Question by megan t: Is it possible to have celiac disease when the only symptom is weight gain?
I’ve been gaining weight rather inexplicably lately despite a clean diet and daily excercise and I’ve been beginning to suspect that it’s due to some sort of gluten intolerance/sensitivity. The thing is that I’m having no other issues or symptoms, so I was wondering if this type of thing could manifest in weight gain alone.
Best answer:
Answer by izzy
Unlikely, the only so-called weight gain with gluten intolerance is bloating/
“Symptoms of gluten sensitivity may include bloating, abdominal discomfort, pain, or diarrhea; or it may present with a variety of extraintestinal symptoms including headaches and migraines, lethargy and tiredness, attention-deficit disorder and hyperactivity, muscular disturbances as well as bone and joint pain.”
Try eating a few less calories, cutting out all added salt and eating more fibre.
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Oh heck yeah.
If you went by the most popular medical sites on the web, you wouldn’t think so, but the information on the web is typically based on older information on Celiac Disease which has turned out to be, well, often missing some critical information.
Some interesting information:
– It used to be thought that nausea, vomiting, gut and bowel issues, and being-super skinny were the main Celiac symptoms, with possibly bloating added in. This was shown to be lacking about 2 decades ago and the information was changed in European medical textbooks. In the USA, the information was not changed until fairly recently, so most doctors currently in practice here were taught outdated information.
– As a result, the above symptoms seem to be the most commonly used criteria by general practitioners today.
– In random studies, 1% of the population tests positive as Celiacs. In real life in the USA, 3% of that amount have been diagnosed.
– So with the above symptoms as the diagnosing criteria, Celiacs AREN’T getting diagnosed. However, with more media attention on Celiac Disease and eating gluten free, there’s been an increase in testing and diagnosis of Celiac Disease. And with that, recent research is finding that the greater percentage of newly diagnosed Celiacs do NOT have all the above symptoms. Weight gain is actually the MORE common symptom in American Celiacs.
There is also something called ‘silent Celiac Disease’ where there are no symptoms at all until joints and organs start running into problems. No gut issue, no weight loss or gain, etc…
However, to be honest? It’s likely you do have some other symptoms, you just might not realize that’s what they are. Some common ones I’ve seen with folks who have weight gain: fatigue, insomnia, troubles with concentration, excessive clumsiness, low frustration tolerance, depression, difficulty with anger or anxiety, getting ill frequently, recovering slowly from illness, getting injured frequently, slow recovery from illness, poor dental health, dizzy spells, ear aches, having lots of food that ‘doesn’t agree with you,’ having dairy problems.
That’s just a few. And yeah, some of them seem odd, but there are reasons. For the clumsiness, for example, many Celiacs have just a touch of vertigo. Not enough that you’d even notice, but enough that your balance is just off enough to drop things, run into things, bump into doorways. There are a lot of mental issues that crop up because the brain doesn’t have the nutritional resources it needs to properly regulate sleep cycles and emotions. The immune system is run ragged, so it often can fight off illness. The body doesn’t have the resources to repair problems, and the damage done to the intestines can cause a temporary lactose intolerance and other food issues, too.
I’ve put in a link below for 300 different symptoms Celiacs can have, to help. 🙂
If you get tested and it comes back negative? I’d honestly try the diet anyway after you get the test results back. There’s about a 20% false negative on Celiac Tests. There is also something called non-Celiac gluten intolerance. This was only proven to exist in a study that came out last year. There are NO tests that have been found that can detect this. The only way to tell if you have it is to go gluten free and check symptoms…which is why many doctors won’t even consider it.
In any case, I’d recommend you follow your gut on this one, no pun intended, and get tested.