Gluten Free to Combat IBS

My husband has been suffering from IBS for about three years now. He's been to the doctor, to the ER, and all they ever wanted to do (besides unnecessary diagnostic tests) was throw medicine at the problem. But it never helped and he would just end up at the ER again. This last time, they took a CT, which showed nothing, and gave him double the medication and a pain medication. After talking to friends on Facebook and finding a few friends who reported the same symptoms finding relief from a gluten free diet. I did a bunch of research and found out that gluten can cause A LOT of issues that can be disguised by other diagnosis. After much resistance, I FINALLY convinced him to try it. It's been 6 weeks now since he went COMPLETELY gluten free and went from vomiting every morning, having severe intestinal issues, and not even being able to work to waking up every morning with little to no symptoms and not missing a single day of work. I say little symptoms because gluten is tricky. You never know where you are going to find it. But for the most part, his symptoms are gone. Now the fun part, finding foods that he actually likes. Small sacrifice for having my husband back. :-)

How we did it:

1. Of course, the first thing you have to do is identify all the foods that contain gluten. Food packaging is usually (though not always) pretty good about indicating possible allergens in the food. Wheat gluten is what you want to watch out for, it will be listed as Wheat on the label under the ingredients. It can be in ANYTHING, even corn meal and soy sauce can contain wheat. Read labels CAREFULLY.
2. Go gluten free. It takes about 2-4 weeks to see improvement, so don't get discouraged. Your body has to get rid of the gluten still in your body before it can start to heal. And it is very easy to contaminate yourself with gluten. All it takes it being cooked in the same pan as gluten for you to get sick. The best way is for the whole household to go gluten free together to avoid cross-contamination. (We are still working on this, finding the best kind of flour to use instead of wheat and where to find it. We live in a small town with only one grocery store and it is limited.)
3.  At this point, if you are on any medications for IBS, slowly wean yourself off of them. With any medication, stopping suddenly may cause adverse reactions, so slower is better.
4. Identify hidden sources of gluten. Possible sources of contamination could be salad dressings, soup mixes, lipstick, certain vitamins, some preservatives, medications, envelope glue, stamps, Play-Doh. There may be more, but this is all I've found so far.
5. Find ways to enjoy being gluten free. A big problem my husband has is not having very many options of things to eat. With all bread off limits, your chooses narrow greatly. Fruits and vegetables are great of course, meat and fish and other proteins are still ok. We are still experimenting with ways to make the bread items with another type of flour. I've been told that you can usually replace all-purpose flour with almond flour and it act just about the same. We've tried mixes with rice flour but I didn't really care for it. It's really sticky and harder to get cooked all the way.

Easy Immune System Health has some good information, even symptom checklist, so check them out if you have more questions. Or ask me and I'll see what I can find out for you. Going gluten free is a huge life changing journey that you don't want to go at alone. Having a good support system is very important. If your family isn't behind you 100%, it will be more difficult. Good luck!!




Sources from this post include:
www.mindbodygreen.com
www.naturalnews.com