Gluten Intolerance Symptoms

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Welcome to Gluten Intolerance Symptoms, where I will try to help you understand gluten intolerance and then live a healthy and fun life despite living with wheat allergy symptoms or celiac disease symptoms.

A growing number of individuals are identifying their gluten intolerance symptoms — and Celiac Disease symptoms — and discovering their sensitivity to gluten. I aim to help you determine whether or not you’re experiencing gluten intolerance symptoms or symptoms of wheat intolerance, and then if you require, help you learn your way through a new world of gluten free cuisines. Being gluten intolerant doesn’t have to stop your ability to live a healthy, happy life.

Specifically, we hope to help you understand the difference between symptoms of wheat intolerance and gluten intolerance symptoms (or gluten allergy symptoms). Many mistake these to be the same, but they’re not! Please note this article does not use “wheat” and “gluten” interchangeably as they are two distinct terms. Also, it is possible to experience Celiac Disease symptoms but test negative for Celiac Disease, which you’ll sometimes see spelled Coeliac Disease or Coeliac Sprue Disease and also has the clinical name gluten enteropathy. You may also see celiac disease abbreviated as CD. And yes, adults can develop food allergies, so don’t exclude yourself from certain conditions just because you didn’t have them in your youth.

You need not view your gluten intolerance symptoms — or symptoms of wheat intolerance — as a harbinger of darker days. We’ll help you restore hope. Use the following index to skip to your desired section:

Can Adults Develop Food Allergies?
What is Celiac Disease? What Are Celiac Disease Symptoms
What is Gluten?
What Is Gluten Intolerance?
Is Gluten Intolerance a Wheat Allergy?

Can Adults Develop Food Allergies?

Too many adults develop a belief that once they reach adulthood, they have a full understanding of their sensitivities and allergies. It is also possible that you’ve either ignored or misread your gluten intolerance symptoms or gluten allergy symptoms. The condition is infamously under-diagnosed and diagnosis takes some study and thought. There isn’t a simple single test to give you an outright answer and the best and most comprehensive research on the matter has only become widespread in recent years. While sometimes a simple blood test (an antibody level profile testing for AGA and Anti-tTG) may tell you whether you have celiac disease, if you test negative you may still experience gluten allergy symptoms, often referred to as Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS).

Adults experiencing anemia, infertility or osteoporosis should discuss the possibility of gluten intolerance with their primary care physician.

What is Celiac Disease? What Are Celiac Disease Symptoms

The cold clinical definition to a Celiac Disease diagnosis is this: Positive antibodies to the proteins glutenin and gliadin, tissue transglutaminase, and intestinal endomysium, along with the verified presence of HLA-DQ8 or HLA-DQ2 genes. Fun, huh? Such a an explanation doesn’t exactly insinuate celiac symptoms.

If you and your doctor (or natural physician) determine your gluten intolerance symptoms are distinctly a result of consuming gluten, you may be diagnosed as having celiac disease. Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder of the small intestine. It can rear its troublesome head at any point from infancy to old age. Currently, celiac disease symptoms are believed to be inherited. However, as it has often gone misdiagnosed in the past, you may have gluten intolerance in your family and not realize it. Thankfully, people are becoming more sensitive and aware of gluten intolerance in children so gluten intolerance symptoms in children are now much more likely to be diagnosed than they were just ten years ago. Gluten intolerance symptoms in adults, however, are still somewhat nebulous as they often dovetail with conditions such as ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, lactose intolerance and yeast intolerance. And because adults too often grow accustomed to some discomforts, celiac disease symptoms in adults often go left untreated.

It is important to recognize that clinical tests (a blood test and/or an intestinal biopsy) can determine to some certainty that you have Celiac Disease, but inconclusive or negative results in these tests do not necessarily mean you’re free from wheat gluten intolerance. In fact, most people experiencing legitimate and significant gluten intolerance symptoms have officially tested negative for Celiac Disease. These individuals are categorized as Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitive, or NCGS.

Update: Please note that information on gluten intolerance vs celiac disease is undergoing quite an evolution right now. Please see gluten intolerance test for more. For example, testing for steatorrhea, or excess fat or lipids in one’s stool, has become part of a more rigorous gluten intolerance test and examination of one’s gluten sensitivity.

Because it is difficult to test conclusively, many people will be diagnosed based on a wide variety of screenings and observations. The most common symptoms are gastrointestinal problems (or gastrointestinal distress) such as diarrhea, flatulence, gas and bloating. Other symptoms may include joint pain, fatigue and headaches but many other peripheral symptoms may also lead to a celiac disease diagnosis or non-Celiac gluten sensitivity. (I don’t want to make everyone reading this paranoid so over time this site will provide a wide range of essays on different ways people have come to evaluate gluten intolerance symptoms.)

