Question by XoXoX: How do people with celiac disease feel when they start a gluten free diet?
What I mean is how quickly do symptoms improve? What are the changes they experience?
Best answer:
Answer by Anama
The gut pain should calm rather quickly, usually weeks. It took me almost a year to feel better..but then you have to consider accidental ingestion of gluten from time to time that throws you back/ off track…Every ingestion of gluten takes a few days to react and get over your initial symptoms and then around 2 weeks to heal after that. The diet is tricky and it takes a while to learn, so assume it is going to be a few steps up, and then a few back for a while.
The safest way to start the diet is to eat whole foods and then slowly add in/try new things. Avoid lactose in the beginning as well (no villi tips= decreased lactase production).
Good luck, Happy Healing! and welcome to the club!
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It took me a while to feel better but that is not usually the case. It will be gradual but you will notice a definite change soon! Sorry about your diagnosis and good luck! If you ever need any recipes or tips, let me know!
It may depend on your age and the amount of damage to your small-intestine villi.
A young, otherwise healthy person with minimal damage will start feeling better within days, and may be pain-free within weeks. And the intestinal villi should be healed within a few months.
An older person (like myself), who probably had “silent” celiac disease for 20 years, will not recover so quickly. It can take months for the pain to resolve, and up to two years for the intestinal villi to heal.
I have been gluten-free since October 3. I have gone from hurting all the time (terrible, deep, twisting, stabbing pain) to only hurting after I eat, and the pain is minor rather than major. In the 3 months before I was diagnosed, I was hospitalized with pancreatitis, cholecystitis, and gastritis. I had malnutrition and lost 50 pounds. My gallbladder had to be removed.
If you are young (under 30, at least) and you go completely gluten-free, you should feel better within a month. If you do not, see your doctor again. You may also find that a referral to a dietitian (many celiacs suffer from malnutrition) can help.