Poll: Why are you or is someone in your family on a Gluten Free diet?
This poll is still open, but here are the results as of May 10, 2010.
Click on “view results” at the bottom any time after you have voted to see the current numbers.
Comments
24 Responses to “Poll: Why are you or is someone in your family on a Gluten Free diet?”Trackbacks
Check out what others are saying about this post...-
[...] You can still take the original poll here. [...]
Speak Your Mind
Tell us what you're thinking...and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!
I found out that a have Fibromyligia after almost 2 years of pain and doctors and lots and lots of tests. I was never tested for Celics but someone suggested that I try Gluten Free and I finally decided it was well worth the try. Low and behold it helped! It has changed my life!
I was diagnosed in 2002. I have been on a gluten/wheat free diet, I feel 100% better. For those who live in CT, there is a great little store Thyme & Season on Whitney Avenue, Hamden, CT. You can find just about everything there, the people are always willing to help you. Check it out!!
We are on a gluten free trial with my 13 year old asthmatic. Even with five years of immunotherapy, she is still suffering quite a bit of allergic rhino sinusitis. It sounds terrible to “wish” your child has a gluten allergy, but it would answer a lot of question and perhaps avoidance would improve her quality of life.
My son was tested for celiac, and had an endoscopy. He had previously tested + for wheat allergy. The celiac things came back negative.
He tested negative for the wheat allergy 9 months later, 2 months after his endoscopy.
However, he STILL has issues when he eats wheat… at almost 3, we are keeping him on the GF diet at the advice of his GI DR.
Nobody can completely digest the proteins in gluten. The amino acids that remain just affect everyone differently and some people are able to tolerate this more than others. It doesn’t hurt anyone to eliminate or reduce the amount of gluten that they ingest.
I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in November 2006, and my son was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in December 2006. He is 10, and has standard gastro issues related to the disease. I had few gastro issues, but did have brain damage to the right parietal and occipital lobes of my brain diagnosed at the Mayo in May 2007. I laugh and say – don’t ask me to do math or have much of a short-term memory. As long as I stay on a GF diet, my damage won’t get worse. That’s why I stay on it. My son stays on it because I make it easy for him to stay on it (ie, make it fun and exciting), and because he doesn’t want his belly to hurt like it did.
I am gluten intolerant, but do not have Celiac (I can eat oats). I was not “self diagnosed,” so I had to check “Allergy” rather than “Gluten Intolerance.”
I probably have been gluten intolerant my entire life, but I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 30. I was sick all the time, on two medications, and just miserable. Turns out my Aunt is allergic to wheat gluten as well; she found out a few months before I did (and 10 year older than I was). I think my two sisters have gluten allergy, but they don’t want to stop eating pizza!!! LOL I keep trying to tell them there are great GF pizzas out there, but they won’t listen. ;D
I was a vegan for 17 years and baked all my own bread, whole wheat mostly, because I had done research and found out that it was healthy. I had stomach pains regularly, but didn’t know why. I started getting eczema which spread all over my body. When my skin began to bleed from scratching so much I did more research, talked to people at the natural food store for ideas but nothing worked for more than a short time.
A friend gave me the book “Eat Right for Your Blood Type” and I was Type 0. What a shock to find out that at the top of their list of foods to avoid was wheat and other flour and grain products. I said, No! This can’t be! These grains are supposed to be good for me. I decided to try not eating these products for one week. Lo and behold, by the end of the week, all of my eczema was gone.
After much trial and error, for me the bottom line is I feel fine if I eat a very low carb diet which means no grains or flour products and definitely no sugar. It’s been delightful to not be attacked with stomach pains and eczema.
I have lupus and Sjogren’s disease, so the likelihood of also having celiac disease was high. I had suffered from migraines since childhood and when I went to a strict vegan diet (think plenty of Boca burgers, primarily made of gluten) I got very sick. I had been diagnosed with IBS at that point, and probably gastritis to go with it. I also had gait ataxia and something that looked like neuropathy in my hands and feet. I went off gluten in July 2007. I went into a lupus flare 2 weeks later, but it was not as bad as I had been having and I was feeling pretty good for a flare. After 3 months on the celiac diet, I misbehaved, I just had to have that pasta! I was down with a migraine and IBS-type symptoms in a matter of a couple of hours. Now, all this time later, I don’t misbehave anymore, I have learned. No gluten, no migraine…and no IBStype problems, no gait ataxia, no neuropathy, fewer lupus-related skin rashes AND a 50 lb weight loss although I am on daily steroids. My BMI is normal for the first time in 30 years and I feel 100% better. Not eating gluten is becoming less of a challenge all the time with all the wonderful new products that are coming out. I am slim, happier and healthier GLUTEN FREE.
My son is on a gluten free diet because he has a severe gluten intolerance, he was never officially diagnosed with celiac disease, but he is growing normally on a gluten free diet and he feels better.
I suffered from migraine and had bouts of iron deficiency anemia since age 12 and coped with it by taking way too much Excedrin and Advil until they stopped working. Still had the iron deficiency after a hysterectomy and was tentatively diagnosed with IBS. After the headaches became almost daily and I had horrible bloating and other gastrointestinal troubles I went to a naturopath and discovered I was allergic to gluten and gliaden. I went gluten free without further tests and many of my symptoms went away in 3 days. Others took longer. Now wish I had held off until I had all the tests done, but still glad to be GF. I have only had 1 classic migraine (with aura) in the last two years and my hemoglobin is now normal after 3 years GF.
I am 3 weeks GF , trying to find some relief for my severe Rheumatoid Arthritis. I would love to hear from anyone who has had good results with their RA. Thanks PS: Love this website!!
