Gluten Free Diet, 15 Days later....and TMI question...Warning

Updated on November 11, 2013
M.S. asks from Troutdale, OR
13 answers

Hi all, So as some of you read I went gluten free 15 days ago following the doctor's recommendation, and today I have having crazy watery diarrhea and I was wondering if this is normal and part of the "process"? If it is, how long does it last, and should I expect it again?

I have been eating lots of salads, Oatmeal (gf), and either Udi's bread/bagel occasionally, and last night I had the new Franz GF white bread as garlic bread with my rice noodle and veggie sauce. I have also been eating corn quesadillas with steak and/or cheese as a little snack.

Could it be the cause of the intestinal upset? and or is there something I am missing? Thanks so much! Oh, just remembered, I cut my Cymbalta down to 30mg in the last 4 weeks, and last night I stopped altogether, I don't know if that matters. Thanks to those of you who have been there.

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So What Happened?

Thanks so much Ladies! I went back on the Cymbalta last night because I just didn't feel "right". I think I will get a lower does and taper off more. I know that going off of the Cymbalta itself can cause a lot of problems.

I have had the GI Biopsy and it came back "inconclusive" so they wanted me to do the blood test. It came back as negative, I do have gallstones but the nausea just isn't bad enough for the surgeon to want to do surgery she said its not worth the risk for 3 stones that are very small and not causing attacks. I also have a hypothyroid and have for at least 10 years. I have been struggling with a correct dosage to help the symptoms, and since going gluten free they are mostly gone with the dose I am taking.

My naturopath and my surgeon both wanted me to try the gluten free because the tests were inconclusive. I have been doing some reading, and if your body reacts to the gluten protein it can cross into the blood and since it looks almost exactly like thyroid protein, your immune system can attack the thyroid. Also, if you have been sensitive or allergic for along time, they immune system can get so worn down from the gluten that it no longer makes any antibodies so the tests come up negative because the body is just worn out. I am thinking this might be my case, but I also have psoriasis which is an autoimmune disease. (A joyous condition brought on by pregnancy in a handful of women).

I think those of you who mentioned bacteria might be right on because after the diarrhea cleared up in the afternoon, I spent all evening and even this morning with very stinky Sulfa burps which was an intestinal bacterial infection last time it happened. I am off to the doctor tomorrow since they are closed today.

Thanks so much for your help.

Featured Answers

Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

D..

answers from Miami on

Cut out so much salad and see if that helps. I haven't gone on a gluten free diet, but too much salad does this to me.

I hope you get a real answer to help you and that this gets better.

3 moms found this helpful

More Answers

Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

M.P.

answers from Portland on

You need to ask your doctor. I urge you to not rely on other's experience tho hearing their thoughts may be helpful. Only your doctor will know your body and what is going on with you. I doubt that there will be a simple answer.For example the reason you went gluten free could be the reason for the diarrhea.

If you went gluten free because of symptoms and didn't see a doctor I urge you to make an appointment. My daughter has been dealing with what was diagnosed as IBS. (Irritable bowel syndrome) She tried out going gluten free but didn't notice a difference. Over time she felt worse but didn't return to the doctor until she was in much pain. The IBS advanced to ulcerative colitis, a very serious medical condition.

I just read your previous post. I'm glad you're doing this under a doctor's supervising. Give him a call.

I was often feeling sick as a young woman. What the doctor finally had me do was go to an allergist. Turns out I'm allergic to many foods especially in their raw state. Stay away from those foods and I feel better. I also have IBS and so deal with diarrhea. You might look up the symptoms for IBS. It's diagnoses is a matter of eliminating other conditions. You're already a long ways towards that.

4 moms found this helpful
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B..

answers from Dallas on

Yeah, I think you need to call the doc. Gluten free, if it were the problem, should have made things better.

There might be another culprit. If you are eating a lot of salads, there might be a bacteria on the leaves that is causing the gastric upset. Call your doc.
You pay him the big bucks for a reason!

3 moms found this helpful
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J.K.

answers from Wausau on

Some gluten free products have additives that your body might not like.

It is also possible you're not getting enough fiber in your diet.

2 moms found this helpful
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H.W.

answers from Portland on

I have to second Marda's excellent advice. I am someone who would do terribly on a raw food diet, and for me, I actually do worse with whole grains than I do mildly processed foods. I can't do any garlic or onion, either.

Consider looking online for the FOD-MAPS information. I consider these lists to be a godsend; discovering that it was how certain food sugars fermented in the gut made a world of difference for me. I'm better able to control how I feel by choosing foods with low sugars and avoiding many types of food sugars. It is restrictive in some ways but freeing in others.

The diarrhea sounds to me more like IBS than food poisoning. Are you keeping a food journal and remembering what you ate/how you felt later? I'll go back and check your other posts... Okay, you mentioned your stomach always hurting. Is it feeling any better this week? IBS can be triggered significantly by stress, and I will say that I had a time in life where my stomach was hurting constantly. A naturopath was able to help me out (and it was stress, by the way). It can really exacerbate the colon. Sorry. I hope you find some answers, M.. Good luck.

