Symptoms may vary by type and severity for each Celiac and gluten-intolerant person. Even my own reactions have varied from mild to debilitating. Maybe you’re newly diagnosed and wondering, “Am I asymptomatic, or have I just not been glutened yet?”. Getting glutened by cross-contact reactions can be especially difficult verify, making it harder to reliably gauge your cross-contact reactions as someone recently diagnosed.

Here we will discuss a few symptoms and their duration. Personally, I am a symptomatic Celiac, so I will be speaking from that perspective.

Cross-contact reactions

“What do cross contact reactions feel like?” is a common question I remember seeing on the Celiac subreddit when I was newly diagnosed. The tricky thing about cross-contact reactions is that you can’t always be sure that they’re happening. It’s easy to look at a box of whole wheat macaroni (that you swore was the gluten-free box) and know you messed up big time. But what about when you feel just a little bit off after eating at a restaurant or trying a new gluten-free snack?

Personally my immediate tell-tale sign that I’ve had cross-contact levels of gluten is bloating. Not a “oh I am so full” kind of bloating, but an “oh god my waistband hurts” kind of bloating. My abdomen will feel taught and firm and look like a pregnant person’s belly. On occasion, this is my only symptom. Sometimes I will also experience nausea and light-headedness followed by a few days of fatigue and a sensitive stomach.

The tricky thing is that there are a LOT of other ingredients that can make your stomach feel off! It’s important for your mental well-being to remember that not every stomach ache is from gluten. Perhaps you had too much sugar or fats, maybe you’re getting older and can’t digest junk food as easily as you could as a teen. You could also just be intolerant or sensitive to other food groups like FODMAPs or dairy.

Oops I ate gluten: full-force reactions

Now back to reactions that are due to gluten. Celiac disease is a systemic autoimmune disease, which means that symptoms may extend beyond the digestive tract. While some people have traditional Celiac symptoms related to digestion, a lot of other Celiacs have symptoms related to the brain & nervous system, liver, musculoskeletal system, and other body systems.

During a particularly unpleasant glutening, my symptoms were full-force about 6 hours after eating. I had nausea, vomiting, slurred speech, tingling hands and face, and extreme weakness. For the next two weeks I experienced fatigue, muscle pain, bloating, and I had a very sensitive stomach. For ideas on what to eat when you’re recovering from gluten exposure, check out my other post.

Others with Celiac disease may experience symptoms like diarrhea, constipation, headaches, migraines, brain fog, intestinal cramps, and flare ups of all kinds of other symptoms. It’s not easy, give yourself time to rest and recover if you’ve had any accidental gluten.

But what if I don’t have a reaction?

Being asymptomatic to gluten exposure is (in my opinion) a blessing and a curse. It’s great that you don’t have to deal with any painful or frustrating symptoms, but on the other hand it’s harder to know when you need to avoid a certain restaurant or product. This isn’t necessarily a case of “what I don’t know can’t hurt me”. Gluten can and will still cause intestinal damage to asymptomatic Celiacs(*), which over time could lead to further health complications. Repeat gluten exposures could also flare up the more systemic autoimmune type symptoms associated with undiagnosed or unmanaged Celiac disease.

Sources:

*Schuppan D, Dieterich W. Up to Date. Pathogenesis, epidemiology, and clinical manifestations of celiac disease in adults. Nov 28, 2018