Hmmm. Anyone know anyhing about wheat intolerance?

[ProcrastinationAteMyMorning]

I fear I may have some sort of wheat intolerance, I've always been bloaty and burpy, swinging between unexplained diarrhea and inexplicable constipation. Just always ignored it TBH, more of an annoyance than a problem. But, over the last 6 months or the bloating has become increasingly more pronounced and uncomfortable and I look pregnant half the time .

Anyway, yesterday I noticed that my belly started to blow up like a balloon reasonably quickly after I'd had a sandwich. I'd been chatting to one of DDs friends mums about her DDs wheat intolerance earlier in the day, so I began to wonder if there may be a connection between my simptoms and wheat too. I usually bloat more and more as the day goes on.

So, today I've not had any wheat and lo and behold my belly is actually getting less swollen as the day goes on. But, yeah, I have other unexplained symptoms too: random extreme itching, dry eyes, coughing, spontaneous hives, endless depression, tiredness, migraine. Um, loads of stuff actually, seems I'm a bit of a mess now I start to think of it. Can any of these be related?

Anyway, does it sound like it'd be worth eliminating wheat for a while to see what happens? It's not something I fancy doing at all, most of my favourite foods are wheat based and having suffered from eating disorders in the past I'm not too keen on doing anything radical to my diet for fear of setting myself off again...

Any advice or wise words (like, 'don't be so damn stupid woman') would be greatly appreciated.

I read similar theories in (god help me) the Daily Mail not that long ago. I think it also blamed the yeast used for modern bread too IIRC.

Part of the CBP bread process is the use of a wide range of 'promoter' chemicals - none of which are listed on the packet - which make the dough rise very fast in the factory. They are all perfectly legal additives but it is possible in my view that they also interfere with gut bacteria or promote yeats growth in the body and combined with the gluten the effect over a long period of exposure is to damage gut function. Just my theory.

Real bread contains only water, flour, yeast, salt and sometimes some oil/fat and goes dry and stale after a few days. Modern bread as in your white sliced from a supermarket stays soft and lasts 2 weeks. That tells me something is not right.

Isn't it listed as "flour improvers" or something equally vague?

(you really can't beat cheap sliced white for a bacon butty though - lots of crispy bacon, thin soft white bread... mmmm :o)

The unlisted ingredients are quite legally not listed because the regulations do not define them as ingredients but as components of the rising and baking process.

There is a book written by the founder of the Real Bread capmpaign that lists all of these additional components - it is a very long list and all are perfectly legal and aimed at fast rising and long shelf life.

Can I join in?

Had "IBS" for years with recurrent stomach ulcers.

New GP thought in March it was coeliac, so arranged blood test and abdo scan. Told me to avoid wheat and gluten immediately...and the blood test cam back negative.

Have since learnt the advice to avoid wheat/gluten was a mistake

New blood test to be arranged this week - how long should I eat wheat for beforehand? GP admitted error and said one or two days was enough....????

I also think I have candida :(

Am 37 and feel so ill. Anyone advice me? I'm not sure I have the strength to fight with the GP anymore.

I thought two weeks was normally recommended, Pinot - it's one of the reasons I didn't push for ds to be tested when he was little and violently intolerant of oats. It would have been an act of cruelty to have put him back on a gluten diet for 2 weeks for a test.

Given this GP clearly doesn't know anything about food intolerance testing, I would at least be seeking a second opinion in the surgery, if not asking for a referral.

If you were feeling substantially better off the wheat and gluten, I don't think you should go back on it until you've had some solid and trustworthy advice to guide you.

Thanks trib - I am so loathe to get back on the wheat wagon tbh :( Exhausting fighting the inadequate advice available.

I honestly think I would wait until you're feeling stronger. Others will know better than I, but I don't think a diagnosis of coeliac's would make that much difference to you in the short term, except you'd be able to get some gluten-free stuff on prescription. However, it is a disease that increases chances of some other problems so a diagnosis may be worth gaining for that reason, but I would talk it over with a trusted healthcare professional first.

