is this a gluten reaction?

[Martha]

Before I went gluten-free 5 weeks ago, I was eating a regular diet, including bread, and not having any D. I attributed this to eating coconut. I was off Entocort, and the D had started again 3 weeks after stopping Entocort, but stopped after I started eating coconut.

I have been really careful with the gluten these past weeks. Last Monday, I ate out at Genghis Grill, but it's one of the places where you pick your own meat, veggies, and sauces. I may have gotten some soy sauce in the marinated meat, but nothing else. On Tuesday, I had gluten-free pizza, with only mushrooms and cheese for topping. My stomach felt mildly rumbly, but no D.

Then Thursday, I went to a church service that ended with communion, around noon. I knew there would be communion, but it didn't strike me until the communion part actually started that there is bread involved. I didn't have a plan in my mind how to deal with this, and I didn't want to skip part of the communion service, so I went ahead and ate the bread. It was a really small piece, of course.

Friday I woke up with a bad headache that didn't go away with Tylenol until I took a double dose, and I had D. It was just the one day that I had D.

Is it possible that such a tiny amount of gluten could affect me so much, when 5 weeks earlier eating bread was not causing D? Wouldn't I still have enough gluten antibodies still in my system, that they wouldn't notice a little more?

I haven't done the Enterolab tests, so I'm still just experimenting on identifying triggers with diet. I'm still eating everything but gluten, thinking I'd give just the gluten-free diet several months before I make any other changes.

[Joefnh]

Hi Martha it certainly may be but that does seem like a small dose. With that said once we go gluten free our systems are more sensitive when gluten is re-introduced, so it may have been

Have you ever been tested for celiac disease?

--Joe

[Martha]

No, I've never been tested for celiac disease. I've never had any testing done, except the colonoscopy with biopsy that diagnosed MC.

[tex]

Martha,

Actually, as gluten goes, those wafers are a very significant dose. Many of us react to even a tiny crumb of bread, and a communion wafer is roughly fifty to a hundred times larger than that. As Joe mentioned, if we are gluten-sensitive, and we adopt the GF diet, then the antibody production begins to diminish, but the immune system is still on high alert for gluten, so it becomes very responsive to a gluten challenge, and the rapid increase in antibody production causes a much more noticeable reaction than would be the case if we were in a steady-state condition, and eating gluten every day.

It's almost as if the immune system gets bored, dealing with gluten every day, so that one more day with gluten, is "just another day in hell". Once gluten is withdrawn from the diet, though, and the immune system is hoping that it will never see such a threat again, a trace of gluten is enough for the immune system to sound the "man your battle stations alarm", and it goes all out, to vanquish the threat.

Your reaction sounds like a classic gluten reaction.

Tex

[wonderwoman]

Our church provides 4 GF wafers on each tray along with the bread cubes for those who are gluten intolerant. You might suggest that to your church.

[MaggieRedwings]

A wafer or small piece of bread like used for communion would definitely tip my scales for a GF reaction. Think you should just contact the church to see if they can supply GF wafters or ask if you can take them for their "stock."

Maggie

[Ginny]

Recently because of my condition, our parish has asked me to sample different wafers so they can be used at Mass. We are becoming a growing trend. So my point is that there are organizations that make GF wafers. I have at least 3 different types of wafers in my freezer and could provide you with some contact information. Just let me know, Ginny

[Martha]

I plan to talk to my pastor about options of gluten-free wafers. I'm a Baptist, so having gluten in the wafers shouldn't be as much of an issue as it is in the Catholic church.

Ginny, I'd be happy to have the contact information of where to get gluten-free wafers. It will be nice to come to the pastor with some solutions to my problem and not just dump it in his lap.