Symptoms of Gluten Intolerance

So you have been diagnosed as gluten intolerant.

You probably have dozens of questions

What are the symptoms of gluten intolerance?

What will be the effects of being gluten intolerant on my life?

Will I have a really restricted diet?

Whenever people discover a health issue the natural reaction is to panic and think the worse.  Being gluten intolerant doesn’t have to be a big deal.  Once you learn to manage your diet the symptoms of gluten intolerance will no longer be an issue.  And managing the condition does not have to be as big a deal as you might think.

The first thing is to find out what your gluten intolerance really means.  It may be that you have coeliac disease (celiac disease in the USA).  This means that eating gluten can trigger an auto-immune response.  This is not the same as having an allergy to wheat, although sufferers of coeliac disease will often describe their condition as a wheat allergy – Its a lot simpler to say wheat allergy, which everyone understands rather than trying to expain an auto-immune response!

The symptoms of gluten intolerance when you have coeliac disease can be very different from individual to individual but can include any of the following or a combination of the symptoms

Symptoms of Gluten Intolerance

• Chronically tired
• Skin rash
• Stomach pains and cramps
• Mouth ulcers
• Bowel disorder – including diarrhoea and constipation
• Nausea
• Bloated bowels
• Weight loss without explaination
• Iron defficiency

It has to be said that these are just the most common symptoms of gluten intolerance.  An individual may have some of these symptoms or they may not and still be gluten intolerant.  It is a mistake to think that all sufferers of coeliac disease will have the same symptoms of gluten intolerance.  Although many coeliacs, for example, may be underweight, this is a symptom of the nutrient defficiency rather than the condition.

What is Coeliac Disease (Celiac Disease)

It may help to explain what coeliac disease is and why the symptoms of gluten intolerance occur.

When someone with coeliac disease eats a food containing gluten it triggers an auto-immune response.  Basically the body produces antibodies that are designed to protect against infection or disease but a faulty trigger means that the antibodies start to attack the gut instead.

Your gut (small intestine) is a long muscular tube lined with thousands of cillia.  The cillia are raised hair like structures that are designed to increase the surface area of the gut and help you to absorb food.

In a healthy gut the cillia stand upright.  When you suffer gluten intolerance the cillia are damaged and lay flat on the gut wall or can even be decreased in number.  This means that the person with coeliac disease is not able to absorb nutrients properly and most of the symptoms of gluten intolerance stem for this malnutrition.

The continual or chronic feeling tired is usually the result of iron defficiency.  The stomach conditions a direct result of the auto-immune reaction.  The constipation and diarrhoea the result of food getting to the large intestine without being digested properly.

Left untreated the symptoms of gluten intolerance will increase and the sufferer may also add psychological symptoms such as depression or anxiety to the physical symptoms.

The good news is that if you guard against eating any gluten the recovery can occur really quite quickly.  Some sufferers report feeling better after just a few days of being on a gluten free diet.  Usually within a week there should be noticeable improvement.

Sticking to a gluten free diet does not have to be that hard.  I have almost completed my guide to simple gluten free living which will be available to download from amazon soon.  I will update this post as soon as the guide is available.  It is based on my 25 years of living, eating and cooking gluten free.

If you suspect you have the symptoms of gluten intolerance it is important to get this confirmed by your doctor.  Until you have the condition confirmed you should continue to eat gluten containing foods.  This is because the doctor will initially carry out a blood test to identify the antibody.  If you are eating a gluten free diet the antibody will not be present in your blood.  That said, I suggest you seek confirmation from your doctor as soon as possible.  If you are gluten intolerant the sooner you start a gluten free diet the sooner your gut can start to heal.

Of course some people that experience the symptoms of gluten intolerance will not be coeliac.  Wheat can be difficult to digest for many people and can lead to irritable bowel syndrome or just feelings of being bloated when you eat too much wheat.  In these cases you probably do not need to eliminate wheat from your diet completely, restricting the amount you eat and having gluten free days will probably be sufficient.

Whatever the reasons for yor symptoms of gluten intolerance there are plenty of gluten free options to choose.  Aside from foods that are naturally gluten free; vegetables, fruit, pulses, dairy produce, meat, poultry fish (just take care that non of these have a sauce or coating containing gluten).  There are now plenty of gluten free pastas, breads, biscuits, cookies and cakes.  you will find some of my favourite gluten free recipes on this blog, and I will continue to add more.

I hope this helps to explain the symptoms of gluten intolerance, you can see more on netdoctor

Good luck with your gluten free journey.  I hope I can help to reduce or remove those symptoms of gluten intolerance with you