Elimination diet for bloating and cramps

[Lovethesea]

Have been bloating like a severely pregnant person for a few months. Bloods ok, coeliac negative and ultrasound shows gallstones but they don't cause bloating.

I am thinking maybe IBS, or gluten or wheat intolerant, or dairy....?

What's the best way to test things out? I presume if it is one particular type of food then avoiding it for 3 weeks and seeing if the bloating stops is the best test? Then reintroduce to check?

Is it best to do dairy and gluten together first? Or one first alone?

If it is IBS I know there is the FoDMAp diet sheet but I think I need to rule out an intolerance to something specific first?

I am going back to the Gp and will ask for a dietician referral but if that is months of waiting I fancy trying something to get rid of these awful stomach cramps, diarrhea (a bit) and huge bloating. I am run down, tired all the time and my brain won't think straight.

I am ok for iron, ok for thyroid so I really think it is something about my gut that isn't working properly.

I've read today that oestrogen is a big issue for gallstones so I am going to need to stop taking microgynon too.

Any help welcome, I don't want to cause myself more problems doing things the wrong way.

Don't change your diet! Go to your GP and ask for a coeliac test. (If you eliminate gluten before the test, it won't work). First stage of the coeliac test is a blood test - quick and easy.

If the test is negative, then go ahead with your elimination diet.

I had the coeliac test and it was negative. I will ask for a retest as I'm not sure I had enough gluten each day for the month beforehand.

I don't know the best way to do an elimination diet but I have similar symptoms to you and with trial and error have come to the conclusion that I can not tolerate yeast.

Just a thought...

That's another on the list!

you have to eat a reasonable amount (several pieces of bread) of gluten every day for 6 weeks to get a reliable coeliac screen. also you can get a negative screen if you are IGa negative. Your GP can test for this which will affect the test results.

do you have other symptoms, you said cramps, are they like persistent abdominal pain, or pelvic pain, or do you feel nauseous or have difficulty eating?

Sometimes it is an ache all over the abdomen, at times sharp stabbing pains into the lower abdomen usually preceding a poo which relieves the sharp pains that can double me up, but the ache and unwell feelings persist for hours.

My DP suffered with tummy problems for years. He'd be doubled up on the floor sometimes and I nearly rang an ambulance a few times.
Coeliac test was negative. He was back and forth to GP surgery who gave him peppermint tablets and mebeverine. Was diagnosed with IBS. Eventually saw a fab DR who also had tummy problems and was wheat intolerant. DP first excluded dairy but it made no difference. When he excluded wheat, he was 100% better within a couple of days
He wont be able to eat wheat again as even if the butter has a few breadcrumbs in and he accidently eats them it makes his tummy bad again.

I would definitely go back to your GP, if it's IBS they might be able to give you something like buscopan, but I'd want to get anything else potentially serious ruled out as well, I think doctors sometimes use IBS as an excuse when they don't know what's wrong.

Sleepy - Non-Coeliac Gluten Sensitivity has become recognised as a 'thing'. I have one coeliac child, and one who tested negative for coeliac but had the same symptoms. They are both gluten free now, although when the second is older, we will do a gluten challenge and test again. Is it just wheat, or does barley and rye affect your DS as well

Wolf - grr just typed out a message and lost it!! I didn't know it was seen as a health issue now. That's good though and I'm surprised how many people have problems despite coeliac tests coming back negative.
Hope your DC's are ok since they started GF diet. Do you manage ok with meal ideas and recipes?

I'm not sure whether DP can eat rye and barley actually. He's so much better and the range of wheat free alternatives in the shops is great!
Do you know whether there's an element of this being hereditary? Just wondering as I'm BF at the moment and cut out wheat as DD's poor tummy would gurgle like a drain, she would cry a lot, thrash around and be very gassy. This got a lot better when I cut wheat out.

Gluten free - I definately agree GP's use IBS when they don't know what's wrong. My DP was told 'this is probably how your system is'. Sad we have to become a detective sometimes but we're so glad he figured out it was the wheat as he just avoids it now

Sleepy - yes, my DCs are fantastically healthy now, which is great. It took over two years for the coeliac antibodies to disappear from my eldest's blood, and though his health was improving all the time, there has been a definite new 'surge' of energy and growth since we finally achieved a clear blood test.

