Hi everyone, I was advised by an Endo I saw privately in November to try going gluten free for 6 months, which I have for 3 and a half weeks. I have had lots of gas the last week or so, particularly at evening, its really bad. I also have had loose stools ( sorry) . Is this normal on gluten free? I did see my own gp and she said it may not suit me to be gluten free and also if you change your diet to give it at least 4 weeks to see if things settle down.
Has anyone experienced symptoms when changing to gluten free. I have not been test or diagnosed with gluten intolerance?
Lancashirelass
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Lancashirelass
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I developed IBS when I went gluten free. We cut it out after my OH was diagnosed with coeliac disease about 18 months ago. Within 2 days I started to get IBS symptoms. I figured it was down to the change in diet, and would settle down, but when I was still suffering 4 months later, I went to a nutritionist, and that's when we realised I had hashi's.
It took me a while for the symptoms to pass - it's important to up your fibre intake, and limit the amount of processed alternatives you eat (i.e. gluten free breads). It also helps to avoid sugar as much as possible, and to make sure you drink enough. I'd suggest you take a probiotic too, as that helps your general gut health.
Did you start taking levothyroxine at the same time as going gluten free? As there's also a chance it's not the diet, but the combination of diet and medication.
The connection with gluten is more about the autoimmune condition Hashimoto's, than hypothyroidism per se. Have you tested positive for the relevant antibodies or had an ultrasound of your thyroid to show you have Hashimoto's? I'm not sure if you are saying that you've been absolutely gluten-free for 3.5 weeks, or only trying to be, but you need to be without gluten whatsoever. Not everyone needs, or necessarily benefits from making such changes though; or might need to follow an exclusion diet and then it becomes important to ensure that what you are eating, is providing a nutritionally balanced diet because if not, that can bring its own problems. What was the reason your Endo suggested it to you?
excuse the pun but changing to gluten free was the icing on the cake for me. However, I try to steer clear from "gluten free" processed food that is sold in supermarkets as they contain undesirable ingredients.
I can recommend an easy recipe for bread, no it isn't like your average bloomer but its handy in the freezer sliced when you want it toasted or an open sandwich.
I know glyphosate is the big thing affecting us too, as there is so much more sprayed on crops now, bread is not the same as bread was years ago.
Good gut health is really important, looking after your microbiome, eating fermented food really helps.
The other thing that has happened is that my number of thyroid antibodies has vasty reduced which as far as the research that I have done is concerned this lowers my risk of collecting more autoimmune diseases.
Here you go, i get my arrowroot powder from amazon, check out her other amazing recipes, it’s worth following Bella’s blog too, my friend’s daughter ...
Thanks for replying. The Endo suggested to try gluten free as it may be helpful to people with Underactive Thyroid ie me. I have been on Erfa for a number of years so I dont think its my meds, its most likely change in diet. I have bought Supermarket bread and other things like crackers, oats and granola, all gluten free. Maybe its a bit much for my guts to endure all that gluten free stuff all at once.
It could be worth trying a month without oats, as some people can be sensitive to those as well.
I don't think it's necessarily that you need to bring gluten back to get you gut back to normal, but I think when your gut is in poor shape (which it will be if you have hashis), a sudden shake up in diet just pushed you over the edge...
Not an expert, but a few thoughts. If you change your diet, your body needs some time to adapt to the new reality. If you are reducing substance X, are you also increasing something to compensate? If so, what? Is it upsetting your system?
I started off with bought GF products then realized I was reacting to corn and good GF oats, then millet. Did a bit more investigating and found that gluten sensitive people tend to gradually become intolerant to one grain after another in roughly the following order: Wheat, Corn, Sorghum, Barley, Rye, Millet, Oats, Teff, Rice. Potato can also be a problem as it cross reacts with corn. I can't use corn starch or potato starch. Might be worth trying to cut all grains for a trial - as SewinMin says, you may have started to eat quite a bit of something new to you or more than you have been used to. (Lots on purehealth clinic website, and The Gluten Plan - Micki Rose). Good luck
The symptoms of gluten themselves can take months to pass, and personally I’m not aware of negative side effects to not eating gluten.
That having been said I got sick many times with the same symptoms you described after going gluten free. By changing my diet I inadvertently started taking in more things that I was actually intolerant too without me knowing it at the time. I’m still gluten free because I’ve found many benefits to it, but ridding myself of my symptoms meant seeing gastroenterologists, going through all sorts of testing and getting several diagnoses of what I’m actually intolerant to. Now I’m close to symptom free, my intolerances are bad but I handle them much better.
I would look at your diet over the past 3 weeks and see what are things that you’ve started eating more of, or introduced all together that you didn’t eat before. Often when people go gluten free they start buying a lot of “alternative foods”, breads and pastas and what not that they themselves are full of other substances which could make you sick.
Myself I can’t stomach gluten free bread alternatives, it took me giving up on bread all together (not just gluten) to get rid of my symptoms. I’m intolerant to fructose for example and many alternatives use high amounts of fructose like compounds to “glue” their breads together, due to lack of gluten (rightly named for the fact its the glue in bread).
Lots of gas and loose stools are totally symptoms related to fructose intolerance, but also symptoms of many other intolerances in general. If you are unable to digest something it’s due often to lacking the enzyme you need to break down that certain food, when you lack the enzyme it undergoes some sort of fermentation instead which causes gas buildup and can cause painful bloating, if you keep taking a food which causes you these symptoms you’re likely to do a bit of damage to your digestive system in the short term and you will likely have loose stool. (From my experience)
Thank you for repies. It is a very complicated issue, I may go back to square one ie eat some gluten and see what my symptoms are. Im a bit lost really, but it seems obvious that the gluten free foods I have been eating dont suit me so I will cut them out especially bread and biscuits. Then I will do more research to see the way to cut out gluten more slowly.
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