Long COVID and gluten sensitivity

Posted by ansimp231 @ansimp231, Aug 13, 2022

So we got COVID twice within just about 5 months. The first time was bad. The second we were mostly asymptomatic. Since the second infection my 8 year old has gotten terrible stomach cramps every time she ate. Finally got her pulled off gluten, and since then only a few issues, and they were with heavy lactose foods, which we went ahead and cut as well. All fine since then.
Has anyone else had the same issue? Are you still going through it? Have your symptoms lessened at all? We're still waiting to see GI, the waiting time is so long. And her Dr has been helping as much as she can, but we just don't know what to expect anymore. This has been going on since January 22 for reference on time.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Post-COVID Recovery & COVID-19 Support Group.

Update. After months of fighting, they found she had a wheat and send allergy, along with IBS.

REPLY
@drwoge

Hello everyone, I am a doctor, I am 47 years old and after vaccines and 3 episodes of covid I began to have tachycardia, abdominal distention, gastric distention, minutes after eating, several times I had to go to the emergency room. They did an edoscopy where they only found moderate gastritis and duodenitis. As I began to follow a diet, I noticed that histamine-releasing foods were harmful to me, so I gradually eliminated them. This helped me reduce tachycardia. Foods such as shrimp, strawberries, apples, and bananas became intolerable, since they produced redness. in my face tachycardia of up to 160 per minute. I thought I had a deficiency of the enzyme diamine oxidase, and I bought supplements for that, I really don't know if it helped me, because I removed food at the same time as taking the enzyme. Afterwards I noticed a tolerance to milk and cheese, also an intolerance to almonds and peanuts, walnuts, cashews. I stopped eating them because they caused me abdominal, epigastric and mesogastric pain. Later I also noticed that gluten was causing me abdominal pain so I eliminated it little by little. I lost a lot of weight, but it helped me to increase my consumption of lean meat. I have noticed that corn does not produce symptoms, nor does avocado or egg. I already went to several gastroenterologists and the medications that worked for me were mirtazapine, esomeprazole, colchicine, and to reduce the anxiety and nervousness of helplessness because my other colleagues don't know much about it, I take 3 drops of clonazepam at night. I am also being treated with homeopathy, carbo vegetabilis, lycopodium clavatum, arasenicum album, nux vomica, china off, etc. I know that many doctors know things that they have seen in patients, but they just want to spread the word because there is a lot of economic benefit from what is happening. I hope that science and the great human values that still remain will end up coming out to defend the causes of those affected and everyone will move forward from these consequences.

Jump to this post

Your story is similar to mine. I had Covid a few times. I started experiencing extreme stomach pain immediately after eating a meal with bread. Since I love bread, I thought it may have been something else. However, after eating a sandwich, I experienced sweating, on the toilet hollering out stomach pain. I had to go to the ER. I saw a gastro who stated that I had excessive stomach acid and I was borderline for Celiac. I was told that I was a high risk for stomach cancer and I was prescribed meds for heartburn and excessive stomach acid. I never got a solid diagnosis and I was not told it may be gluten intolerance. FYI, one of the pills prescribed warns long term usage can cause stomach cancer 🤔. I removed bread/gluten from my diet. 3 years later, thankfully, I have not experienced the stomach pain or another visit to the ER. So I agree that Covid and or Covid vaccines causes gastro problems. Because strawberries are one of the dirty dozen saturated with pesticides, I stopped eating them a year or so after removing gluten.

REPLY
@drwoge

Hello everyone, I am a doctor, I am 47 years old and after vaccines and 3 episodes of covid I began to have tachycardia, abdominal distention, gastric distention, minutes after eating, several times I had to go to the emergency room. They did an edoscopy where they only found moderate gastritis and duodenitis. As I began to follow a diet, I noticed that histamine-releasing foods were harmful to me, so I gradually eliminated them. This helped me reduce tachycardia. Foods such as shrimp, strawberries, apples, and bananas became intolerable, since they produced redness. in my face tachycardia of up to 160 per minute. I thought I had a deficiency of the enzyme diamine oxidase, and I bought supplements for that, I really don't know if it helped me, because I removed food at the same time as taking the enzyme. Afterwards I noticed a tolerance to milk and cheese, also an intolerance to almonds and peanuts, walnuts, cashews. I stopped eating them because they caused me abdominal, epigastric and mesogastric pain. Later I also noticed that gluten was causing me abdominal pain so I eliminated it little by little. I lost a lot of weight, but it helped me to increase my consumption of lean meat. I have noticed that corn does not produce symptoms, nor does avocado or egg. I already went to several gastroenterologists and the medications that worked for me were mirtazapine, esomeprazole, colchicine, and to reduce the anxiety and nervousness of helplessness because my other colleagues don't know much about it, I take 3 drops of clonazepam at night. I am also being treated with homeopathy, carbo vegetabilis, lycopodium clavatum, arasenicum album, nux vomica, china off, etc. I know that many doctors know things that they have seen in patients, but they just want to spread the word because there is a lot of economic benefit from what is happening. I hope that science and the great human values that still remain will end up coming out to defend the causes of those affected and everyone will move forward from these consequences.

