Bloating

When you bloat, is it possible to bloat in your hips and thighs too? I find that when I bloat I look bloated all over and not just my stomach area???

[Saggyuk]

Water rentention (oedema) will do this so if your symptoms match

[Hidden in reply to Saggyuk]

So water retention could show everywhere in the body and not just the stomach? I don't think it's oedema I was just wondering if bloating/swelling can take place around the whole body as well as the stomach, as I feel I look bigger everywhere when I bloat

[Saggyuk in reply to Hidden]

for myself, it shows mostly in my legs but water retention can happen everywhere. Gluten was the cause for me which would instantly bloat my stomach and caused water retention in my legs - they blow up like a balloon lol. I don't know of anything else that would cause bloating/swelling everywhere? Maybe allergic reactions?

[Hidden in reply to Saggyuk]

I'm getting blood tests tomorrow to find out what for but panicking as I don't know if I've consumed enough gluten for the tests to be able to tell if I have coeliac disease or anything like that😩 I actually look pregnant at the minute so was wondering if my thighs and hips could be big due to bloating too hahah

[Saggyuk in reply to Hidden]

I think it's around two pieces of toast every day for six weeks before the test. It might still show a positive if you are positive, it's just a negative result doesn't rule it out completely. The coeliacs blood test is unreliable anyway and can only be ruled out with endoscopy. I tested negative but have been diagnosed with NCGS.

It's worth trying if you don't get relief from the bloating/swelling with anything else.

Things that help are drinking more water, ensuring you're not having too much salt, increasing potassium (bananas) and epsom salt baths help to relief temporarily although mot much

[Hidden in reply to Saggyuk]

Thankyou!! I've literally been searching and asking so much just to find out if the test could possibly still come back positive and everyone has been saying to do it another time, so that really helped, if it does come back negative I will try cutting out gluten and see if the bloating improves and then go back and speak about it with my GP. Thanks!!!

[Saggyuk in reply to Hidden]

It might come back positive or even weak positive if you've still been eating gluten in some way or another - problem is it's just a waste of a test if it comes back negative. If you've completely cut out gluten, then your antibodies will be low or zero.

The blood test measures your body's response towards gliadin/gluten and when you've not got any gluten in your system, you might not have enough antibodies to give a positive result in the blood test.

Maybe shove as many cakes and bread as possible into yourself as you can tonight before the morning lol???

If you do have an issue with gluten, even if not coeliacs, you would need to cut it out 100% including cross contamination to get better which you can read about on coeliacuk

[Saggyuk in reply to Saggyuk]

I would add that the GP is unlikely to give you test again if it comes back negative. You can always pay for your own after the prom - around £160

[Hidden in reply to Saggyuk]

I'm quite young for it, so I don't think they'd make me pay?? and I'll probably stay off gluten for a while and see if that makes a difference and then speak to my GP if it does stop the bloating as that would show that I am sensitive to gluten, could the bloating also be caused by lactose intolerance? And if so would I be able to find out on the day of the test if I have that?

[Hidden in reply to Saggyuk]

Hahaha!! Thankyou, hopefully if I do have the condition it'll come back accurate, I have been consuming gluten for about 2 weeks defiantly, however I probably didn't consume it every single day for 6 weeks which I don't get because if the damage is done and there's gluten in my system for 3 weeks before the test surely it would show up in my blood?

[Saggyuk in reply to Hidden]

Depends on how long you've been off gluten and whether it was totally off? Everyone will be different.

It is not the damage to your body the blood test is testing, it is your bodies response to gluten so if you have no gluten, your body will show no response to it. Antibodies take time to build up also so that's why it needs to be long enough for them to have grown enough in number to test positive.

Antibodies are your defense system and are created to kill off things your body determines as alien or not right - your little army I suppose. Similar to the kind of antibodies your body would produce towards a specific virus. Your body doesn't like the virus so produces antibodies specified to that virus and sends them off to go kill it. The more virus it senses or the more difficult the virus is and the longer it stays, the more antibodies your body will make and send. If you had no virus or it went away - your body is like "well that's gone so I don't need to produce these anymore" lol.

If you are coeliac and you've eaten gluten for three weeks, then you will have produced antibodies but it just might not be enough of them yet to show up as it has been shown to take six weeks for everybody's body to have produced enough to test positive.

If you ate gluten up until a couple of months ago, you may still have an antibody response left over from then as they take a while to go away, if you ate small amounts in the time in between, you may have produced a few more and so on so completely depends on your body and the situation.

If you go gluten free after - it should be at least 3-6 months to know for sure as can take this long for immune system to calm down and start healing.

Are they testing you for lactose? Not sure how reliable this is either tbh but you can simply try an elimination diet after your prom to rule out any other food intolerances - tests can be deceptive but removing food items and seeing how you feel and then adding them back in after certain time periods, will clearly show whether you have a problem with them