How long to heal?

[Makky]

I am starting this new chain because I know a lot of people haven’t been on this forum in years, but for those who are still here and fully recovered, how long did it take to heal your leaky gut/intestinal permeability? 
I do feel much better than I felt two months ago since being diagnosed but  I am still just trying to gauge the healing process timeline and curious about any tips anyone has to aide the course. Thank you!!

[Scott Adams]

Welcome to the forum! It can take up to two years for your gut to fully heal:

 Most people, like myself, begin to feel better very soon after starting a 100% gluten-free diet, and their health continues to improve for months afterwards.

[Makky]

1 hour ago, Scott Adams said:

Welcome to the forum! It can take up to two years for your gut to fully heal:

 Most people, like myself, begin to feel better very soon after starting a 100% gluten-free diet, and their health continues to improve for months afterwards.

Thank you so much Scott, I think I have a long road ahead of me, trying to take things slowly right now but definitely not feeling like my Normal self yet 😓

[Scott Adams]

Not everyone fully recovers with the gluten-free diet alone, and this article covers additional things that may be helpful in case you are in that group:

 

[ButWhatCanIEat]

I'm 8 months post diagnosis.

In the first month I had an initial HUGE increase of energy and large abatement of symptoms, which has been followed by an additional 7 months of ups and downs of mild symptoms coming and going (sometimes because I accidentally consumed gluten in a product that I didn't read carefully enough). My vitamin deficiencies are still slowly improving too. I feel like my mental acuity is returning recently and I am much more alert and interested in doing things and learning things than I have been since, idk, my 20s. It feels like my brain got young again, which is amazing. So I'm not "better" yet but certainly there's been a lot of improvement by this point already, I look forward to seeing how much more there will be.

[Makky]

6 hours ago, ButWhatCanIEat said:

I'm 8 months post diagnosis.

In the first month I had an initial HUGE increase of energy and large abatement of symptoms, which has been followed by an additional 7 months of ups and downs of mild symptoms coming and going (sometimes because I accidentally consumed gluten in a product that I didn't read carefully enough). My vitamin deficiencies are still slowly improving too. I feel like my mental acuity is returning recently and I am much more alert and interested in doing things and learning things than I have been since, idk, my 20s. It feels like my brain got young again, which is amazing. So I'm not "better" yet but certainly there's been a lot of improvement by this point already, I look forward to seeing how much more there will be.

That is wonderful to hear, I’m so glad you’re doing better and that is very encouraging for others who are just starting out the journey! I appreciate you sharing that because that’s exactly the type of things I was curious about. & It is so hard to not get “glutened”! Trying to be extra careful from here on out and taking lots of vitamins. It’s terrible to get a diagnosis like this when we are already going through such a stressful time with this pandemic, I wish you the best on your road to full recovery

[Phosis]

I think it's misleading to say "it can take up to two years to heal". It can certainly take longer than that for some, especially if they are continuing to eat processed foods etc, as that can confuse things a lot. 

It's more accurate to say the majority of people sticking to gluten-free will experience healing by the two year mark. But many still will not, and it does not mean they have refractory Celiac. 

[fllstuart77]

celiacs never truly heal

[Scott Adams]

I believe that this is a broad generalization, and do believe that many celiacs can make a full recovery, but not all of them. There are more complicated cases, and those of us who have additional food intolerance and allergy issues with can make recovery much harder.

[fllstuart77]

As soon as you eat gluten then you have damage again...  and there's no way to go through your entre life gluten free..  so how can you actually ever heal or stay healed?  Its just a cycle of healing and damage and healing forever

 

[Scott Adams]

There is a way to stay gluten-free, and/or take AN-PEP enzymes like GliadinX makes in situations where there may be cross contamination (disclosure, they are a sponsor here). This has been my approach, and others are also finding this to be a good approach. There are many people on this board who do stay gluten-free, don't eat out, and bring their own food or go shopping at markets when they travel, so the do stay gluten-free for life. Personally I think dining out and travelling are too important for me to give up, thus my imperfect solution.