WHAT IS THE BIG DEAL about Gluten anyway!!!
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EmJBarnes75
Posts: 6
If anyone has dealt with stomach issues this is for you... (this is a matter of opinion, I am not a doctor and you may want to talk with your doctor before trying a GF diet.)
As a kid, I learned that if your stomach hurts, you take medicine... tums, pepto, rolaids, whatever to help... even if it lasted for days...
My first major stomach issues started around puberty; nausea, abdominal cramping, faintness, lightheading, and constipation... every month, and sometimes every week I would deal with this and just learned just that... to deal with it.... as I got older, in my 20's the pains got worse and more frequent. I was told it was from anti-inflammatories I was taking for my knees. Then I was told it was from depression, so I took anti-depressants... for 7 years and guess what... still stomach issues. Next is was possibly my gallbladder... amazingly over the past 20 years I have had a HIDA scan done 3 times and everytime the filtration rate is amazingly in the 90%'s... Then I finally get to a GI Specialist who does an upper GI and tells me, you need to lose weight, that is why you are constipated and you have gastritis, here take some pills(which didn't work)..... so the pain continues and feeling like crap just becomes part of life....
Then I had surgery.... at 33 I had uterine ablation, due to severe pain and discomfort. I had a very bad reaction to the procedure. They did a CT Scan of my pelvis and found that my uterus was fine, but my intestinal tract was extremely inflammed(as the report stated "Irritable Bowel Disease of any number of reasons needs to be considered"). But guess what, I didn't find out about the report stating intestinal inflammation until 5 YEARS LATER! The OBGYN felt it wasn't necessary to tell me because my uterus was fine! So 5 years later I had a hysterectomy and I had another severe reaction to surgery, I became VERY ill.... I couldn't eat anything, and was in a LOT of pain, I will not go into great detail on the symptoms, because frankly... it's really gross. So, I started requesting medical records and guess what I found.... a CT Scan report of my pelvis that I was never told about!
While I was going through all of this, I had a friend who was having medical issues also, she asked me questions about my medical history and if I had every been tested for celiac.. NOPE, what the heck is Celiac Disease??? So with her advice, which I am so thankful for, she directed me to some research and online laboratories that would help me out. So I bought a DNA kit for Celiac and sent it out... 3 weeks later... Not only did I find out I carry a gene for celiac disease but I also carry a gene for gluten sensitivity.... what does all this mean... I HAVE BEEN POISONING MY BODY FOR THE PAST 37 YEARS!!!!! Well it all made since now and frankly I don't really see the need to go to a doctor and have them tell me what I already know, so.... the lifestyle change begins... no more wheat...
It has been 4 months since I have gone GF and I feel great! The first 2 months were rough, not because of going GF, but because my stomach was so irritated and inflammed, I was having problems with dairy, soy, rice and the majority of processed foods... but as of now, I have been able to add back rice, some dairy and some processed GF foods.
Honestly is amazes me that something as simple as changing your diet can heal your body. I don't fight headaches anymore, my blood pressure has regulated and I no longer take BP meds. My moods are much better, not so cranky and PRAISE JESUS MY STOMACH FEELS GREAT!! Every once in awhile I will ingest gluten unintentionally and I will spend about 3 to 4 days getting better, BUT.... I GET BETTER!!! Gluten sensitivity is something that CAN be treated with a diet change. Some people would rather take a pill to feel better, but meds are just another thing to put in our body that we may have a reaction to... have you ever listened to those commercials about "possible side effects"or read the labels? Scary stuff!!!
SO WHAT IS THE BIG DEAL ABOUT GLUTEN, it makes me sick and in my opinion it's making a lot of other people sick too.... if you are stuggling with stomach issues, consider doing some research on GF diet... I believe I caught my sensitivity soon enough that I have not developed Celiac Disease, but if I don't stop eating gluten I am at high risk for developing this disease along with all of the other auto immune issues... so I am thankful for research and friends that were not afraid to talk to me about gluten and give me some guidance
I know that there are some great doctors out there and if your problems do not get better with the GF diet, you may have something more severe and you need to see a doctor. I feel in my case I have been fortunate to get things under control without having to go to a ton of Doctor's appointments. My family physician does know I am GF and is supportive of it.
As a kid, I learned that if your stomach hurts, you take medicine... tums, pepto, rolaids, whatever to help... even if it lasted for days...
My first major stomach issues started around puberty; nausea, abdominal cramping, faintness, lightheading, and constipation... every month, and sometimes every week I would deal with this and just learned just that... to deal with it.... as I got older, in my 20's the pains got worse and more frequent. I was told it was from anti-inflammatories I was taking for my knees. Then I was told it was from depression, so I took anti-depressants... for 7 years and guess what... still stomach issues. Next is was possibly my gallbladder... amazingly over the past 20 years I have had a HIDA scan done 3 times and everytime the filtration rate is amazingly in the 90%'s... Then I finally get to a GI Specialist who does an upper GI and tells me, you need to lose weight, that is why you are constipated and you have gastritis, here take some pills(which didn't work)..... so the pain continues and feeling like crap just becomes part of life....
Then I had surgery.... at 33 I had uterine ablation, due to severe pain and discomfort. I had a very bad reaction to the procedure. They did a CT Scan of my pelvis and found that my uterus was fine, but my intestinal tract was extremely inflammed(as the report stated "Irritable Bowel Disease of any number of reasons needs to be considered"). But guess what, I didn't find out about the report stating intestinal inflammation until 5 YEARS LATER! The OBGYN felt it wasn't necessary to tell me because my uterus was fine! So 5 years later I had a hysterectomy and I had another severe reaction to surgery, I became VERY ill.... I couldn't eat anything, and was in a LOT of pain, I will not go into great detail on the symptoms, because frankly... it's really gross. So, I started requesting medical records and guess what I found.... a CT Scan report of my pelvis that I was never told about!
