Celiac and GERD-related asthma

[Carla E]

I was diagnosed with celiac disease seven years ago. About six months ago I started to have difficulty with , for lack of a better term, chest heaviness. My lungs would literally feel like soggy sponges and I had difficulty breathing. An allergy panel showed I had no environmental allergies even though things like dust and cleaning products aggravated my lungs. Now the doctors think that GERD is behind the “asthma” I’m on a steroid inhaler and Singulair and would like to get off of them. Consuming any gluten also causes difficulties with my lungs. Has anyone experienced any of this?

[Posterboy]

Carla,

See this thread it might can help you...

I hope this is helpful but it is not medical advise.

Posterboy,

[Carla E]

Thank you so much for the referral to Christianas thread. It was helpful. I work at a public library and often my lungs get irritated from dust. Yesterday I moved books and dusted shelves literally all day, no problem with breathing, decided to take Tylenol and it literally got stuck going down. I couldn’t eat or drink anything. So does the dust irritate the lungs then that triggers esophagitis? I get the same when glutened. I’m really worried about this. Thanks for anything you can tell me.

[cristiana]

  On 11/15/2019 at 11:54 PM, Carla E said:

Thank you so much for the referral to Christianas thread. It was helpful. I work at a public library and often my lungs get irritated from dust. Yesterday I moved books and dusted shelves literally all day, no problem with breathing, decided to take Tylenol and it literally got stuck going down. I couldn’t eat or drink anything. So does the dust irritate the lungs then that triggers esophagitis? I get the same when glutened. I’m really worried about this. Thanks for anything you can tell me.

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Hi Carla

I got a notification to say that posterboy linked my thread with yours.  Sorry for the delay - sometimes things don't end up in my email in tray.

How are you doing? I do commiserate, having anything that affects one's breathing/swallowing is distressing and rather depressing.

 

An update...

To cut a long story short I took Nexium Control 20mg for about a week, under doctors orders.  Into day three I found one evening I was very tight chested, like the upper part of my respiratory tract was being irritated by tiny feathers or dust.  Coughing didn't help one iota and the cough was totally unproductive.   Rang my doc and she says this is common with reflux - they see it a lot in clinic.  Some of the stomach's contents is going into the lungs and therefore irritating things.  She told me after a week of Nexium I'd feel much better.

Odd thing was after a week she was right and the irritation started to feel less like a tickle, more like a bog standard sore throat/cold virus and I was able to eat again without it irritating my throat.  I stopped the Nexium, thought to myself it must have been a cold after all, and felt about 80% better.

Then, just a few days ago, that wretched tickle and cough started up again. I've been told by the pharmacy to try one more week of Nexium and then to go back to the doctors.  If it hasn't gone by then I think I'll ask for an endoscopy/chest X-ray as I'd really like to know what's going on.

All of this started about 2-3 weeks after a cold virus, at the end of October.  Oddly I keep meeting people in my home town who are saying they have had a cold and just can't get rid of the cough that has followed it.   Perhaps this is what is happening to me.

Then I keep wondering if I hadn't eaten dry toast with a dry mouth that morning would I be going through all of this?  It was that single incident, when I started coughing when I had barely started to swallow the toast, that was the start of all of this. To a degree I think I'm making it worse by giving it too much thought and I feel that I have become hypervigilant about everything I swallow.  I've noticed when I'm engaged in other things it bothers me much less.

That said the day before yesterday and today I've had that awful tickly feeling in my chest again.  Perhaps it's a mix of acid, asthma and why not add a new food intolerance into the mix..... ugggh.  And of course I still have an inflamed throat and a couple of white spots, so a low grade virus seems to be an issue.  I have very low ferritin at the moment (9) but because my haemoglobin is high normal I'm not allowed to supplement, so when my system hits a virus I always feel it takes a long time to recover.

It's now 26th November.  I hope you are feeling better -  if you have an update, do let me know.

[cristiana]

I wonder if the OP is still following this website as I too have found there may be a link with dust/swallowing.