There is no gluten in breast milk, so an EBF baby won't have coeliac disease triggered until they start eating gluten, even if their mum is eating it when she BFs. But I don't know if there's any other element in wheat that 'gets through'. Interesting what you say about your DD.

Coeliac disease is hereditary - you have to have one of the coeliac 'genes' - but there is an environmental component that 'triggers' it. Not everyone with the gene will develop coeliac disease. There may be additional genetic components that haven't yet been identified.

Non-coeliac gluten sensitivity seems to have some genetic element, but it's not the same as the coeliac DQ2/DQ8 genes, and it's not been identified, though there is research going on in this area now, I think.

Think about it as a scale of tolerance/sensitivity, we all fall on it somewhere, it is absolutely possible to be extremely gluten intolerant without having coeliac disease . Wrt cutting out dairy/wheat separately, it doesn't really matter, doing both st the same time just gets the elimination period over faster, but adds extra inconvenience. What you must make sure if you do both at once is that you reintroduce them separately, a few days apart, so you can identify what causes any reaction

But I would just say that it is important to know whether or not you have coeliac disease. Because if you do, then you need to go to a level of gluten-avoidance well beyond that practised by most people who are "just" gluten intolerant. And having annual blood tests to check for antibodies is an important part of that, because external symptoms (like bloating/tummy troubles) are not correlated with internal damage. So you might think you're doing fine because you don't get episodes of tummy problems, but not be being careful enough to avoid longterm internal damage IYSWIM.

Thanks, hoping the Gp is going to be proactive on this despite the one negative coeliac test. I agree, if I have an auto immune disease I want to know so I can protect my gut against the huge cancer risk for coeliacs still eating gluten.

Hopefully it is something milder and I can then work around it.

I have read that you can be gluten intolerant but not coeliac, so it just triggers bad but responses as dairy does for others.

I am so tired all the time too I hope perhaps that might improve when I figure out what my body is disagreeing with.

Sometimes I feel I have a temperature too, but then I wonder if I am heading into peri menopause but the blood tests said no. Does the pill hide menopause symptoms?

I need to stop microgynon now too because it makes gallstones worse.

Anyone found anything odd between the pill, combined or single, and their gut reactions/ibs etc?

I started bloating horribly a couple of weeks after stopping anti depressants I'd been taking for 2 years, they can help ibs and I've started a new job so maybe it is ibs brought on by stress of job, end of anti-dep and something that my gut dislikes?

Stress can play a big part in IBS too. The best way to try and minimise this is to simply relax and slow down when you eat, its amazing how we all gobble food mindlessly, especially when we feel under pressure. Try just this for a week or two and see if it makes any difference.

Wolf sorry for my late reply and thanks for your reply.
I'm really glad your little ones are ok now but was very when you said the amount of time it took for the coeliac antibodies to disappear.
Yeah not sure about the BF/food issues with my DD. She does seem really sensitive to what I eat bless her. There's some foods I can't wait to eat again when I stop BF!

DC1's small intestine was pretty seriously damaged when he was diagnosed (age 4) and they warned us it might take 2 years to recover - apparently it can take a long time for the body to 'learn' to stop producing the antibodies even in the absence of gluten. He was improving all the time, and it went down to a low level in the first year, but took a long time to clear completely.

But the good news is that age 7, he is super-healthy and energetic. So glad that we found out when we did.

oh my! Scary how it can damage the insides. I'm glad he's much better now

I'm in a very similar position at the moment. I went to the GP a couple of weeks ago as I had similar symptoms (wind, bloating and sometimes stomach cramps and diarrhea). The coeliac test came back negative (though like you I'm not sure I'd have been eating enough wheat for long enough for it to be reliable) and everything else is fine (though my Vit D and B12 levels are low). I'm now keeping a food/symptom diary for a few weeks before going back - I've been pretty much entirely gluten free for the last week and a bit but am still having some symptoms which were much worse after having a relatively high consumption of dairy on Weds/Thurs so now I'm suspecting dairy is the problem. My plan is to continue with the food/symptom diary and try dairy free for a week before eating it again to see if the symptoms recur and then go back to the GP to ask for a dietician referral. Hope you manage to identify what is causing the problems...

Have you thought about juiceplus? I really recommend the plan. My friend has ulcerative colitis and the plan is great for her. I also have a friend who has wheat intolerance and follows the plan and is perfect for her. X