Remission while eating gluten?

[Sorphal79]

I recently received my Enterolab test results and sent a question to them regarding the possibility of retesting in a year or two to see if the food sensitivities might change. Here is their response:

Your Question: Hi, I recently received my Enterolab stool specimen results and had a question regarding future food sensitivities. I have been recently diagnosed with Lymphocytic Colitis and my test results show multiple food antibody sensitivities. Since there is currently inflammation in my colon, would it be possible that I am more sensitive to these foods right now because of that? When I go into "remission" and my colon has healed more (maybe a year or two), is it possible that the results may be normal or different if I try the stool test again at that time? Thank you very much for your help!

Response: Dear Sarah, It is possible if not probable, that you do have more sensitivities because of the inflammation and the gluten sensitivity. Many people can reintroduce foods (although never gluten) back into the diet once the body heals. You can retest for these foods in approximately 18 to 24 months to determine if the IgA response has died down so that many of the foods testing in the positive range today may be in the negative range in the future. Of all the foods that we test, gluten (and in some cases, all grains) are the only proteins that must be permanently removed from the diet. Thank you, Kathy Carreon EnteroLab Customer Service

Kathy's response here is that many people can reintroduce foods back into the diet once the body heals but never gluten. I don't understand why, if you are already sensitive to some foods, why can these be brought back into the diet but not gluten? How would gluten be any different than your other food sensitivities?

Also, I have read all over the internet that MC is not completely understood but nothing that seems to confirm any diet changes have been necessary in patients that have reached remission. How can many people reach remission from MC on treatment alone without eliminating gluten from the diet? Do all of these patients really have no sensitivity to gluten while they are flaring?

Forgive me if this may have already been discussed on another thread. I am just confused and want to completely understand before making any lifelong dietary changes.

Thank you all for your help and support!

[tex]

You might ask why these foods are causing inflammation in the first place — that's certainly a fair question.

Here's why:

Research shows that when the genes that predispose to CC/LC/MC are triggered, the genes that predispose to gluten sensitivity are also triggered. Gluten sensitivity causes increased intestinal permeability (aka leaky gut) and this allows partially-digested peptides from certain foods to enter the bloodstream, which provokes an immune system response (because these peptides are obviously not supposed to be there). The immune system then begins to react to certain proteins in those foods every time they are eaten. This is why some of the foods that you have been eating for most of your life can suddenly begin to cause chronic inflammation by provoking your immune system to produce antibodies against them.

In other words, gluten is the reason why all the other food sensitivities develop, so it's a permanent problem, once the genes are triggered. The other sensitivities may or may not be permanent. For most of us, every food sensitivity except yeast and eggs seem to be permanent. Since I've been in remission (15 years), I haven't lost any sensitivities — but I've gained a few. I hope that this is helpful.

Tex

[Sorphal79]

If the Enterolab DNA results are negative, can this mean that the person does not have "true" gluten sensitivity but is only sensitive while there is inflammation in the colon?

Has anyone ever reached remission on treatment alone without removing gluten from their diet?

[tex]

If the Enterolab DNA results are negative, can this mean that the person does not have "true" gluten sensitivity but is only sensitive while there is inflammation in the colon?

No, if that person has MC, it means that the person has been very meticulous with their diet, or else something went wrong with the test.

Has anyone ever reached remission on treatment alone without removing gluten from their diet?

Yes indeed, if they were taking budesonide or prednisone. But after they stopped taking the drug, they relapsed anywhere from a few days to a few months later.

Published medical research shows that the relapse rate is 85 %, but the experiences of our members suggest that it's much worse than that.

Tex

[Sorphal79]

I did read that most patients relapsed (my doctor also said this) but after going back on treatment, most are able to reach remission within 2-3 years. Does this mean that they all eventually had to give up gluten to do so?

I am just wondering if anyone here has ever reached (and stayed) in remission without giving up gluten?

[tex]

I'm pretty sure that somewhere, there are one or two MC patients who have experienced remission without giving up gluten, for the same reason that there exist a few celiac patients who aren't even aware that they are celiacs, because they don't react to gluten with any clinical digestive system symptoms. They're known as asymptomatic celics. Their disease is usually accidentally discovered when they have a routine colonoscopy for cancer prevention, or whatever, and their small intestine is biopsied, and the pathologist discovers that their villi are flattened, the gold standard marker of celiac disease. Since they actually have celic disease, they run the same increased risk of developing cancer or additional autoimmune diseases, as ordinary celiacs who don't properly treat their disease, even though their disease is "silent".

Tex

[Erica P-G]

Well that response was very straight and to the point....

I've been learning here since 2015 and to read that kind of response in black and white kinda lays all the cards out on the table rather plainly I'd think.

I can handle never doing Gluten again, I've had lots of practice lately but to include that 'all grains' may need to be permanently removed from the diet makes me sit up and take notice now.

I guess my diet will never be able to be 100% perfect until I no longer have to rely on sack lunches and can cook from home or specifically order certain items on a menu, because grains are about like gluten they are EVERYWHERE.

I'm holding out hope that when I remove my toxic breast implants on July 24th that the reaction my body has been having to them will allow me a little wiggle room in healing from some of the sensitivities over the last 12 years. This is another update for a different day

I've learned so much from this forum, I'm much healthier than so many people after joining a ginormous women BII facebook site, I feel rather lucky actually to of been able to begin the healing on my gut before discovering my implants correlate with the timeline of my health issues. There are so many women with MCAS, MCAD, Autoimmune issues all over the place, Rashes, Thyroid-Hashimoto, EBV, Heart Arrhythmias, and just about every other symptom mentioned here at this site, it is incredibly sad. I feel helpless actually, there is no way possible to help all those women fast enough.

Another sad note is there is no way to tell if my genes may have predisposed me to gluten or any other sensitivity regardless of the implants or not. I feel like I have had such a sensitive gut system all my growing up life, and the implants just gave my immune system that extra push for the body to go haywire.

Thanks for all the extra explaining you do Tex, I may have followed here for some time now but I seem to need reminding that regardless of how or when we remove the offending trigger, being gluten free is for life now.