I think it could be potentially damaging to get too obsessed because of your history of eating disorders. I think it would be wise to see your gp given your history of eating disorders and say that you are open to the idea it might be a load of rubbish, but you'd like to give it a try under proper supervision, they may be able to make a dietititian referral, and may test so for coeliac to rule it out. If just cutting out bread and just reducing your wheat intake is helping your symptoms sufficiently there is no harm in carrying on just doing that, as long as you replace it with other things and din't cut out major food groups. I think being too prescriptive or regimented may be damaging. I know plenty if people who avoid eating too much bread, without cutting out wheat or gluten completely. It is quite a dense food to digest for some people.

Oh and it's worth seeing your gp anyway as persistent bloating can be a red flag symptom for other things, but only rarely though. Given how you respond to wheat it is likely just to be a digestive thing.

Sorry just read back and realised you are seeing gp!

pinot No advice but lots of sympathy {hugs}

Am going wheat free and lacto free this week...have had enough

pinot i did a gluten challenge before blood tests and was told 6 weeks! At least two portions of wheat a day. I has a field day, mm cream cakes, pizza, garlic bread. Gained a stone and was massively bloated but I knew it was my last hurrah! So I think a couple of days is insufficient.

Thanks all. I think I'll book another (yet another!) appointment with a different GP at the surgery.

Really not OK is it? To have GPs so ill-informed about something so bloody debilitating. It's not just a sore tummy, it's pain, discomfort, bloat, self confidence issues, nerves about being near a toilet ( ) and worries about what you can eat/what you can't.

I feel like I'm being left to diagnose myself really. Whilst feeling lethargic, nauseous and in pain.

Sorry for moaning. Not my normal style :)

My experience is that many GPs and consultants are utterly dreadful in taking this condition seriously or even knowing about it. It took me 20 years to get a proper diagnosis.

In the whole of that time not one mentioned the word 'gluten'. If you are not obviouly emaciated they just seem to think you cannot possibly have a problem with gluten.

My current consultant is an absolute revalation.

Yes, I wrote something similar earlier and then decided I was being too harsh on diabetics :) (From experience, I think clinicians think chronic conditions fall into neat, testable categories like diabetes - I'm not disputing the fact it's a serious illness but it helps to skew perception among clinicians that chronic conditions should fall into specialty-specific boxes (with appropriate funding mechanisms) and everything else is a bit too messy and complicated for something that's not life-threatening.

i felt mean about having a pop at the diabetics during National Diabetes Week :) But I've got over that now. There's also decidedly a perception that food intolerances are also faddy nonsense that never happened during the War and therefore everyone just needs to buck up, get some Blitz spirit and soldier on without bothering the health service. Have a bloody potato and shut the fuck up. I don't think this is very helpful (rather enormous understatement at a personal level). I don't think it helps people because it creates a space for quacks to find people who are sick to the back teeth of being told there's nothing wrong with them. And I don't think, long term, it helps the health of the population to be utterly mystified as to the cause of some symptoms which are profoundly debilitating. Once we're all old and draining the health service of the thruppence ha'penny it will have left by then, these factors could have major implications for successful treatment of more serious conditions in our demographic.

Pinot, if your symptoms have improved and you don't want to go back to eating wheat prior to blood testing, could you ask your GP to arrange a referral to a gastro anyway. They may want to do a biopsy, but if you have been ill for a long time, it is likely that it will still show damage to the gut, as it can take up to a year to fully recover, if it fully recovers at all with long term gluten damage. Re the blood test....lots of useful information HERE

I would hate to go back to eating a full wheat diet, it would be very unpleasant indeed but they may insist on a gluten challenge to gain a definaite diagnosis.

You could look at coealiac UK's website. They have a helpline and lots of information regarding testing etc. It's also possible that your gastro/GP could put "treated as coeliac" on your case notes, which would enable you to get GF stuff on prescription but without a definate diagnosis.

Thanks Daisy (it's me with a french accent)

It might be wheat intolerance. Avoiding wheat or wheat product is the best way to get rid of your symptoms if actually you are allergic to wheat. But knowing which products contain wheat is really difficult. You might be surprised that even beer, ketchup and soy sauce contain wheat. So, in my opinion, it would be better that you get yourself tested first to know whether or not you are allergic to wheat. An immunologist is the best person to help you out. For the time being, avoid taking any packed food without reading the label for ingredients.