2 moms found this helpful
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M.R.

answers from St. Louis on

I have Celiac's Disease and the only way to actually diagnose this is to run several complicated blood tests looking for the antigens and histology of this problem and then a sample of the intestinal villi needs to be looked at through undergoing an upper GI. If these two tests are not done, then gluten sensitivity or full-blown Celiac's is pure speculation at best. Celiac's can present in many ways and some people have such vague symptoms that it takes years to figure it all out. Common symptoms are massive intestinal issues upon eating glutenous foods such as bloating, gas, diarrhea, abdominal pain and distention, and also malabsorption of food. This also causes headaches, various skin rashes, hair loss, fatigue, joint pain, and also allergy-like symptoms as well. You can have a few of these symptoms, a great deal of these symptoms, or possibly none at all! Celiac Disease is not an allergy, it is a bonafide auto-immune disease where the body cannot break down and digest the gluten molecules found in wheat, barley, rye, and oats. This actually destroys and flattens the villi in the intestines that help digest food and pull nutrients through the intestines and into the blood for nutrition. When gluten destroys these villi, all hell breaks loose and the body becomes very compromised. Celiac's is no joke....you can die from this or destroy sections of intestine if it is ignored or you don't follow a gluten-free way of life. A lot of people are popping up these days and claiming they have gluten sensitivity or Celiac's Disease. Having this myself, I don't know why anyone with a sane mind would make this a new fad or "chic" way of eating. Not eating foods with gluten also commonly causes vitamin and mineral deficiencies in the body. I am on numerous supplements each day to ensure this doesn't happen to me. When I was first diagnosed, stopping gluten made a difference within one week. But, it took much longer to get it flushed out of my system and it took almost two years for my intestinal villi to regenerate and heal. Children can regenerate villi in about 6 months. Adults take years. My solid advice to you is to get concrete answers about this by having the testing I described above. Without that, you and your doctors are simply guessing and trying to diagnose by a hunch. IBS, Crohn's, malabsorption, and also gallbladder disease can all produce identical symptoms to Celiac's. I can also say that stopping the Cymbalta could be aggravating everything as well. Antidepressants slow the digestion process down and also slow down the bowels. When you stop them cold turkey, without a taper, all hell can break loose.....kinda like what you are experiencing right now. My solid advice....have the tests and make absolutely certain that you indeed have Celiac Sprue. Nobody should want to have to eat this way or have to read ingredient labels for the rest of their life off of just a hunch! I already do this and I would trade with a non-Celiac in a heartbeat! There are different grade of this disease as well. Are you an R-8, R-2, combo histology carrier of likely Celiac gene mutations? Are you a cross contaminant Celiac or non-reactive to that? It is a true medical condition and auto-immune disease....not a fad diet or something that celebrity wingnuts love to latch on to and run with. I wish you all the luck in the world to figure this out and get a good diagnosis to help your problem. I think more medical evaluation is needed here before you hang your hat on a gluten-free way of life.

1 mom found this helpful
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R.M.

answers from San Francisco on

Everything you have been eating sounds pretty healthy, and none of it should be giving you watery diarrhea, unless maybe you had a horrendous diet before and your body isn't used to foods with fiber.

Watery diarrhea shouldn't be a part of any "process." I think it's possible you might have slight food poisoning from bacteria in something you ate. I ate a new type of chicken sandwich from (popular chain eatery unnamed, but it starts with an S) last week and had a pretty adverse reaction.

It will probably clear up today or tomorrow. Keep hydrated. If it doesn't clear up in two days' time, call the doctor.

As mentioned below, wash your veggies well.

1 mom found this helpful

S.A.

answers from Chicago on

I can't speak to the gluten free as I have no experience with that. However, my mom had terrible stomach issues when she stopped taking Cymbalta. She didn't contact her doctor about advice on weaning, and just stopped taking it one day. I don't know what dose she was on, but it was low. She had tons of diarrhea and vomiting. She thought she had the flu until she called her dr. and found out it was due to quitting the Cymbalta.

