So, you got the diagnosis of celiac disease. Congratulations! There is finally a name to the awful stuff that has been happening in the body and now what?

After a few months of being diagnosed, most people do not feel better. They start to question – what else could be wrong?

Most people have done a fairly good job of cutting out gluten. They replace the obvious items cross-contaminated with gluten. These include toasters and wooden cutting boards. They do this after a few months. But now, things aren’t improving. They thought cutting out gluten would solve all their problems. They believed this because now they have a name for what has been making them sick.

Here’s how the progression goes as I’ve seen it….

After gluten, the next thing to go is dairy. Yep, cheese, butter, and milk all get eliminated from someone’s diet. Now, many people say that dairy is inflammatory and hard for those with damaged guts to digest it. I’m not here to say it is or it isn’t, but that is typically the next to go. I didn’t do this, but know many, many people that swear by it. If it helps, go for it. But I haven’t found that it solves the problem for most.

The next step is supplementation. Since our guts are damaged, we don’t absorb nutrients properly. Most of us had vitamin and mineral deficiencies at diagnosis, so adding a supplement or two can’t hurt. We believe it will make us feel better. If we can get the vitamins and minerals right, we can be less tired. We might also solve the random persistent system that is bothersome. This is expensive and studies have shown that most supplements are crap, so this doesn’t help much

Then we get to my favorite probiotics and digestive enzymes. Since our gut is damaged, introducing good gut bacteria into our digestive system might help. It could make us poo more often or less often, depending on the situation. These probiotics and digestive enzymes come in a variety of ways. A supplement can be purchased to help with the digestive enzymes. Some people suggest that eating pineapple or papaya will help. Yes, pineapple or papaya help digestion and are good and natural. I got sores in my mouth from the acid in the large amounts of pineapple I was eating. Also, papaya is kinda slimy sometimes. Probiotics are good, but I cannot do kombucha or sauerkraut or kimchi – all foods with lots of probiotics. The pill form of probiotics don’t work very well – see supplements above.

Now, we feel like we’ve done everything we can do to help ourselves. Next up comes the most expensive options – the dietitian, naturopath, chiropractor, or non-insurance covered doctor. I have seen countless wack-a-doodle doctors. I have undergone numerous tests and procedures. I have taken various supplements because they said it would cure whatever ails me (see above regarding supplements). Unfortunately, many, many dollars later, I still feel lousy a lot of the time. None of this gained me any help.

I’m going to try to save you a lot of heartache here. None of these worked to make me feel better. Maybe you found something that worked for you, but I didn’t. Here’s the magic bullet and I really should be charging for this….

Eat whole foods, occasional gluten free processed foods (bread, pasta, pizza, etc.), a 6-week low FODMAP “cleanse”, gentle exercise (too much is too hard on my body), enough sleep, and careful review of the gluten free procedures in my house is the only thing that helped.

This comes from a lot of experience. I hope it saves you a bunch of money and heartache. Everyone is different and maybe you’ve found something that works for you, but if not, you now know the progression.