Question:
Can gluten intolerance and lactose intolerance be linked together?
Soleil C
2013-05-08 22:14:24 UTC
i have been lactose intolerant for 4-5 years, and its not a big deal anymore but ive been geeting ALOT of gluten intolerance sympomtoms very severly and i told my doctor and he said i might have gluten intolerance or celiac disease whatever, so we did a blood test but i havent gotten the results yet till next week

im obseesed with wheat though like i love whole wheat bread and cereals etc and i went gluten free for 3 days and i felt better
THE QUESTION IS: do you think one could trigger the other or be somehow linked?

my symptoms when i eat gluten:
headaches/migraines
severe anxiety
irritable bowel movements
stomach aches at time
EXCESSIVE fatigue
mood swings
severe back pains at times
Six answers:
Lil
2013-05-08 22:23:59 UTC
Blood tests are HIGHLY inaccurate for checking for allergens. The proteins and such they need to see if you are reacting to certain foods are not found in the blood. If you want a very accurate allergy test, I suggest this:



https://www.enterolab.com/default.aspx



I got my allergy test done from here and they are superb. It is worth it, believe me, it helped my allergies a lot. And plus they don't have to take blood (it's stool, but it isn't inconvenient) . Just read how it works. :3 They have many different things you can choose to be tested for. I got my results and I thought I would for sure have had a milk allergy, (my mom had it) but in fact milk was not it at ALL. It was just a bunch of different grains and certain other things as well. In the test the look for what causes the most immunologic response, and they determine your allergies this way. Very accurate.



I hope this will help, and I hope you find the way to feel your best. (I'd say good luck, but I do not believe in luck) XD



ps: If you have any questions regarding the test, just add details. I will check in to answer.
Tiffany
2016-05-13 01:04:34 UTC
1
2016-03-10 03:14:57 UTC
They can absolutely be linked. Because one food intolerance affects the intestines and your absorption of food, it can often cause other intolerances to difficult-to-digest foods. That's why gluten sensitivity is so comorbid with soy, casein, dairy, yeast, MSG, egg and other sensitivities. The damage to your digestive system causes further problems. Many people with a food intolerance lose or can't gain weight, because your body is not absorbing nutrients. Even if you were gaining weight, you may also not be getting essential nutrients that are normally absorbed in the small intestine. One option to see if it is gluten is to go on an elimination diet. That's where you switch entirely to bland, hypoallergenic foods for a few weeks until your symptoms resolve. Then you add in potential allergens one at a time to see what you react to. This should be done very carefully with the guidance and assistance of a dietitian and/or holistic doctor (especially since the deprivation can be triggering for your ED). The elimination diet is often much more telling than blood work. You can be negative on all blood tests and still have a severe food sensitivity.
2013-05-10 06:52:00 UTC
Yes, gluten and lactose intolerance often go together. One can give the mentioned symptoms years after the other. You'll have to skip gluten from your diet. But there is gluten free wheat out there. And a lot of other options.

It is very important to skip the gluten as it will cause a lot of health issues in the long run. Skipping it will make you a healthy person again. But stick to the diet!
?
2013-05-09 11:38:53 UTC
Yes, actually, there's a known connection between lactose intolerance and celiac disease.



With celiac disease, the immune system attacks the intestinal villi when gluten is ingested and damages them. Guess where lactase to digest lactose is made? The intestinal villi.



So when the villi are damaged, it affects the body's ability to make lactase, too. With some celiacs, when you have healed, you may regain the ability to have dairy again. Many of us never get it back, though.



However, to be prepared, it takes 6-24 MONTHS to heal from celiac disease damage, and that's if you never cheat and are very good on your diet AND are avoiding gluten cross-contamination. You may want to check out places like the forums at celiac.com to find out more about avoiding cross-contamination.



So, your symptoms - yeah, that's pretty much all stuff I've heard of celiacs complaining about before. It's definitely a possibility.



That said, some stuff you should know:

1. If your test is NEGATIVE, that means nothing in terms of gluten intolerance (although some doctors don't know this). There is NO test for gluten intolerance except for the elimination diet, so if the test is negative, that just means there's not celiac disease. The fact that you are feeling better on the diet is a good sign that there is at LEAST gluten intolerance.



2. If your test is positive, here's something that the majority of celiacs I know were never told by their doctors and had to find out on their own: because of the significantly higher likelihood that relatives of a celiac disease ALSO have this disease, and because this disease can be active for years with few to no outward symptoms, experts recommend that ALL family members of a newly diagnosed celiac get tested for this as well. And that they should get retested every 2-5 years for the rest of their lives, if it's negative.



3. If your test is positive and your doctor is not scheduling you for a lot of other tests, once again, hit the forums for celiacs. Celiacs have been shown to have pretty terrible after-diagnosis care, one of the worst for those with auto-immune diseases. But we still need it. We can be severely deficient in vitamins, but doctors often only check one or two- however the damage can be in different areas of the intestines, and some nutrients are absorbed only in certain areas, so you can have some vitamin levels that are fine, and some that are deficient.



We can have organ damage due to years of low nutrients.



We need to have our vitamin levels checked 6-12 months after we go gluten free, to ensure that we are healing right. And then have another celiac disease to ensure we are healing right (if it's negative, that means we've healed, as the test looks for damage FROM gluten, not something that is actually the disease itself). Over 50% of celiacs don't heal at first on their gluten free diet.



Recent studies suggest that this may be because a large number of them are getting gluten cross-contamination and aren't aware of it (it can give lower, barely there symptoms). Often, beginning celiacs simply avoid gluten ingredients and don't know that they need to avoid cross-contamination from factories and in their own kitchen, too.



On top of that, a small percentage of THOSE folks don't heal even when they eliminate all the sources of cross-contamination they know of. Turns out, ALL gluten free food has a level of allowed gluten contamination - this is an industry, with factories, so the ability to get completely gluten free is nearly impossible for them to achieve. This low level of gluten is tolerable for most celiacs, but a few DO react to it and require even MORE gluten free diets, with just fruits, veggies, whole meats, and so on (a recent article on this, actually:

http://celiacdisease.about.com/b/2013/03/04/study-trace-gluten-responsible-for-ongoing-celiac-symptoms.htm )



If you look at the studies, you'll notice that this last category is a LOW number of celiacs out of the total, something like 17 patients out of over 1,000. I only mention it because as you heal - over a few months, if you ever notice yourself NOT getting better, or hitting a wall, you may want to examine your diet, check for other intolerances (another common issue for celiacs who aren't feeling better), and you may have to do a lot of the legwork yourself and get any tests and help from your doctor second.



Wishing you good luck, truly. If you are like me, and have this...I cannot even DESCRIBE the difference it makes. You'll be amazed at how good you feel within a couple months. :-)
2014-08-05 10:46:15 UTC
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This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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