Keep in mind that currently there are an estimated 250 or more symptoms related to gluten intolerance or celiac disease symptoms and many of these symptoms may overlap with other diseases and conditions. While you will often see celiac disease symptoms such as constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating, fatigue and joint pain mentioned as the most common celiac disease symptoms, keep in mind that such symptoms can occur with dozens of other diseases and ailments as well. Always consult a medical professional rather than attempt to diagnose yourself.

The most accurate way to identify and diagnose your gluten intolerance symptoms is to use an elimination diet, a strict diet in which you completely eliminate gluten and gluten-associated foods for a significant period of time, then use careful record-keeping and observation to compare your symptoms before the elimination period to your symptoms after the elimination period. But gluten-free diets can be difficult for the uninitiated, so doctors often like to evaluate a patient’s condition thoroughly before prescribing a gluten free diet.
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Celiac Disease is caused by the inflammatory interaction of gliadin — a gluten protein in wheat and other grains such as barley and rye — and the enzyme tissue transglutaminase. This inflammation flattens the lining of the small intestine and thus impedes your small intestine’s ability to absorb nutrients. The best and likely only way to deal with this disease is a strict gluten-free diet. Thankfully, gluten-free foods are much more widely available than they were a decade ago.

What is Gluten?

Gluten is composed of the proteins glutenin and gliadin. They exist in the grass-like grains wheat, barley, rye and spelt. While western civilization has come to rely on gluten not only as an important nutritional protein but as a utility for obtaining a desired texture and elasticity in foods, in recent years some controversial studies indicate our bodies may not tolerate and digest gluten as well as everyone has always assumed.

What Is Gluten Intolerance?

First you must separate gluten intolerance into three distinct categories: Celiac Disease, Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity and a Wheat Allergy.

Celiac Disease Symptoms | Gluten Intolerance

Celiac Disease occurs when the proteins in gluten (glutenin and gliadin) trigger your immune system to overeact with strong and unusual anitbodies. Over time, such antibodies wear down the little hairs called villi which line the walls of your intestine (a process called villous atrophy). These finger-like tiny hairs grab and absorb nutrients as foods pass through your lower digestive tract. As celiac disease symptoms slowly destroy these villi, you become less and less able to process any nutrition from your food. This sets off a domino-effect of increasingly serious health problems. Celiac disease is also associated with leaky gut syndrome, also known as a permeable intestines. Undigested gluten moves through the intestinal wall and into the bloodstream. This may be the root of such gluten intolerance symptoms as Dermatitis herpetiformis, a nasty gluten intolerance rash.

Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity is currently a little more difficult to pinpoint. Basically, individuals who suffer from NCGS suffer very similarly to people with Celiac Disease, but the blood test which identifies and diagnoses celiac disease returns as negative. The only way to confidently diagnose NCGS is through a gluten free diet (I’ll write more about NCGS in the future as it is an interesting topic which more directly addresses the controversy around the term gluten allergy symptoms).

The third category is wheat allergy symptoms. The origin of wheat allergy symptoms are fundamentally different than gluten intolerance or celiac disease symptoms, but some might call it gluten allergy symptoms. This is a histamine response to wheat, much like a peanut allergy or hay fever. Wheat allergies manifest themselves in a wide variety of manners which can be different for different people. Some people experience hives while others might experience stomach pain.

Is Gluten Intolerance a Wheat Allergy?

Even though it occurs as a reaction to protein in wheat, Celiac Disease is not specifically a wheat allergy. A wheat allergy — like most well-known allergies — is the response of white blood cells called basophils and mast cells to something called Immunoglobulin E (or IgE for short). In laymen terms, this is a traditional allergy where you develop antibodies to an allergen, in this case wheat. Believe it or not, you can have a wheat allergy and not have Celiac Disease (or gluten intolerance), and you can have Celiac Disease and not have a wheat allergy. They’re two completely different responses in your body.

In a vast majority of cases, gluten intolerance symptoms will be systemic and will be a result of consuming gluten over a period of time. But symptoms of wheat intolerance will instead manifest themselves more like you perceive a typical allergy: quickly and with single exposure. Being gluten intolerant can be frustrating as this autoimmune disease can be subtle and insidious.

For example, if you eat a large, dense piece of gluten-rich bread and have immediate reactions, you are more likely experiencing wheat intolerance symptoms or a wheat allergy rather than symptoms of gluten intolerance which specifically represent celiac disease symptoms.

I know this can be confusing, but think of a wheat allergy reaction as similar to the way a person might react to cats if he or she is allergic to them. If he pets the cat and breaths around the cat, then he will almost immediately start having watery, itchy eyes and begin sniffling and sneezing.

In contrast, gluten intolerance symptoms manifest themselves more like a nutritional deficiency, with symptoms that sometimes arise slowly over time. The symptoms can be severe and serious, but in most cases they’re systemic, not immediate like symptoms of wheat intolerance. To make this even more confusing, people frequently refer to this condition as gluten allergy symptoms. General gastrointestinal distress or digestive disorders also sometimes originate from gluten intolerance. For example, some symptoms of Candida may develop as a result of gluten intolerance.

