What can happen if you have too much wheat, how can you tell something is wrong?

[Harriet]

[Mazz]

If I have eaten the wrong food, I know very quickly, as my problem was needing to go to the bathroom a lot more than usual.

Have you been diagnoised as Coeliac, as it is best to avoid wheat and gluten and eat gluten free

[meanioni]

Symptoms I get are IBS, feeling like you have 'flu' without the snot, feeling ill all over, diarrhoea, bloating, flatulence, rash on my face, no energy, joint pain, mild depression. Symptoms start not long after consumption, hit hard about 8-12 hours later and can last for several days depending on amount consumed.

[Ruth462]

you mean apart from the chronic fatigue, stiff joints, tummy ache and the need to find the loo... none really!

[Sappho]

It depends what kind of gluten I get in the food or drink...I feel ill, have to rush to the loo usually and get a very bad pain in the front of my ribs and between my shoulders most times. Sometimes I itch all over and get a rash..usually on my chest , upper arms and behind my ears..which lasts for days. I bit a rice cake recently and knew not to eat it....mouth and tongue burning and tingling as if I had bitten into a chilli! I get a rash touching flour or normal bread and some shampoos and hair sprays bring on the rash and give me horrendous flaky scalp that embarasses me no end! I have fainted in the past with my blood pressure dropping too low after ingesting gluten.

[ianwoowoo]

Hi, contrary to the other answers here - I never had really bad stomach related symptons. I suffered from endless fatigue and was always coming down with viruses etc. It wasn't until I read an article in the Asda magazine about Coelliacs that I started to think about my stomach. Then I realised that some bloatidness, very occasional bad stomach ache and feeling full quickly may be related - this was when I 'suggested' to the Doctor that it might be worthe a look.

So in answer to your question I guess the effects of eating Gluten will depend very much on the individual and what your symptoms have been before diagnosis. I guess the more severe the symptoms the easier it is to know what to avoid in future.

[FionaGFG Administrator in reply to ianwoowoo]

ianwoowoo thanks for your comment! You hit on a topic that is much underdiscussed what about atyptical coeliacs? Contrary to what Drs were taught years ago not all Coeliacs are skinny minnies with bad bowels. In our team many of us were overweight, depressed and tired sleeping from 6pm to 6am and just putting it down to 'work'.

Like you I had a full feeling after eating and assumed I'd eaten too much as I love my food. I had the occasional winter icky bug and dodgy tum abroad often not being able to eat for 3/5 days on holiday and just assumed it was the foreign food! How old fashioned was I?!

Even now many years on I have no idea if I've been glutened. Do I feel hungover for a week - sometimes yes. Do I look like I'm pregnant after a supposedly GF meal out with work colleagues ? Yes. My psoriasis & eczema also flares up and I become constipated. It's then I realise that something must've been wrong. Yet my yearly blood tests say everything is fine (and of course they'll only really pick up gluten you've been contaminated with in the 3 mths or so prior to the blood test so they're not a perfect way of seeing of something has got to you). Instead I rumble on with odd aches/ pains/ cramps. It is only the occasional bloating and bad skin rash that makes me realise I may have been glutened. But then again I often wonder if our sensitive tums that are healing just can't cope with a good Merlot or spicy food on occasion. So yes - I'm keen to bust the myth and encourage coeliacs to realise that we may have different outward symptoms yet the internal damage being done is still the same nonetheless. I agree that severe symptoms are at least a red flag to where a restaurant may have slipped up in their process.

[ianwoowoo in reply to FionaGFG]

Good to know I'm not alone there then !

You said you have a yearly blood test - should everyone do this ? I also don't know whether to ask for a DEXA scan for bone density check as well. It all seems a bit haphazard and evey man/woman for yourself.