<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>
 
Nicole Nadorozny <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
 
>>    I was diagnosed with IBS and the doctors strongly suggested that
>>I did not have celiac disease.  However, after advice from a number
>>of individuals, I have been on a gluten free diet and my condition
>>seemed to have been improving.  Within this last week, I have
>>broken down and eaten pizza on two occasions, and am feeling once
>>again bloated, pulsing in my lower abdomen, stools had initially
>>mucous on them, but now are stringy and on the verge of being
>>diarrhea like.  This is obviously an allergy/intolerance response?
>>Is it worth requesting the doctor to test me for celiac disease?
 
There are several possibilities here.  You may be allergic or sensitive
to dairy products.  That was what I first figured out in my case.  I only
figured it out because I went on an elimination diet....unconsciously.
Consciously I was trying to lose weight. After two weeks on this very simple
diet, I broke down and cheated a tiny tiny bit... and I learned something
the hard way.  Slowly, I figured out that I was very sensitive to cheese,
yogurt, milk, etc. These are heavy mucous producers.
 
In late 1995 I eliminated gluten products because I was still experiencing
more mucous than I thought I should.  I have cheated a tiny bit now and then
and I find that I don't have a strong immunological reaction like I do to
milk but I do get quite gassy if I eat one of the forbidden grains.  After
reading a lot of material on net about celiac, I am beginning to think that
it is not so much gluten that is directly to blame but a kind auto-immune
reaction. That gluten may function as an irritant to the gut and the gut
could start digesting itself and that creates the problems. How else can one
conceive of someone reacting severely to licking a postage stamp that has
gluten in it. Immunological responses are conditioned. So the answer may be
simple, gluten is an irritant perhaps because it causes the interstinal
villi to stick together. Same thing may apply to caesin. Who really knows?
Auto-immunity may be the fundamental problem... this explains so much of the
varied sensitivity in the different people.
 
Members of the list let me know if this makes sense to you.
 
Good luck unraveling your diet puzzles,
 
John Wynhausen