My gastro now wants me to be tested for eosinophilic esophagitis.  My symptoms have waxed and waned since October - in fact, they were pretty good over Christmas.  But recently I've been doing some spring cleaning (panic cleaning!) prior to a party we will host and I think the dust in the air has exacerbated the symptoms, in the same way the OP described.

Meals after dusting and swallowing a tablet after a dusting session have been really uncomfortable resulting in an itchy throat and respiratory tract, with a fair bit of coughing.  I was OK while I was doing the cleaning.  It was just after, when I tried to ingest something. 

The biggest relief I have had to all of this was taking Gaviscon after my meals, and drinking camomile tea during and after meals around Christmas.  And also, I've been trying not to go to bed until 3 hours after eating and have purchased a sleeping wedge.  I'm going to try to go back to doing that.

It strikes me that sometimes it isn't just the one trigger that sets all this stuff off - it can be a perfect storm of dust and other factors.

I hope this helps anyone who is also seeking answers.

[Courtney33]

Yes I have, there is a book titled "dropping acid" and it deals with this and other related topics. I swear by this now.

[Laura P63]

  On 11/12/2019 at 5:12 PM, Carla E said:

I was diagnosed with celiac disease seven years ago. About six months ago I started to have difficulty with , for lack of a better term, chest heaviness. My lungs would literally feel like soggy sponges and I had difficulty breathing. An allergy panel showed I had no environmental allergies even though things like dust and cleaning products aggravated my lungs. Now the doctors think that GERD is behind the “asthma” I’m on a steroid inhaler and Singulair and would like to get off of them. Consuming any gluten also causes difficulties with my lungs. Has anyone experienced any of this?

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My daughter suffered with worsening lung functioning until she went gluten-free. Soooo much to tell, but will confirm that the lack of nutrients absorption +inflammation caused by Celiac gets worse.... Bronchitis, asthmatic pneumonia and repeat Pleurisy kept her in bed. I had to read and listen (Dr Wallach & Dr O'Bryan on YouTube) to understand, then implement zero corn, oats, wheat diet. Supplements were needed (she also had severe anemia) and those nightmare years are gone forever! The MDs were clueless and thank God I didn't wait for them!

[cristiana]

  On 2/17/2020 at 7:07 AM, Laura P63 said:

My daughter suffered with worsening lung functioning until she went gluten-free. Soooo much to tell, but will confirm that the lack of nutrients absorption +inflammation caused by Celiac gets worse.... Bronchitis, asthmatic pneumonia and repeat Pleurisy kept her in bed. I had to read and listen (Dr Wallach & Dr O'Bryan on YouTube) to understand, then implement zero corn, oats, wheat diet. Supplements were needed (she also had severe anemia) and those nightmare years are gone forever! The MDs were clueless and thank God I didn't wait for them!

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Hi Laura

I'm so pleased you found answers.  This is very encouraging.  Seven years on from my own diagnosis I wish I could have some vitamin and mineral screening, I'm sure I'm still deficient.

Cristiana

[zenith12]

  On 11/12/2019 at 5:12 PM, Carla E said:

I was diagnosed with celiac disease seven years ago. About six months ago I started to have difficulty with , for lack of a better term, chest heaviness. My lungs would literally feel like soggy sponges and I had difficulty breathing. An allergy panel showed I had no environmental allergies even though things like dust and cleaning products aggravated my lungs. Now the doctors think that GERD is behind the “asthma” I’m on a steroid inhaler and Singulair and would like to get off of them. Consuming any gluten also causes difficulties with my lungs. Has anyone experienced any of this?

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Yes i do but it is really hard to explain. Like,  sometimes i will just be sitting there, and it is like my lungs decide to take an extra inhale on its own accord on its own but it feels out of place.  It is like sometimes my lungs feel like they are being controlled by a third party when i should inhale or not, like i am a robot.  I have not had that symptom in awhile and i gave up gluten almost 4 mos ago. I think GLUTEN causes every health problem on planet earth. I hope you get better.