Jump to this post

Did you mean doctors don’t want to spread the word (which word?) because of economic benefit? Although unclear, I think that’s what you wrote.
Incredible!

REPLY

I’m sorry your daughter is experiencing pain from Gluten. I should start off by saying that I am not a doctor. I have eliminated Gluten, Dairy and Soy due to being tested for a Thyroid condition. I have Hashimoto’s and hypothyroidism. I had a blood test done for my TSH (Thyroid) levels and my numbers were off the charts for both. I have eliminated Gluten, Dairy and Soy due to the Hashimoto’s and my body inflammation is much better and I even dropped some weight. I won’t say it’s been easy, but I also lost my taste and smell due to Covid in December of 2022 and have been working on getting it back with Stellate Ganglion Block Injections, of which I’ve had 4. So far, only a slight improvement where I have a stronger sense of salty, sweet and bitter on my tongue when I eat. It’s quite awful! I wish your daughter luck on her journey.

REPLY

Long COVID gave me Celiac Disease. I was diagnosed in my late 50s! I hope your daughter’s doctor tests her for it.

REPLY

Hello there!

I had covid in October of 2020, before the vaccine was available. About three months later, started to develop terrible diarrhea and gas. Scheduled a GI appt, went through some tests. Had an endoscopy and some blood work. They told me I had celiac disease because of elevated blood work and villous atrophy. I was devastated and a few months later a lightbulb went off. What I didn’t think about at the time was, I had done 23 and me genetic testing and when I checked it I didn’t have the HLA for celiac. Docs re tested my HLA and still no gene. So now kind of still in limbo about what is going on. I try and always eat gluten free and I have tried a few times to re introduce but the same gas and diarrhea returns. I ate gluten my whole life and this is quit the change wondered if anyone else out there had a similar story.

REPLY
@pmgallagher003

Hello there!

I had covid in October of 2020, before the vaccine was available. About three months later, started to develop terrible diarrhea and gas. Scheduled a GI appt, went through some tests. Had an endoscopy and some blood work. They told me I had celiac disease because of elevated blood work and villous atrophy. I was devastated and a few months later a lightbulb went off. What I didn’t think about at the time was, I had done 23 and me genetic testing and when I checked it I didn’t have the HLA for celiac. Docs re tested my HLA and still no gene. So now kind of still in limbo about what is going on. I try and always eat gluten free and I have tried a few times to re introduce but the same gas and diarrhea returns. I ate gluten my whole life and this is quit the change wondered if anyone else out there had a similar story.

Jump to this post

I have HLA-DQ8 0302, a celiac gene but no diagnosis because there was no early stage damage on the endoscopy and the GI didn't do bloodwork. My gluten intolerance morphed into celiac 14 years ago after I caught H1N1. Almost all people with celiac have HLA DQ2 or DQ8, but that doesn't mean 100%. There is shockingly little research and medical (meaning doctors) knowledge about celiac. Even if someone doesn't have celiac (although bloodwork and villous atrophy are diagnostic of such) one can still have an autoimmune reaction by being gluten intolerant, for which there is no good test. Gluten free is a lot easier than it was years ago; apps like findmeglutenfree and the NCA site help with diet and places to eat.

REPLY

Your daughter may have Celiac. In order to get a diagnosis an endoscopy needs to be done by a gastro. I have Celiac and understand the challenges which goes far beyond not eating gluten rich foods. It includes getting every bit of gluten out of the house like the toaster that was used for wheat, rye or barley bread toast; making sure there is a food prep space that is never used for any gluten containing foods. No baking a regular cake for the rest of the family because flour can linger in the air unseen for days.
Celiac patient should not enter any area where bread, cake, muffins etc. are baked. The gluten can remain unseen for days and breathed in. It's a lot to get used to.
I joined Celiac.com many years ago which was a great help for me. Much has gotten better for us Celiacs through the years and we hope for more to be done.

REPLY

I’m just now seeing this thread. I had covid in may of 2022. I started breaking out in hives. Now I have a history of chemical sensitivity to unknown things from a previous workplace which resolved after I left there. So after covid I was breaking out for weeks and started looking at foods. I cut out wheat and it got much better. I also found out that beef seemed to trigger hives. Never had a problem with food before. Haven’t had wheat or beef since and aside from an occasional issue with hives, possibly from cross contamination, I haven’t had any problems. On the good side I think cutting out wheat made me feel better.

REPLY
Please sign in or register to post a reply.