endoscope showed little signs, therefore it was positive. I could go eat a pizza buffet and not fart once!
A couple years ago, I went gluten free for a few months. During that time, if I ate gluten I would have some stomach symptoms. The same thing is happening to me now. A couple chocolate chip cookies, hurts my stomach.
So, if I eat gluten, I feel fine. If I go gluten free, when I slip-up, I don’t feel fine.
Points To Remember (Taken from celiaccentral.com)
- People with celiac disease cannot tolerate gluten, a protein in wheat, rye, barley, and possibly oats.
- Celiac disease damages the small intestine and interferes with nutrient absorption.
- Treatment is important because people with celiac disease could develop complications like cancer, osteoporosis, anemia, and seizures.
- A person with celiac disease may or may not have symptoms.
- Diagnosis involves blood tests and biopsy.
- Because celiac disease is hereditary, family members of a person with celiac disease may need to be tested.
- Celiac disease is treated by eliminating all gluten from the diet. The gluten-free diet is a lifetime requirement.
7 Responses to “Double Edge Sword”
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I think this is similar to standing out in the cold. At first your body is freezing and it’s all you can think about, but then your fingers start to go numb and you can’t feel the pain anymore. So when you’re eating gluten for a few years, your digestive system goes numb and you don’t feel the symptoms. But now that you’re following the diet, cheating is like going back outside into the cold weather.
Julie is right. I cheated on my diet “just a little” fairly frequently, and over the past two years have begun to pay a hefty physical penalty for these transgressions. I won’t go into details, but believe me, it ain’t pretty! It really began to negatively affect many areas of my life, including restricting my ability to freely travel (a paradox, because it’s difficult to freely travel with celiac disease and the GF diet!), which is something I love. Even going grocery shopping could pose a challenge. My advice is to follow the diet carefully so your quality of life won’t be compromised beyond having to go GF.
My husband ate leftover brownie 6 days after switching to GF and suffered for a week! It’s really not worth how you feel or – if you don’t experience bad symptoms – what you’re doing to your body. You might get worse symptoms if you cheat after being (diligently) GF for a while, but this calms down after a couple years too. I can get cross-contamination now and be fine after 4 hours (used to last 3 days).
Mike,
I am very surprised that your GI doc would tell you cheating is okay. I have been gluten free for 5 years and NEVER cheat. Occasionally I get cross contamination by accident. Anyway, even small amounts of gluten can damage your intestines (even if you don’t have symptoms). If you continue to damage your intestines you can end up with something called refractory sprue. This is Celiac where you intestines no longer heal themselves. This can lead to VERY serious consequences because your body would no longer be able to break down your foods and absorb the nutrients from them.
I have NEVER heard that if you are true Celiac it is okay to cheat. My GI would have an attack if he thought I was cheating.
All my best,
Tamara
That’s funny how one doctor’s advice is so opposite anothers. This past summer my GI doctor contridicted all other doctors – he said that the original bloodwork done 2 years ago was not high, the endoscope and the bloddwork done this summer was showed that I had NO symptoms of celiac and that was near impossible. My grandmother’s GI doctor thought that since I didn’t have symptoms and wasn’t following the diet that I could have been cured. My doctor this summer thought that I didn’t have celiac – I think that even though so many are diagnosed, the doctors are still unsure and finding new information out daily. I feel better following the diet. Cross-contamination doesn’t affect me, however there is a difference between being gluten intollerant and allergic to gluten – both are diagnosed as celiac disease. I saw an immunologist/allergist and she told me that I am intollerant – so when I have too much gluten it affects me, however I should avoid gluten due to the long term problems. I know some of my cousins can’t have cross-contamination and have immediate reactions. While I have had celiac my whole life I am grateful that I can tolerate cross-contamination – small blessings.
Cheating on a gluten-free diet when you have Celiac has serious long-term repercussions whether you feel immediate symptoms or not. Keeping the antibodies active in your body leads to increased risk to such things as neurological damage, intestinal cancer and lymphoma- not something to play around with. Any GI that says cheating is ok has not looked at any of the current research and frankly, has no business treating Celiacs. Go to any Celiac conference and researchers will spell out in graphic detail the health problems they see in non-compliant celiacs.
Eating gluten-free is really not that hard, with some lifestyle adjustments… You can do it!
-Sea
Seamaiden: Thanks for the comment! My GI doc told me that I would be able to eventually cheat, 3 years ago when I was diagnosed. I have taken a lot of flack after posting her opinion. I am going to contact her and see if she can elaborate or possibly has changed her opinion over the years. At the time, she was one of the most well respected Celiac doctors in the area.