Went on a GF diet because the GI dr. thinks my son may have Celiac disease. So I decided to test it out first to get an idea on how to feed my son. He is in the process of being tested. I have decided to stay on the diet since I feel so great w/o it, regardless of my sons results.
Thank you for this survey. I have been diagnosed with Celiac’s Disease and have wondered how many people have had an actual diagnoses. I am the only one in my family of seven kids that has been diagnosed with Celiac’s. I am so happy that I finally have this diagnoses because life (even though a little more expensive to eat), is so much better. I was diagnosed on Good Friday in 2007, I was 55 years old, had so many symptoms over the years and it wasn’t until I started losing so much weight that the doctors decided to take me seriously!! I was not absorbing any nutriants in my system.
Since going on the gluten free diet, I have gained 40 pounds have high blood pressure and my cholesterol is not good at all. But I feel better than I have for years!! Working to get this all under control!! Thanks again for the survey!!
My 6 year old is celiac.
A few years ago I was having horrible cramping, bloating & all over body aches. I saw a few doctors was told I had IBS, and given pills to help with the cramping (those pills worked for about the first 24 hours) I was also told I was probably depressed – yeah, cuz I was in so much pain!
I suspected a parasite, did a parasite cleanse following Dr. Hulda Clark, and felt amazingly better for a short time, but then symptoms returned. I finally figured out I should give up gluten, and I started to feel absolutely amazing. I tested negative for celiac. Over the last couple of years I was careful, but sometimes a little laxed about gluten products every once in a while, like potlucks and a maybe a good beer. I am now at a point where I cannot cheat without horrible reactions. Yuck! Also have gone dairy free, and now eat very little sugar.
I’ve been a symptomatic Celiac (self-diagnosed and confirmed by tests) since Feb of 2002, after having a brain tumor removed. Of course, it is genetic, and it really kicked in bad after the trauma of the surgery. I’ve been on a GF diet since March of 2002 and have no desire to cheat, because the “consequences” far outweigh the “treat.” Besides, there are a number of good GF products out there now (pastas & cake mixes, for example…). I have had both of my children tested – one has the DQ2 heterodimer and my youngest unfortunately has both DQ2 and DQ8, meaning she has a very good chance of being symptomatic someday. I have 2 bits of advice: One, if you are a Celiac / gluten intolerant and a parent, you really should have your kids genetically tested (I found the Prometheus Plus an excellent test). The IgA blood test only finds the antibodies, meaning you are active. I had to wrestle with my Health Ins company for a bit, but was able to convince them it was worth it (another argument for healthcare reform). Two, you should make learning about Celiac disease and the GF diet a “hobby” – know as much as you can so you can protect yourself. Thanks…
my 18mth old son has been diagnosed with an intolerance to wheat and barley. (too young to be diagnosed as an actual allergy) I’ve found barley to be much harder to avoid that wheat!
Does anyone feel like they were able to eat gluten as a child and later on found out they are sensitive to gluten? Or was it that we have always had it and just ignored it? ‘coz I ate bread all this time when I was a child and teen and just in my late 20s i found out i am sensitive to it
Many years ago I had an allergy test that was stopped early due to extreme reactions to the allergens. I don’t know if wheat was on there. Then about 7 years ago I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia after several years of suffering with IBS, lots of pain, fog, etc. I was on anti-spasmodics just to eat but it was always blamed on IBS even after a colonoscopy showed some issues. As time went on the medicines stopped working and I began to feel like there was nothing that I could eat without feeling bad. My doctor and I talked about gluten and he recommended that I try a gluten-free diet. He didn’t have a lot of faith in the tests. That was Jan 2009. After continuing to feel terrible and losing my grandmother I decided to give it a shot in Feb 09. And I have never looked back! I no longer have to take medicine to eat, spend half my day sprinting to the restroom in a hurry, or have massive pain that leaves me in the fetal position. While I’ve never had the “official” diagnosis, no one could ever convince me to go back to gluten. I’ll take the inconvenience of making most everything from scratch, having to watch when I go out to eat & paying a little food in exchange for all of the pain and suffering.
Note about weight gain on GF diets. (not related to undernourished or failure to thrive) Most likely reason a person would gain weight (and incur overweight related chronic diseases) on a GF diet is consuming more calories than are used up. Its likely that the new-found GF foods (esp if they are sweets) are so welcomed that people go overboard. You still need to plan a daily calorie intake appropriate for yourself.
I’ve suffered with fibromyalgia pain for 30 years and with each year the pain is worse. It took 20 years to get a diagnosis for that and for Hashimotos (hypothyroid). 30 years ago doctors told me I had IBS. 5 years ago, they told me I had acid reflux disease. I never suspected a gluten connection though, until I decided to try the Medi-Weightloss Clinic diet to help lower my cholesterol (can’t tolerate the drugs) and to finally lose weight (Weight Watchers just wasn’t working for me no matter how well I stuck to the diet). The first thing they did was take away all grains. I started to feel better right away and weight has been dropping off in record time! I quit taking the Zantac as I didn’t seem to need it anymore. Then as I started to make the gluten connection, I got accidentally glutened and had a bad IBS and fibro flare….been gluten free since! All fibro symptoms gone! Energy up! Digestion great! Even my seasonal allergies and thyroid seems like non issues now. I feel like I have my life back! Why did no one tell me about this 30 years ago?
After 4 years of many behavioral issues with my 6yr old daughter I finally had her tested for food sensivities. Lab results Wheat/Gluten postive! Changed her diet and wow a whole new child. Never thought I would be so happy to find out an answer, even if it means going GF!