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Hello List,
Since being diagnosed, the world sometimes seems to me like a giant crouton hidden underneath an E. Coli-ridden spinach leaf.  

Knowledge is power and helps counteract this dread of lurking croutons, so please accept my thanks for being so forthcoming about individual responses to gluten exposure.
Patricia

...My first symptom of gluten ingestion is extreme exhaustion, like I   
have been drugged. I can get that as soon as a couple of hours after   
eating. The exhaustion may last up to 36 hours. 

...I feel the effects within 90 minutes and it lasts from 10 days to 2 
weeks. Certainly not a year or even 6 months!!! 

...My gluten response is 72 hours, the time it takes for food to work its 
way through the digestive tract.  Gluten ingestion is always an accident for 
me, as I would never put myself through it on purpose. 
     
...About 2 hours after eating the offending item, (when it hits the small intestine), I begin to get intestinal discomfort, starting with gas and bloating, with more and 
more frequent trips to the bathroom until I finally have watery diarrhea at 
the end of the 72 hours.  ... After the diarrhea, I am back to normal. The 
reaction is more or less severe, depending on the amount of gluten I ate. 

...Do indeed feel a gluten reaction within an hour, sometimes less.  My 
reaction is not necessarily gut-centric--i actually have neurological 
symptoms--my breathing sort of stops, I get a very prickly sort of asthma, 
and my skin crawls, I feel very cranky, and I have anxiety attacks in 
the night.  The gut stuff is secondary and really rather minor compared to 
the creepy neuro symptoms. 

...Sometimes it is a crumb of bread in your salad at a restaurant (one time 
event).  Sometimes it is parts per million in a cross contamination food 
that you eat occasionally.   But sometimes it is a mislabeled or 
contaminated food or supplement that is ingested daily over a period of 
time - days, weeks months.  When our daughter eats a restaurant meal that is 
apparently gluten contaminated, the reaction is a few days.   

...It seems to me that if a gluten reaction lasted months or a year, one 
would never be well...  I don't think you can get through a year without some accidental poisoning if you ever eat outside your home. 

...I know within a few minutes that I have ingested gluten.  It starts as a 
burpy feeling that progresses to severe, and I mean severe, indigestion.  It 
hurts like giving birth to that alien guy in the movies.  Once I can make 
myself do the most unpleasant thing - force myself to regurgitate, I put a 
hot water bottle on my stomach.  When I press into the area where it hurts, 
I feel actual spasms.  Hopefully, I will get a few hours sleep.  Then the 
next day I feel like I've been hit by a truck, along with loose stools and 
gas.  I would say that it takes me a couple weeks to feel good again.   

...I read in a research paper that it takes 28 weeks for the gluten 
peptides to be completely expelled from the liver.   

...The time varies, but I start feeling stomach rumbling with 30min-1hr, and 
then have the additional symptoms for 2 days to a week. The symptoms vary in 
intensity, and I assume this depends on how much i accidentally ingested. 
However, I don't have symptoms if I don't eat gluten, so I don't believe I 
have GERD or leaky gut or anything else other than celiac. I also don't 
notice a longterm effect (6-8 weeks) after eating gluten, but I suppose this 
could be on a microvilli level and affect nutrient ingestion, etc. 

...My thoughts are that once you are healed, it takes an accumulation of 
gluten in a larger amount to cause a reaction in some celiacs -- perhaps not 
all. 

...The only time I ingest gluten it is accidentally - eating something I 
believe to be safe (but obviously wasn't!) About 48 hours after ingestion I 
have the "classic" (for me) symptoms of diarrhea, including some of the 
uncontrollable sort. After that everything "seems" fine, but I have noticed 
a sensitivity to milk products, especially ice cream (read diarrhea) that I 
don't usually have. This sensitivity seems to last about two weeks. 

...I don't know the extent of damage occasional slip-ups cause villi-wise, 
but it does seem to take some time to get back to "normal". I have been 
gluten-free for 7 years, and I am accustomed to the challenges and the ever- 
present concern about food. But I don't like it! 

...For the info from University of Chicago, read "How strict is strict" on 
their webpage (the right column):   
http://www.celiacdisease.net/CeliacDisease/tabid/74/Default.aspx 

...I asked virtually the same question of Michelle Melin-Rogovin one time.   
I couldn't understand why someone who was strictly following the GF diet 
would have diarrhea attacks with one exposure.  I mean, what actually CAUSES 
the diarrhea - I'm not sure I know the answer to that yet.  If it is fat 
malabsorption or lactose intolerance, then I don't think you could have 
diarrhea at least until the food has passed through the small 
intestine. At any rate, she told me that anyone who has diarrhea attacks 
from a gluten accident while on the GF diet is probably getting 
contamination often, and therefore not really healed. 

...I personally recover from most accidents in about 5 days.  … Actually the 
gastro who told you that celiacs do not react immediately to gluten 
ingestion was also correct.  ... The other symptoms that many of us get 
prior to that are not celiac per se, but gluten allergy symptoms. (An 
immune system reaction to gluten.) Celiac damage is not the same type of 
immune reaction.  …I think from the posts here at this forum that many of us 
who are celiacs also have the allergy component…I react almost immediately-- 
usually within 3 to 5 mins--to gluten ingestion.   

...I'd say it takes me 2 days to feel better after an accidental ingestion. 
The headache and fatigue lasts the longest. 

...[My son] knows within an hour that he's eaten something he shouldn't have. He 
gets a burning sensation in his throat, which is clearly his body's prep for 
the two-hour vomiting session he's about to encounter.  And I know to get 
him to the bathroom IMMEDIATELY!!  After visiting with Mr. Toilet for those 
two hours, he collapses on the bathroom floor and falls asleep. When he 
awakes, he's pretty much all better. 

...Unless I've absolutely bombarded my system with gluten by eating the 
stuff throughout the day or several times that week (this has happened with 
things that I THOUGHT were GF). Then I may feel like crud for weeks. The 
short answer to your question is a gluten reaction lasts far longer than you 
feel it, and 6 to 8 weeks is about what I've heard as the time for full 
healing. You may feel the gas, bloating, diarrhea, etc. for a day to a 
week, but the immune system cascade of reactions - at the cellular level - 
is very lengthy and complex and any damage done to the villi will also need 
time to heal. 

...When I accidentally ingest gluten, I swell up like a balloon, as I used 
to with each meal before I was GF.  Then I have niggling diarrhea, which 
gradually tapers off ...  It's painful at first, then uncomfortable.  It 
lasts about 6 weeks, sometimes 8 weeks.  I've gotten more and morre 
sensitive since going GF.  I expect those antibodies are lying around all 
the time with nothing to do anymore, so they react extra strongly now...   

...I recommend www.glutensensitivity.net  which discusses these very 
issues.     

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