Possible coeliac/gluten intolerance?
Posted , 3 users are following.
I’d love to hear people’s thoughts on the subject- up until recently it was never something I’d thought about, in all honesty I wouldn’t have even linked the ‘symptoms’ had somebody not mentioned it to me.
I’ve always bloated after pasta and bread (I simply put it down to carbs) and have always struggled with being overweight.
I started Slimming World and found that by doing the SP plan (where you can’t have pasta) I have been able to lose weight. Obviously Slimming World naturally cuts out a lot of the high sugar/calorie foods such as cakes and biscuits etc.
I’ve found that symptoms have gotten steadily worse; I’m constantly with some level of fatigue, I alternate between days of constipation to a few days of very loose bowel movements (and very unpleasant smelling), I suffer more with bloating- painfully so if I have things like pasta or bread but still some at the end of every day (the stock cubes, soy sauce and other sauces I use all contain gluten).
The other day I was laying in bed for 3 hours until I finally managed to sleep after having half a portion of chow mein- my stomach was rock hard and distended with severe stomach cramps. After a ‘cheat night’ I’ll also be extremely gassy from both ends which smell (and taste for the burps) foul.
I’m currently seeing my GP regularly due to unexplained infertility, we’ve been trying now for over a year and a half with no luck so far. I have always had irregular cycles and also suffer with hidredenits suppurativa (not as severe since coming off birth control!)
My question is; does this sound like coeliac? Or gluten intolerance of some kind.. would coeliac always be severe or can the symptoms get progressively worse?
Or any other ideas what it possibly could be?
I’m seeing my GP next week anyway and will bring it all up there but it’d be nice to hear from people who have previously been in the position I am!
0 likes, 2 replies
jasmine19000 SiobhanC94
Posted
Hi,
I'm sorry to hear you're suffering so many symptoms. I have been cursed with a very long list myself and am currently going through the "have I got coeliac" rigmarole as well.
I just urge you to take caution - it sounds like you have a solid GP, but I've noticed many don't know enough about coeliac. They'll likely send you for a blood test which has proven to be highly unreliable. Mine came back negative, but considering I have 99% of coeliac symptoms, I'm making them do the bowel biopsy.
As far as infertility goes - although I don't think it's a common symptom, the past year I've learned that everything is connected. When our bodies are under stress from something, many other things are affected.
I began breathing therapy close to a year ago now, and as simple as it sounds, it can actually correct a lot of things (obviously not coeliac disease). The idea behind it is that when we breathe through our mouth, and at a faster pace, we are taking in too much oxygen, and not keeping enough carbon dioxide in our body. Carbon dioxide is our natural relaxant, anti inflammatory etc so it's much more vital for our organs and tissues than people popularly know.
I had irregular period, as well as chronic back, shoulder, neck pain, as well as sciatic nerve problems. After about a month of learning to breathe correctly, my two visits a week to the chiropractor stopped, stress levels were gone, I was off anti depressants not long after that, and my body (despite all the coeliac symptoms) was feeling better than it had in a long time.
The pituitary gland in the brain is responsible for healthy hormone production. If the brain isn't relaxed enough, it can affect fertility. These aren't common knowledge things, but you can certainly do some research. The reason I bring this up is because my therapist has said that after some time of learning to breathe correctly (in and out through the nose, and from the diaphragm, not the chest - and must become constant - so basically reprogramming the body to breathe this way all the time) some of his clients who were having trouble conceiving fell pregnant without any assistance from a specialist.
It could be that trying can cause extra tension as well - a lot of people who finally give up, will fall pregnant and they believe it i because the stress of trying to make it happen has dissipated.
Just some food for thought there.
However, if you are suspicious of coeliac - make sure to organise to have the biopsy done, regardless of the blood test. It's quite a serious condition, and if you do have it, you'll be giving yourself better quality of life (and a longer one), but also a good start to your future baby's life.
Wishing you all the best,
Jasmine
FA54321 SiobhanC94
Posted
Your symptoms could also be a food intolerance, especially if you have started eating foods you didn’t before going on a diet. The best thing to do is ask your doctor to do a blood test for Coeliac disease- as long as you are eating gluten daily for at least 6 weeks beforehand. If it comes back negative, it still can be Coeliac disease, as you can get ‘false negative’ results, so if you or your doctor feels it still could be, you need an endoscopy, where they do biopsies which is much more reliable. If it is Coeliac disease and you don’t take out gluten from your diet, you can end up with other auto-immune diseases, or worse. Also, infertility can be caused by untreated coeliac disease.