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Kristine Renee Penner <[log in to unmask]>
asked on May 18th whether  "someone can be gluten intolerant without having
Celiac Disease?"

I was hoping that some well-informed individual would respond to this post.
Perhaps, Kristine, you could summarize any direct e-mail responses you may
have gotten.

I have noted the phrase "transient gluten intolerance" in one or more of the
citations I've pulled off Medline in the past three weeks.  This suggests
that the answer to Kristine's question is yes.

When I visited Dr. Peter Brennan, an internal medicine specialist  in Ithaca
NY last week, he was of the opinion that I was not a celiac (my blood test
while on a gluten diet was 0.27 for Antigliadin IgA and 0.00 for Antigliadin
IgG and "negative" for Anti-endomysium IgA), but that a GF diet was having a
positive effect on Irritable Bowel Syndrome symptoms.  He said that bran and
other wheat-related materials can ferment in the gut causing gas pain or
other IBS symptoms.  He gave me a copy of an article, Alleviating intestinal
gas, by Alessandra Strocchi and Michael D. Levitt from the Jan 91 issue of
Contemporary Internal Medicine.  The article indicates that malabsorption of
carbohydrates in general results in greater production of hydrogen gas in
the gut and that celiacs have high fasting-breath hydrogen values.  It also
mentions that rice is the only commonly ingested complex carbohydrate that
is almost completely absorbed.  I wonder if there are any affordable devices
for measuring breath hydrogen in the home?  According to the article, breath
hydrogen levels are also a good way of measuring gut transit times.

During my first week of a GF diet, stool buoyancy disappeared, but returned
in weeks 2-3, which suggests that gluten is not the only problem (or that
rice and beans is not a good staple in the period of intial recovery).
Removing bananas from my diet a few days ago has resulted in a return of
good stool consistency, comparable to that of week 1 of the GF diet.  I'd be
curious to know if others have experienced any intolerance for bananas and
whether anyone knows what the irritant might be.  Don Wiss has suggested a
high pectin content.


John