How long does it take to feel the effects of gluten?

Ditto Jacks I'm doing the same thing ,as from today ,Glutten free ,I've got same probs as you ,have had for over 8 years now. Told it's IBS ,no test ,but say I've got it ,I've had anxiety same time as IBS ,but no coeliac test offerered ,lost count how many times I've said about upset stomach in all this time ,have to watch everything I eat .

   Someone locally said maybe it's Coeliac disease .Fed up never feeling well Jacks .

   Get back when you find out okay .

You can be gluten intolerant without having celiac disease. It sounds like you may be, at least, gluten intolerant. For me, it takes several hours, and I feel bad the next day after eating too much gluten. I can tolerate a little of it, say some soy sauce in a recipe, but there is a threshold after which I start to have a lot of problems.

I found that it took some months of being gluten free for all of the symptoms to go away, but I noticed changes starting in the first week of eating gluten free.

You may not have the typical antibodies that are associated with celiac disease and still be gluten intolerant. You should talk with your doc about your GF experiment and its results when next you see her.

I used to be able to tolerate a bit of gluten, then it became very bad indeed and I was diagnosed Coeliac. Before diagnosis, I used to have 'episodes' of the runs, pain, bloating and skin rashes, as well as feeling tired and ill. But then I'd recover, go a few weeks ok even though I was eating gluten ( I didn't know not to, at that point). Gradually it became worse, and my 'healthy' times became fewer and fewer.  I reached a crises when my weight dropped to 7 stone, and I was severely anaemic. That's when I was diagnosed. Now though, after eating a gluten-free diet for 17 years, I cannot tolerate any gluten at all and I get very ill indeed if I have even a small amount of it by accident. It is very sudden, dramatic and unpleasant, and results in violent vomitting and then being tired and listless for a few days. I think it may be different for everyone. That's my experience of it, and I do wish you luck with your story. For what it is worth, my doctor told me that as a Coeliac, if I eat gluten, I am threatening my immune system, and I could develop very serious illness as a result. So, for me, it's a no-brainer. Gluten is out the question.

I follow a dairy and wheat free diet as had similar symptoms but mine is intollerance after a bug I think not ceoliacs but avoidance works for me x 

Thanks for your replies everyone. I am still slightly confused. The results came back as normal so i am not coeliac. I did my whole week gluten free and after a couple of days the pain disappeared again and while I was eating gluten free I had no pain at all. So on Monday I started eating 'normal' again. I felt fine most of the week but then when i got up yesterday (Friday) i felt awful. I had the headache from hell and my stomach pains had returned with a vengance so I immediately cut the gluten out again. The headache has finally gone but my stomach is still giving me some grief. I am hoping that the pain will start to fade soon. So I think maybe I am intolerant to gluten or wheat - i need to experiment a bit more. My Doctor was quite useless. She didn't seem intertested once the test results were normal. (she has discovered I now have high blood pressure so it seems like she has something new to play with). I told her about my experiment and asked if she thinks i could be gluten intolerant and she said "oh it could be wheat setting off your IBS" . I then asked if she thinks i should go gluten free and she said "if you want but you might be able to start eating it one day again" It would have been nice to get a more positive response. I know that ceoliac would have been a lot more serious but this is still something that I would like an answer to.  I don't know whether to cut it our altogether or just cut down and have every now and again. It's no wonder i had a headache - my brain can't stop thinking - I'm strting to get on my own nerves now never mind the people around me lol. sorry for the extremely long post. 

HI, Same, not cealiac just gluten or wheat intollerant and avoidance makes the difference to my nausea and spasms. As does lactose. xx

For me I got joint pain, fatigue, sores in my mouth, mineral deficiencies, headaches, nausea, gas, abdomenal pains and noises, acne, dizziness and muscle weakness. I think that about covers it. There were a lot of symptoms, and it got so bad that I thought I had something terrible and serious. I had to take 6 cups of coffee and 5 painkillers to even get going, at its worst and right before I figured out what it was. Over a period of months the symptoms all but disappeared. The upset stomach was the first to go, and the joint pains were the last.

Just try cutting it out for a month and see what happens. But if you want a definitive answer, you can also ask your doctor to order a biopsy of the small intestine since sometimes antibodies will show negative even when one does have celiac. That can have to do with low production of immunoglobulin A, for example. You would need to keep eating gluten until the biopsy, though.

I had the biopsy done, and my intestinal celia are fine. It doesn't matter, though, as gluten intolerance is a real thing, regarldless of how poorly its understood and hence how hard it is to test for. I've got my own empirical data, and my gastroenterologist agrees that a gluten free diet is the right treatment for me.

Anyway, your IBS symptoms could as easily be gluten intolerance. So try it out and see if you can save yourself some pain and misery. Remember: it,s not just wheat but also barley, rye and plenty of other grains and foods that contain these grains or products of these grains as ingredients. Do your research and try it. If it works, it works, and that is really all you need to know.

Err, I meant intestinal *villi*, not celia

Thanks. I am going to give it a month then and then I will definitely know it is an intolerance if I don't get any pain in this time. It's got to be worth it after how I have felt the last couple of days. It's just strange how long it took to make me feel ill. I started eating gluten on Monday and was fine till Friday. I wonder if it takes a few days to build up before it has an effect and then after stopping it takes about 3 days to feel better. 

For time, I don't know, but I do know there is a spectrum that goes from mild to severe. For me, I can take a spoon of soy sauce, for example, (contains wheat) and be fine, but if a person with celiac ate the same thing, they would be sick very quickly. If I eat too much gluten by accident I have intestinal cramping, bloating, gurgling, nausea and gas in 6 to 12 hours. The more severe symptoms took longer to develop and got worse over time. They also took the longest to go away (a few months).

The immediate symptoms of gas, cramping and digestive upset last for maybe two days and resolve after that, provided I stay off gluten afterwards. You may be different and have a greater tolerance than I do. Just be glad you don't have celiac because that's got to be hell. Gluten is in the great majority of all prepared foods and sauces. There are even traces of it in oats or corn meal because these things are made in the same factories as process wheat. Eating strict gluten free is very expensive, and your choices are very limited. Be glad if you can tolerate a little, but cut out all the main sources including beer, regular pasta, pastries and bread and anything breaded and fried. Get used to reading the ingredients on packages carefully. If I make a mistake and eat the wrong thing I am very sorry for it the next day.

Thank you. Yes i thinks maybe at the moment i can tolerate a little because it seems like it takes a few days to build up but the symtoms are worse on the times I've gone gluten free and then reintroduced it. I think I will go totally gluten free and like you say I may be able to tolerate a little every now and again like maybe a little soy sauce in a recipe. I guess it will be a bit of trial and error. I know someone who is celiac and like you say she gets very ill if she makes a mistake. It's got to be worth the effort to not feel like this.