I hope this helps you gain a basic understanding of gluten intolerance. In the coming months, I will provide multiple perspectives to evaluating gluten intolerance symptoms and I will begin rolling out some great ways to handle being gluten intolerant and live gluten free, including some fun gluten free recipes for the gluten intolerance diet.

For example, check out our comprehensive Gluten-Free Pantry or our first collection of Gluten-Free Bread Recipes. Or keep up-to-date with our changes and additions with our Gluten Intolerance Symptoms blog.

Thank you for visiting and please return to my Gluten Intolerance site soon!
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Tags: adult food allergies, Candida, celiac disease symptoms, Dermatitis herpetiformis, gluten allergy symptoms, gluten intolerance, Gluten Intolerance Symptoms, gluten intolerance test, gluten sensitivity, gluten symptoms, Gluten-Free Recipes, ncgs, non-celiac gluten intolerance symptoms, Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitive, symptoms of gluten intolerance, symptoms of wheat intolerance

With this article, Gluten Allergy Symptoms, I will attempt to clarify something I feel may confuse people researching Celiac Disease (or Celiac Sprue Disease) and Gluten Intolerance.

To be honest, the term gluten allergy symptoms itself creates confusion and I’m not fond of it. I titled this article this confusing term on purpose to draw those using it so I might educate them on why it isn’t the best term for this condition. And yet even as I wrote it, I have come to the conclusion that it may still have a purpose if we can get the health community to use it in a specific way and in a consistent manner.

The first aspect you must understand is that clinical Celiac Disease and even Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS) is fundamentally different than an allergy in the traditional sense. Celiac disease is not a food allergy; it is an autoimmune disease. I explain this to some degree with the main article of this site, but because I receive an overwhelming number of emails targeting the phrase gluten allergy symptoms, I thought I better address the term more directly in its own article. [...]

Continue Reading: Gluten Allergy Symptoms

In most cases gluten intolerance can be managed by removing gluten from your child’s diet. Your child will no longer be able to eat bread products, any type of rye, any form of wheat, most pastas, or barley. Spelt must also be avoided. Remember that just because something features a wheat-free label does not make it gluten-free. You may often need to contact manufacturers directly to make certain some products don’t somehow feature gluten in some subtle manner.

Gluten allergy symptoms are not easy to diagnose or treat so you must be thorough and vigilant.

Sadly, many parents are not even aware that their child has gluten intolerance until the symptoms become more noticeable and not as bearable. If gluten intolerance in children is left untreated, it can turn serious and cause more stressful symptoms upon their adolescence and into their adulthood. [...]

Continue Reading: Gluten Intolerance In Children

The exact medical and clinical relationship between gluten intolerance and dermatitis herpetiformis remains unclear.

Dermatitis Herpetiformis symptoms first appear in the early years of adulthood. Patches of small pink to red blisters appear on the back of the neck, buttocks, back and other extensor surfaces. dermatitis herpetiformis can be distinguished from other skin conditions by the extremely itchy sensation caused by the disease, leading a patient to have a very strong desire to scratch the affected region. On some occasions, the itchy sensation appears well before the blisters begin to the form. The blisters are full of a watery substance, and the blisters may weep in more severe outbreaks. Dermatitis Herpetiformis is one of the more tangible and most visible gluten allergy symptoms. [...]

Continue Reading: Dermatitis Herpetiformis

Conclusive results for gluten intolerance are usually found by putting a patient on an elimination diet to see if eliminating gluten relieves their issues. However, this is not the first step. Blood testing and allergen testing is done first, as elimination diets can be risky if other issues are present. A blood test to determine if the patient has Celiac’s Disease, a severe gluten intolerance, is first done. In some situations a doctor may also suggest an intestinal biopsy.

Celiac’s Disease is relatively rare, so if the patient tests negative for the clinical test for celiac sprue disease, an allergen test is then done. Please note that just because you test negative for celiac disease does not mean with certainty that you still do not have some form of gluten intolerance. It also does not preclude the possibility for a wheat allergy. For more on these distinctions, please read gluten allergy symptoms. [...]

Continue Reading: Gluten Intolerance Test

Candida is a fungus variety that occurs naturally in humans, usually in small quantities in the mouth, intestines, vagina, and on the skin. As a rule, Candida does not cause any problems, unless it starts to grow out of control. There are different situations that can cause an overgrowth of this bacterial strain. A weakened immune system or prescribed antibiotics are contributing factors. Gluten intolerance may exacerbate the overgrowth of the fungus.

Candida can also cause problems on the skin, such as under the breasts, in the groin area, or in skin creases where moisture tends to accumulate. This is generally referred to as cutaneous Candidasis, with symptoms that include a rash, itching, or skin lesions. [...]

Continue Reading: Symptoms of Candida