sadeewhip

For the last 10 years I have been dealing with steadily declining health. In fact, I had 53 worsening symptoms before I found out what was going on.

People who know me know that I am always on some new health diet. People never know what I am eating or not. This is because I have been trying for so long to get my health to improve.

Some of my symptoms can be explained by one thing or another but, until recently, nothing explained them all. Let me paint a picture of what a typical day was like for me.

I slept fitfully due to chronic insomnia. Morning used to be my favorite time of day but it became increasingly difficult to just wake up. I would sit and drink very strong tea and wait for the caffeine to kick-in in the hopes of getting some energy from it. If the tea worked I would have a tiny window to be productive if the brain fog weren’t too bad that day. Then I would sit on the couch, mentally berating myself for not getting out and walking or seeing friends. The lack of motivation, focus, energy and passion was bad enough but if I did go for a walk I would be so fatigued afterward that it would take 2 days to recover. My muscles burned from climbing a flight of stairs. Battling dry skin, psoriasis, itchy ears and cracking nails seemed like a daily war.

The last several months before I discovered what was going on also involved near daily migraines - the kind that make you light sensitive and nauseous. My enthusiasm, playfulness and sex drive were declining, too. I started watching a lot of TV and surfing the internet just to pass the time until I could justify going to sleep. I became increasingly anti-social as well. My work suffered, my relationships suffered, and I suffered. I even began to think it was all in my head and that I was mental - that I just needed to change my attitude or “think differently” or just use will power and make myself change. I felt nuts because I couldn’t think my way out of it or affect significant change through all my efforts. It was no way to live.

I have studied the human body since I was 8 and herbs and nutrition since I was 16. I have helped people recover from illnesses that doctors could not treat. But I could not find a solution to this. I tried everything I could to affect my health and the only thing that really seemed to give results was a 100% raw diet - which just isn’t realistic for me, especially since my partner at the time didn’t eat that way and I live in Seattle and not hot food ½ the year just isn’t a workable solution. Besides, I had no diagnosis and didn’t even know what I was dealing with.

I finally got the Swine Flu. I love the Swine Flu because it got me to an excellent and skilled naturopath. He gave me a vitamin C injection to boost my immune system. As he removed the needle some blood came out and he commented on how thin my blood is (It was a tiny needle and shouldn’t have bled). I mentioned I am extremely ferritin deficient and just couldn’t get my blood iron levels to increase. He thought it was strange and gave me some really good iron pills.

As I was leaving the office I said “Hey, while I’m here, let me tell you a few of the symptoms I deal with and you tell me if it sounds like anything to you.” I rattled off a dozen or so symptoms and he said “It sounds like a food allergy.”

So I went home sick as a dog from the swine flu and got on the internet and did some research. I had always known I don’t seem to do as well when I eat wheat but I never got completely better when I avoided it. Turns out it isn’t a food allergy. But his suggestion led me to the answer: Gluten-intolerance.

Gluten-intolerance is an immune system response to the protein found in wheat, rye, barley, oats, and relatives of wheat. And gluten is in everything. Including my favorite salad dressing that I used to eat almost daily.

What happens is your immune system registers the protein molecule, i.e. gluten, as a foreign invader and attacks it. This attack also damages the tiny hairs, or villi, in the small intestine that are responsible for absorbing nutrients from food. Even a teeny tiny amount of gluten sets off the immune system - like one crumb in the butter can keep you sick.

Many people have heard of Celiacs Disease, which is one type of gluten-intolerance, but few people know what it is. And not all gluten-intolerance manifests as Celiacs.

Gluten-intolerance results in inflammation from the immune system working overtime and malabsorption from damage of the immune system attacking the small intestine, making it impossible to absorb what you eat. In fact, many people with gluten-intolerance eat all the time and can’t stop eating. This is because the body isn’t getting what it needs to function properly so it sends a signal to the brain to eat more in an attempt to get the required nutrients. I was eating huge amounts and eating all the time like I was driven to food. It’s like being possessed and you feel horrible and guilty about it, especially if you are gaining weight. I now eat very little comparatively and don’t feel hungry all the tie for the first time in years.

Over the years the inflammation causes pain and stiffness, especially in the neck, back and joints. And the malabsorption causes all the other symptoms.

No one has identical symptoms with gluten intolerance. And some people have no symptoms only to wake up one day with some hideous disease.

People typically think of Celiacs as having chronic diarrhea and being really skinny. In fact it is just as common to have constipation and more common to be overweight. I had gained over 25 pounds this last year. When I cut out gluten the weight came off in 3 months.

If you don’t feel well and no one can figure out why, get checked for gluten sensitivity. 1 in 10 people are gluten-sensitive and 1 in 100 have Celiacs. Both are very dangerous.

Here is just a partial list of symptoms:

• Mouth Sores (canker sores)
• Cracks in Corners of Lips
• Tooth Enamel Defects or Discoloration
• Frequent Indigestion
• Malodorous frequent gas
• Malodorous light or clay colored stools
• Steatorrhea (floating stools)
• Bloating
• Abdominal Distension (look like gained 2 sizes, belly is hard)
• Chronic diarrhea or constipation
• Irritability or Moodiness
• Depression
• Muscle Weakness
• Chronic fatigue, (Exhaustion)
• Bone or Joint Pain, (Aching Joints)
• Infertility (miscarriage, delayed puberty in girls, irregular menstruation.)
• Skin Rashes (eczema, psoriasis, boils)
• Dermatitis Herpetiformis (skin rash related to celiac disease)
• Peripheral Neuropathy (tingling or numbness in arms and legs)
• Ataxia (gait difficulty, balance problems, uncoordinated walking)
• Weight Changes (gain or loss of weight)
• Anxiety
• Edema
• Back and neck pain
• Migraines
• Headaches
• Adult pimples
• Iron deficiency

If you have any of these symptoms I want to encourage you to get checked for gluten-sensitivity. It’s a simple blood test that looks for particular anti-bodies.

In just 3 months since I have been gluten-free 90% of my symptoms are gone. I feel like a new woman. My energy continues to increase almost daily. My skin issues and headaches and back pain and brain fog are all gone. My stomach is flat again.  I sleep like a baby for the first time in my life. I want to participate in life again and am becoming more and more social. It has been a miracle.

I figure if it took me, with my background and research-obsessed nature, more than 10 years to find an answer then there are a lot of other people suffering without answers as well. I have been to many different health care professionals over the years with these symptoms and none of them went towards gluten-intolerance. You need to ask to be tested.

I hope you do not have gluten-intolerance. But if you do, it really isn’t as hard as people make it sound to be gluten-free. There are many support groups and recipe books and all kinds of resources. My tactic has been to simply eliminate all grains and sugar and it works great. It makes it so I don’t have to work to substitute all the flour products. I have found that restaurants are more than happy to accommodate dietary restrictions and I have yet to get “glutenated” from eating out.

If you do discover you are gluten-intolerant, congratulations! You are about to get your life, vitality, health and self back! It can take several months to a couple of years to fully recover but you can and will recover. And you are certainly not alone. Here’s to your new life - cheers.