Apparently I have wheat intolerance

[Yerushalmi]

Eating gluten-free isn't that bad taste-wise, but when you're first starting out it's so time consuming finding out what has gluten in it.

I mean, shampoo and makeup, for Christ's sake?

I'm not surprised they make these (they make "certified kosher for passover" shampoo, makeup, and even drain cleaner, which is just idiotic). But do people with celiac actually need them? I was under the impression the only problem was with ingestion.

They need them. If my mom uses lip balm or make up with gluten in it, her face breaks out in sores. If she uses shampoo with gluten in it, her hair will begin to fall out in clumps.

It affects the whole body. And if you ingest gluten, it can do more than give you just some tummy aches.

Celiac disease is when the lining of your intestines gets eaten away by your own antibodies because it's too similar, chemically, to gluten. As far as I know the only way to activate it is to ingest it - but even if the antibodies are triggerable from other parts of the body, they won't do anything to the other parts of the body.

What your mom has sounds like an actual honest-to-god gluten allergy, not celiac disease.

I'm finding it a little offensive that someone who isn't a doctor thinks they know what my mom has been going through for the past five years or more.

Gluten Allergy Symptoms

"Gluten allergy" is a misnomer anyways. Celiac's Disease is an auto-immune disorder.

Please don't be offended. I try to be precise in my language (my failure to do so in our infamous makeup argument notwithstanding), and that's why I added things like "as far as I know". I deliberately didn't say "you're wrong", I said "it sounds like". I know I'm not a doctor, which is why I didn't try to state it as fact.

I know that celiac is not an allergic disorder. That's precisely what I was basing my statement on. It's also the reason I added the 'actual honest-to-god' bit, because the latter is often used incorrectly to refer to the former, and from what you said it sounds like your mom really does have the latter.

If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But if that's the case I'm very curious as to how the physiology of such a reaction is even possible. Celiac symptoms are not supposed to be local - the very page you linked to says as much! As Richard Feynman said, "I have to understand the world, you see."