Okay, I think I have completed my oats trial. I have been doing this for 40 days, now, eating it twice a week, on Tuesdays, and Saturdays. To be honest, I haven't seen any really worrisome symptoms, but I've seen enough evidence that I have decided to discontinue eating oats, and pronounce it a lost cause.
I probably should have eaten them more often, because basically I was on a three day rotation diet, (three to four day interval), which greatly diminishes the odds of any antibody buildup. My thoughts on this were that doing it this way, I was less likely to get sick as a dog, and yet, if I am sensitive to oat gluten, there should be a slow accumulation of damage to my small intestine, (at least that's the way that wheat gluten affects me), so that symptoms would eventually be noticeable.
Sure enough, the first few times, I didn't notice any effects. After a while, (two or three weeks), I began noticing that I would have some diarrhea afterwards, and a little gas, but nothing else of any significance.
The last few sessions, for example, I would typically have moderately serious D, together with a fair amount of gas, beginning about 4 or 5 hours after eating the oats, but after a couple of hours, it would seem to be almost over. The next day, I always felt fine, except that other than a very slight trace of residual D, now and then, for maybe an additional half a day, I usually wouldn't have another BM for roughly three days, (but then, back in the "good old days", when I was reacting to gluten - after the D stopped, I usually wouldn't have a BM for about the same amount of time, presumably due to C).
The reactions may have been getting slightly stronger each time, but it was not obvious that was the case. It was obvious that the reactions were much more significant at the end of the trial, than they were a few weeks earlier, so I assume that they would probably continue to be more pronounced, if I chose to continue the experiment.
Note that the D usually started about four to five hours after the ingestion of the oats. I say usually, because the last time, (which was yesterday), I emptied the last box, and didn't quite have enough oats for my normal, rather large, bowl full. Since the D didn't start until about six or seven hours after ingesting the oats, that suggests that at least the timing of the reactions may be dose-dependent, to some extent.
Anyway, to get to my point, even though there is a great deal of variability in the transit times of various individuals, it appears that my reactions are originating in my small intestine. I say this because four or hours of elapsed time, allows sufficient for the stomach to completely empty, but it is not enough time for any significant amount of chime to reach the colon. Circumstantial evidence, then , would suggest that the reaction is triggered while the oats is in passing through the small intestine. At least that's the way I see it.
It was interesting, and I'm glad that I didn't get seriously sick, during the test period, but in the end, oats are still on my "avoid" list.
Love,
Tex
).