1 mom found this helpful
Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

M.R.

answers from St. Louis on

i have Celiac's Disease and the only way to actually diagnose this is to run several complicated blood tests looking for the antigens and histology of this problem and then a sample of the intestinal villi needs to be looked at through undergoing an upper GI. If these two tests are not done, then gluten sensitivity or full-blown Celiac's is pure speculation at best. Celiac's can present in many ways and some people have such vague symptoms that it takes years to figure it all out. Common issues are massive intestinal issues upon eating glutenous foods such as bloating, gas, diarrhea, abdominal pain and distention, and also malabsorbtion of food. This also causes headaches, various skin rashes, hair loss, fatigue, joint pain, and also allergy-like symptoms as well. You can have a few of these symptoms, a great deal of these symptoms, or possibly none at all! Celiac Disease is not an allergy, it is a bonafide auto-immune disease where the body cannot break down and digest the gluten molecules found in wheat, barley, rye, and oats. This actually destroys and flattens the villi in the intestines that help digest food and pull nutrients through the intestines and into the blood for nutrition. When gluten destroys these villi, all hell breaks loose and the body becomes very compromised. Celiac's is no joke....you can die from this if it is ignored or you don't follow a gluten-free way of life. A lot of people are popping up these days and claiming they have gluten sensitivity or Celiac's Disease. Having this myself, I don't know why anyone with a sane mind would make this a new fad or "chic" way of eating. Not eating foods with gluten also commonly causes vitamin and mineral deficiencies in the body. I am on numerous supplements each day to ensure this doesn't happen to me. when I was first diagnosed, stopping gluten made a difference within one week. it took me that long to get it flushed out of my system but it took almost two years for my intestinal villi to regenerate and heal. Children can regenerate villi in about 6 months. Adults take years. My solid advice to you is to get concrete answers about this by having the testing I described above. Without that, you and your doctors are simply guessing and trying to diagnose by a hunch. IBS, Crohn's, Malabsorption, and also gallbladder disease can all produce identical symptoms to Celiac's. I can also say that stopping the Cymbalta could be aggravating everything as well. Antidepressants slow the digestion process down and also slow down the bowels. When you stop them cold turkey, without a taper, all hell can break loose.....kinda like what you are experiencing right now. My solid advice....have the tests and make absolutely certain that you indeed have Celiac Sprue. Nobody should want to have to eat this way or have to read ingredient labels for the rest of their life off of just a hunch! I already do this and I would trade with a non-Celiac in a heartbeat! There are different grade of this disease as well. Are you an R-8, R-2, combo histology carrier of likely Celiac gene mutations? Are you a cross contaminant Celiac or non-reactive to that? It is a true medical condition and auto-immune disease....not a fad diet or something that celebrity wingnuts love to latch on to and run with. I wish you all the luck in the world to figure this out and get a good diagnosis to help your problem. I think more medical evaluation is needed here before you hang you hat on a gluten-free diet.

1 mom found this helpful
Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

S.H.

answers from Des Moines on

I am gluten free and if I try to eat 'bread' products that are gluten free I feel so sick....never the water diarrhea, but sick to my stomach. I just don't eat bread type products anymore....I think the substitutions may be a problem.

D.B.

answers from Boston on

Usually, when people make changes like this, the advice is to change ONE variable at a time. But you have changed many, from the elimination of gluten to the introduction of new foods to the very quick reduction of a medication.

Food sensitivities are not a natural state - they are a reaction to something missing from the diet or something out of balance. It's not "normal" to have to eliminate a food. It sounds like you have eliminated quit a few, so your body is reacting. Trigger foods can cause inflammation because they can't be processed by the body - because the body is missing what it needs to process that food item. Inflammation, particularly in the digestive tract, can cause all forms of irritable or inflammatory bowel disease, from chronic diarrhea to chronic constipation to a seesaw between the two.

I work with a lot of people who have Celiac disease, IBS, Crohn's, diverticulitis, reflux and other conditions of the digestive tract. I'd be concerned for your comfort as well as the possibility that you are not getting enough absorption of nutrients because you have so much diarrhea. You're eating a lot, but if it's going through you too quickly, you could be wasting plenty of money as well as making yourself miserable. I'd also be concerned that you are likely to get dehydrated through so much diarrhea.

J.S.

answers from Hartford on

You should probably be titrating down on the Cymbalta more slowly. Going cold turkey off 30 mg isn't good for your body unless you were having allergic reactions to it. I tried titrating down by taking the high dose every other day, then the low dose every other day. The problem was I had increasingly worse allergic reactions even though I was going off it. The side effects I was already experiencing were getting worse... facial twitches, peeling and scaling skin that itched like eczema, dry mouth, ringing in the ears, unexpected waves of dizziness... many of those symptoms I didn't even realize were because of the Cymbalta until I went off of it and they stopped at the same time. But it was the peeling skin rash (bloody layers of skin were peeling) and the dry mouth, plus it wasn't helping my Fibro pain... those are the reasons I ended up having to quit it more quickly than just titrating down.

I don't recommend that unless you're having terrible side effects. It works for some people, not others, and if you decide to titrate off then go through it properly. The current symptoms could be your body going cold turkey.

If you're off of gluten, and it's only been 15 days, but you have Celiac or a sensitivity to gluten, it can still take weeks, months, or even a couple of years to get all of the gluten out of your system. If you're sensitive or have Celiac I would check labels on what you've been eating to see if there are even trace amounts in the ingredients.

Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

R.M.

answers from Cumberland on

maybe it's the corn? Good luck-I hear it is beneficial.

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