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On May 12, 11:28pm, John Dennis wrote:
} Does the gut of a celiac become much more sensitized to gluten intake within
} days of starting a GF diet?  Bread, bagels, spaghetti, and other starchy
} foods have been my favorite foods.  Following amoebic dysentery in the
} mid-1970s, I have had on-going problems with absorption, rate of passage,
} and stool consistency.  Stomach cramping, such as I felt tonight, has not
} been in the array of chronic symptoms (though as a small child in the 50s I
} got pain/cramps after almost every meal).  Does embarking on a true GF diet
} involve a sort of "you can't go home again" increased sensitivity to gluten??

My experience would suggest "sort of." My first slip-up on the diet (bacon
cured with soy sauce) caused a cramping sickness like nothing I'd ever
experienced on a gluten diet. The following day I risked eating something
which I'm now fairly certain was contaminated and did not really
notice a reaction, other than continuing to feel depressed and sick
for some time. I think you can become sensitized while on the diet,
but not necessarily permenently. I hope not, anyway, or the next two
weeks of gluten challenge are going to be unbearable for me.

On the other hand, whether this could happen to you in just a few days
is pretty questionable. Perhaps your knowledge that the food was
almost certainly contaminated caused a psychological reaction.

} Given that  a small bowel biopsy can be done in as little as 15 minutes and
} that going GF means giving up my favorite foods,  perhaps I  should suggest
} to my GI, who I see next Wednes, that one be done despite the negative blood
} test?  Also, can someone advise me as to how long evidence of damaged villi
} persists in the gut after a GF diet is adopted?

Again based on my own experience, if you think you're going to need a
biopsy, get it now before you've really gotten the diet underway. It's
much harder to go off it for a gluten challenge and it might affect
the results.

Wendy, [log in to unmask]