Do coeliac disease symptoms resolve after following a gluten free diet?

I haven't had much luck with improving my symptoms having tried to diet for the last couple of months.

Most of the advice has come from different sites on the internet.

How effective is dieting for most people and is there a good resource for recipes that people can recommend.

[FionaGFG Administrator]

Great question!

The simple answer is Yes.

Providing you are vigilant about excluding all obvious and hidden forms of gluten, (eg in ice cream, soy sauce over the counter pills etc), you should begin to feel a difference after one week or so.

Some Coeliacs find they get severe headaches as they go gluten free. This is often due to cutting out key carbs and grains. So try and eat other GF carbs to combat this. The hardest bit is that it can take a month to master the gluten free diet as you'll find the protein is hidden in many everyday foods and drinks. We found this book (amazon.co.uk/Living-Gluten-... a great guide in going gluten free, alongside the internet and groups like this.

However, as it's an auto-immune disease symptoms vary from individual to individual. For example if your gluten anti-bodies were high and your endoscopy showed the villi in your stomach were severely damaged, then it can take up to 1 year plus for body to adjust and heal itself.

Although the Coeliac disease symptoms, (eg tiredness, tummy problems, psoriasis), may disappear you may find you feel out of sorts still. So it's wise to ask your Doctor for an MOT style check of these common blood tests: Iron, Ferritin, Vitamin D, B12. Often Coeliacs are anaemic or have other vitamin deficiencies caused by not absorbing the nutrients from food due to CD. This can continue for a year plus as it can take a long time for the stomach Villi to heal.