6 mo. ago • 83%

Imagine that…

Most patients predicted that their worst symptoms when exposed to gluten would be classic lower digestive problems like diarrhea, bloating and cramps. However, none of these occurred during the acute immune responses observed by Anderson’s team. Instead, patients experienced nausea and vomiting. Anderson describes them as, “acute food poisoning symptoms that are early in onset,” and relatively severe.

“For all the years that we’ve known about celiac disease, persons have told us that they had these acute reactions, but many experts in the field dismissed them as being just in the person’s mind,” says Anderson. “Here we are now, a hundred years after celiac disease was discovered, suddenly discovering, yes, the patients were right.”

Nausea and Vomiting Mark Gluten Exposure in Celiac Disease 🙄

(Emphasis mine)

8 comments

I mean... How could they not be possible symptoms of a disease that affects the entire GI tract? Maybe they're not as common, but it would make sense that anything of that nature could cause nausea and vomiting

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- I, for one, was diagnosed several years ago with Celiac’s. I had the upper endoscopy and everything to prove it. It wasn’t until about a month ago that I started getting the food poisoning-like vomiting and excruciating abdominal pain when accidentally having gluten. Before then, it was only ever diarrhea as the worst outcome.
  
  Nobody warned me it could get this bad. So I was careless with my approach to being gluten free. But now that I know how severe it really is, I will definitely be more attentive going forward.
  
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  That really sucks. I'm sorry to hear that. I have some minor issues with types of foods that I love, but they're not nearly that serious. I can't imagine having this reaction to gluten.
  
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  Obviously it is terrible for your esophagus, but does the vomiting protect your gut, or you get those symptoms too?
  
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  I feel ya. I was diagnosed with IBD (ulcerative colitis) 3 years ago and never really had any issues. This year I've been in hospital twice and have learnt that it can cause lactose intolerance to develop and that there's overlap with IBS so there are foods which can give me explosive diarrhea. 3 years I wasn't overly cautious and now I'll be making sure I check ingredient lists and understand them and actually learn what foods are triggers. Likewise I wasn't told about lactose intolerance or the IBS overlap.
  
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Doctors seem way to quick to assume that patients are imagining their symptoms. I fortunately haven't had that happen to me yet, but my mom has some stories.

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I was diagnosed with Celiac disease about 15 years ago - had the endoscopy and then a couple of years later, had the blood marker test to verify. My reactions to eating gluten have not been consistent, and I don't know what to make of it. More often than not, I get the diarrhea and bloating. Sometimes I get the nausea, but only once have I thrown up from eating gluten. Sometimes I get nothing at all (not as common, but it happens).

Then there was a period of about 1.5 years where I'd get random swelling in my face (usually in my eyes and lips), and hives. My sinus cavities would often get very swollen and irritated, too. But that suddenly stopped, and is no longer a symptom.

Been to a few different gastroenterologists over the years, and went to an allergy doctor when I was having all the facial swellings. Nobody was able to explain why I have such inconsistent reactions, but they are confident I have Celiac disease.

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