Celiac Disease and Reactive Hypoglycemia

As part of my journey with discovering what exactly was causing my reactive hypoglycemia, I received a comment from Erica Douglas who suggested that my symptoms might be caused by celiac disease. Celiac disease is a fairly common autoimmune disease where the small intestine’s lining is damaged from gluten and other proteins in wheat, barley, and rye.

As I begun to look into the disease, I noticed many similarities with the symptoms of reactive hypoglycemia. However, there were a few off and on symptoms that both I and my son had which weren’t explained by reactive hypoglycemia alone: namely, gas, bloating, diarrhea, and lactose intolerance. As we don’t have health insurance, a test was out of the question so we did a little experiment and cut all gluten products out of our diet a few months ago. The result was nothing short of miraculous for my son, who no longer passes gas every time he sits down. We used to joke about his farts, thinking they were a normal part of growing up or perhaps a result of us eating too many starchy, fiber-filled foods on our vegan diet. Now we realize they were due to ingesting gluten.

Many celiac patients experience hypoglycemia as a result of celiac disease. With celiac, simple carbs are absorbed through the stomach lining and more complex carbs, which should be absorbed in the small intestine, aren’t absorbed at all. The result is a complex pattern of apparent reactive hypoglycemia.

Like reactive hypoglycemia, celiac disease can have an array of hard to diagnose symptoms:

• Abdominal cramping/bloating
• Feet (Reduced fat padding)
• Abdominal distention
• Flatus (Passing gas)
• Acidosis
• Gluten ataxia
• Appetite (Increased to the point of craving)
• Mouth sores or cracks in the corners
• Back pain (Such as a result of collapsed lumbar vertebrae)
• Muscle cramping (Especially in the hands and legs)
• Constipation
• Night blindness
• Decreased ability to clot blood
• Skin (Very dry)
• Dehydration
• Stools (Loose? Hard? Small? Large? Foul smelling? Floating? Clay, Light tan or Gray-colored? Highly rancid? Frothy?)
• Diarrhea
• Tongue (Smooth or geographic – looks like different continents)
• Edema
• Tooth enamel defects
• Electrolyte depletion
• Weakness
• Energy loss
• Weight loss
• Fatigue

If you have reactive hypoglycemia and you haven’t yet found the cause, consider celiac disease as a potential culprit, especially if you also experience any of the symptoms of celiac

Reference:
CSA Celiacs: http://www.csaceliacs.org/celiac_symptoms.php

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