I’m just wondering if anyone else is like this. My hubby was dx with celiac disease 2 years ago. The only reason we found out he had it, was that he kept going to the doctor because he was tired all the time, had no coloring to his face, couldn’t gain weight and was having a hard time swallowing. The doctor finally told us to see a gastroenterologist (sp) and he scoped my hubby and found he has eosinophilic esophogitis (sp) and celiac disease.

Rarely does my husband ever have a reaction to gluten. He never went to the doctor because he had stomach aches or felt crappy. I read all the time about people who become so ill after being glutened and I thanks God that my husband does not have that reaction – but how do we know when he HAS been glutened? There are no immediate signs. He still has a hard time swallowing from time to time – but that may be to other allergies. I’m just wondering if anyone else out there knows when they’ve been glutened when they are a person who doesn’t have an almost immediate reaction.

Thanks for reading!

It may be that the difficulty swallowing is the most immediate symptom. It can be helpful to keep a food journal, wherein every day he notes everything he eats and how he feels. In a few weeks or so, a pattern may emerge. The swallowing problem might be from gluten, only manifesting some amount of time after ingestion. Some members here have stated that there reactions begin days later. Also, depending on what he eats, there may still be hidden gluten that you aren't aware of. Odd as it may seem, symptoms are often much more pronounced once the body has had enough time gluten-free.

So I think the journal would be a good idea, as well as avoiding dairy, since that's a very common intolerance along with gluten. He may be able to add dairy back later. In time I'd hope you'd have the signs of glutening figured out.

Considering the fact that many of us grow up eating gluten, never figuring it as having anything to do with our health issues, it isn't surprising that not everyone has obvious and immediate reactions.

A woman I know that has Celiac found out because she was losing weight ( 5'2" @85 lbs- YIKES!) and didn't know why. She had no other "typical" symptoms. She found out later that the difficulty swallowing was a symptom and those were the only two she had. She is totally gluten-free and doesn't cheat because she knows the consequences, but she too says she never had GI upset, so she really doesn't know if she ever gets CC'd.

So, it's possible, like the other poster said, that IS his reaction to gluten. But tell him he's definitely not alone on that. Personally, I don't get GI upset either. I'll get a headache and my energy is sapped for a day or so, but to cause distress I have to have a decent amount of it. And usually my symptoms hit the next day, just took me paying attention to find out... and the occasional glutenings (which usually happen at night). I have also realized that a tiny amount can trigger those two symptoms.

I also do not react much. When I was first sick I had more symptoms as time went by I started cheating and seemed fine. Now more than 5 years later my hair is so thin it sent me to the Dr. and sure enough my iron is low and my Ferretin is 2. So even if you are not having symptoms the gluten is still causing damage to your body. I am going to the Dr tomorrow to try and get my blood back in order so I can start absorbing nutrients again. I Have been gluten free for a week and a half and am going to stay that way... no matter what. Remember what you cant see and sometimes feel can really be hurting your body.
Take care
Wendy

Kelly,

I think that after some time gluten free you have healed your intestines. For some, it might take repetitive exposure to be symptomatic again. After two and a half years, I consider myself in remission.

A couple of other things to consider.

I was diagnosed because of liver function tests, not because I was getting sick. Or that is what I thought. It is hard to do a retrospective test but over a few years before the diagnosis I would wake up occasionally feeling sick and think that I'd gotten mild food poisoning or a 24-hour-virus. I also got really sick if I drank more than one wheat-beer when in Germany but I just assumed it was a hangover. Did he have occasional unexplained GI symptoms.

While I still don't have the extreme symptoms described by some people on this site, I do get an upset stomach after only a little gluten now. That seems to be a common trend - being off gluten maked the occasional accidental things more symptomatic.

Thank you everyone for your responses. I feel so bad for him - I was hoping I could find another way just to see if he was being glutened. Now I see there are more people who don't always know right away either.

Thank you again!

You may want to have his Celiac bloodwork run at more frequent intervals to make sure that his levels have come down, and remain down.

That's a very good idea - thank you!