Can touching flour cause a gut reaction?

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m
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Can touching flour cause a gut reaction?

Post by m »

I am trying like crazy to figure out what caused my latest reaction. My sister seems to think it's because I made to pie crusts for her the day before using regular flour. She told me that a friend of hers was selling a breadmaking business because she was a celiac and just walking into the building made her sick. It seems impossible that just breathing it or touching it would cause inflamation in the gut. But what do I know. The other possibility is tangerines. I ate 2 tangerines the day before. I'm not a big citrus fan so I hardly ever have oranges or orange juice and I've never had a reaction when I did. But it's the only new food I have ingested in the last week. It's puzzling.
m

p.s. at least I'm not feeling quite as bad today as I did yesterday.
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tex
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Post by tex »

Melissa,

Theoretically, gluten that just touches the skin, shouldn't be a problem. The problem is, though, that quite often, things that settle on the skin, somehow have a way of working their way into the digestive system, where they can cause problems, despite our best intentions.

If it somehow makes contact with the mucus membranes of your mouth, either by direct contact with contaminated skin, or possibly by breathing dust into your mouth, or by some other route, it can cause problems. Especially if you are extremely sensitive to it.

I don' know if the tangerines might have caused your problem, but I can tell you that citrus fruit eats my lunch.

I'm glad you're feeling somewhat better.

Wayne
:cowboy:

It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Polly
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Post by Polly »

Hi Melissa!

Sorry to hear about your latest flare. Bummer. Absolutely, flour dust can cause a flare when you breathe it in or touch it and swallow it. I read a story about a man with celiac who had flares frequently after kissing his fiancee, who was Italian and ate a lot of pasta. I found that I got mini-flares if I used a saucepan that had not been cleaned well after my son cooked his ramen noodles. In fact, I just read that those with food intolerances should not use coated (Teflon) pots and pans because the offending food proteins have been known to hide in the scratches on the coating. Jean is the expert on these unusual reactions - hopefully she'll pop in. Are you feeling better?

Love,

Polly

P.S. It could have been BOTH foods - I also don't "do" citrus well.
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