Gluten allergy symptoms may be similar to the symptoms for celiac disease. You must learn what to eat and what has gluten.
Whether you have a gluten allergy or celiac disease, management is the same: avoid all gluten. Still, I highly recommend you get a test for celiac to rule out this disease. If you have a gluten allergy, you don’t need to worry about tiny amounts of gluten in your diet as long as you feel OK.. On the other hand, if you have celiac disease, you must eliminate all gluten, even if you feel OK.
Gluten allergies are relatively common. Some studies indicate that 1 in 167 apparently healthy children (0.6%) and 1 in 111 adults (0.9%) have a gluten allergy. When people with gastrointestinal complaints were studied, 1 in 40 children (2.5%) and 1 in 30 adults (3.3%) were found to have a gluten allergy. This makes a gluten allergy quite common, especially when people with chronically uncomfortable guts are considered.
The only way to verify a gluten allergy is with a proper test, however you can use following symptoms as a guideline. If you have several of these symptoms, an allergy test for gluten is highly recommended. Insist on one even if you have a stubborn and ill-informed doctor!
Symptoms of a Gluten Allergy
- Upper repository tract problems (sustains, glue ear)
- Fatigue
- Chronic fatigue syndrome
- Mouth ulcers
Buy this book! Survive and Thrive Gluten Free
- What is a gluten free diet?
- What is the difference between gluten-free and wheat free?
- Gluten allergy symptoms
- Celiac disease symptoms (affects much more than your gut!)
- Celiac disease complications
- How to avoid gluten
- What to eat instead
Click to Learn more » - Anaemia
- Iron-deficiency anaemia
- Osteoporosis
- Weight loss
- Short stature in children
- Diarrhoea
- Constipation
- Abdominal bloating
- Crohn’s disease
- Diverticulitis
- Depression
- Attention and behavioral problems (in children and adults)
- Autism
- Skin problems
- Keratosis pilaris
- Asthma
- Irritability
- Wheat-Dependent Exercise-Induced Anaphylaxis
Please note several things when considering this list:
- Individual symptoms can vary tremendously. Someone with a gluten allergy will probably not have all of these symptoms, and may have other symptoms not listed here.
- Although some symptoms seem contradictory, it is possible to alternate between one symptom and another, for example between diarrhoea and constipation.
- Just because someone has one, some or all of these symptoms, does not mean to say they definitely have a gluten allergy. Other causes are possible.
Unless you have celiac, you can often decide whether to include gluten in your diet based on how you feel when you eat gluten. If eliminating gluten from your diet makes you feel better, and you find it is worth the effort, then that is enough reason to stop eating wheat, barley and rye.
For parents, it is a matter of observing your children’s behavior as well as asking them how they feel.
Doctors often think they know better. If you feel better when you avoid gluten, follow what your body tells you.
Avoiding gluten can be the key to more energy and clear thinking for many people.
There are tests to see if you have celiac disease or a type-I food sensitivity (classic allergy).
These are not the only root cause for a gluten sensitivity however. Many, if not most people who are effected by gluten will get negative test results.
This is why I strongly recommend an elimination diet, even if laboratory tests come up negative.
Gluten and Fatigue
One of my biggest complaints when I am suffering from my allergies is fatigue. Everything and anything seems like too much effort.
There are many reasons why you might feel fatigue. If you’ve looked into other causes and not come up with anything, I suggest you try cutting out wheat, rye, and barley, in other words gluten, from your diet for eight weeks and see if you get some, most or all of your energy back.
Internal Links
- Gluten-Free Diet Story by Ashley
- Gluten Linked to Seizures and Epilepsy
- Celiac vs. Gluten
- Gluten Allergy Description, Severe Case
- Top 20 Food Allergies with Delayed Reactions
- Self-Testing for Food Allergies
- Allergy Symptoms
External Links
Gluten Allergies – What is Your Experience?
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I have recently been given the E95 basic food panel test where Wheat and Gluten were off the charts. So I am giving them up. I am also getting prolotherapy for a piriformis/SI joint injury suffered over 18 months ago. The weird thing is that the intensity of the discomfort comes and goes. This may be posture, but there is no consistency. Has there been any research linking wheat allergies to exacerbating a tendon/ligament/muscle injury and thereby inhibiting recovery?
when my daughter eats gluten products she gets pain in her feet, she can’t walk and says it feels like her feet are bubbling from the inside. Has anyone else experienced this effect or heard of anything like this.
Very good website you have here but I was curious about if you knew of any user discussion forums that cover
the same topics discussed in this article? I’d really like to be a part of community where I can get feedback from other experienced people that share the same interest. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Thanks!
My daughter is newly diagnosed with Crohns disease. She is 17.
Her whole life she had severe moods swings which made it difficult to attend school and on top of the there were always numerous ear infections, asthma, tonsilitis, abscesses…abdominal pain, so she had a lot of really bad days. She finally became very ill a year ago with severe bleeding from the bowel and diahrea.
She is now on Remicaide for the Crohns but we have cut dairy and gluten from her diet as well.
Afer being gluten and dairy free-she has not used her puffers and she no longer suffers from mood swings and is very even tempered, she is like the kid I used to see only on the “good days”. Her Crohns still gives her issues. But mentally she is normal. My nephew also had similar mood swings. Medication was tried to improve his mental condition. These failed miserably. He actually got worse and at age 8 was no longer able to attend school. As a last ditch effort he was taken off dairy and gluten. The Phychologists do not believe in this gluten free diet- but it worked. He is back at regular school for the first time in 3 years. While he is still not 100% his good days far out number his bad days and he is a different person.His rages have stopped and he is not on medication.
That’s great news for both your daughter and your nephew, thanks for sharing!
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