While I was going through all of this, I had a friend who was having medical issues also, she asked me questions about my medical history and if I had every been tested for celiac.. NOPE, what the heck is Celiac Disease??? So with her advice, which I am so thankful for, she directed me to some research and online laboratories that would help me out. So I bought a DNA kit for Celiac and sent it out... 3 weeks later... Not only did I find out I carry a gene for celiac disease but I also carry a gene for gluten sensitivity.... what does all this mean... I HAVE BEEN POISONING MY BODY FOR THE PAST 37 YEARS!!!!! Well it all made since now and frankly I don't really see the need to go to a doctor and have them tell me what I already know, so.... the lifestyle change begins... no more wheat...
It has been 4 months since I have gone GF and I feel great! The first 2 months were rough, not because of going GF, but because my stomach was so irritated and inflammed, I was having problems with dairy, soy, rice and the majority of processed foods... but as of now, I have been able to add back rice, some dairy and some processed GF foods.
Honestly is amazes me that something as simple as changing your diet can heal your body. I don't fight headaches anymore, my blood pressure has regulated and I no longer take BP meds. My moods are much better, not so cranky and PRAISE JESUS MY STOMACH FEELS GREAT!! Every once in awhile I will ingest gluten unintentionally and I will spend about 3 to 4 days getting better, BUT.... I GET BETTER!!! Gluten sensitivity is something that CAN be treated with a diet change. Some people would rather take a pill to feel better, but meds are just another thing to put in our body that we may have a reaction to... have you ever listened to those commercials about "possible side effects"or read the labels? Scary stuff!!!
SO WHAT IS THE BIG DEAL ABOUT GLUTEN, it makes me sick and in my opinion it's making a lot of other people sick too.... if you are stuggling with stomach issues, consider doing some research on GF diet... I believe I caught my sensitivity soon enough that I have not developed Celiac Disease, but if I don't stop eating gluten I am at high risk for developing this disease along with all of the other auto immune issues... so I am thankful for research and friends that were not afraid to talk to me about gluten and give me some guidance
I know that there are some great doctors out there and if your problems do not get better with the GF diet, you may have something more severe and you need to see a doctor. I feel in my case I have been fortunate to get things under control without having to go to a ton of Doctor's appointments. My family physician does know I am GF and is supportive of it.
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Replies
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What a long process you've had to endure. Thankfully you now have the answer!!!
Gluten/wheat sensitivities are exploding due to the genetic changes to wheat (dwarf vs. tall, drought resistant, etc) and the changes are so significant our bodies cannot digest them the way nature intended. Our wheat also doesn't come from where we live (eg. if you are in Canada and your wheat comes from China...well, the environment is very different there) and really....I think my wheat should come from Canada...we have MORE then enough land to grow it!!!
Good luck on your journey. I was fortunate and caught it weeks after symptoms began, luckily I have an amazing Doctor. I'm currently just intolerant and plan to keep it there. I already have Hypothyroidism so I don't have to worry about the gluten causing that auto-immune disorder but I plan to keep it at the intolerant level vs. Celiac0 -
Sorry to hear you had such trouble!! I am recently diagnosed as gluten intolerant. I now know that I have had this issue for roughly 20 years. I don't think doctors are too gung ho on this issue. I thank God for wonderful friends that helped me through last August through October when I was in so much pain and couldn't eat. I needed to lose weight but definately not that way!!! It was actually the surgeon that suggested I try gluten free. All my tests were normal. My best friend introduced me to another friend that actually has celiac disease. In my first conversation I was amazed!!! she had every symptom that I was going through. She was diagnosed a year and a half ago. I am not celiac thank God...being intolerant is bad enough at times. I also have a 10 year old daughter on the diet. She had enough symptoms and I didn't want her to have to go through what I did...my doctor was not happy with this! Knowing how much better I feel I had to try. I cannot believe the change in how we both feel!!! She reads labels better than I do most of the time. The only trouble I seem to be having is that I have no appetite. I was doing good at maintaining my weight but seem to be loosing ground again. I am down 15 more than I want to be. I am glad you are on track and feeling better. I agree that a lot of people seem to think this "gluten thing" is a joke....we are living proof it is no joke!!!0
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OK, here is another long time sufferer who is allergic to wheat--not life threatening. I am 63 years old and can never remember sleeping peacefully through the night unless I used some kind of cough suppressant. I had asthma, but was not treated for it. I also had many upper respiratory issues. My mom was told that I was allergic to wheat, but the only concession when I was a child was to eat rice or oat cereals; continued to eat sandwiches. Maybe wheat wasn't as bad back then.
Just about a year ago I saw an article in AARP magazine about food allergies, specifically wheat--it was me all over the place. I gave up all wheat and went gluten free. Admittedly, it was a long process, but within 2 or 3 weeks I was sleeping through the night without the cough medicine or sinus medicine. Earlier this year I was able to use the inhaler much, much less. It has been an amazing change!
Did the doctors every diagnose this problem? Nope! They just gave me medicine to treat each symptom. Recently, I was eating my normal Yoplait low fat yogurt and had a severe allergic reaction--nasal passages swelled up, lips got swollen, palms were red and burning--never, ever had that reaction before. Went to the doctor the very next day and had an allergy test--no specific allergies showed up, just something non-specific that couldn't be identified. Two weeks later, I was eating a low fat Dannon yogurt and had a similar, but more severe reaction. Doctors couldn't figure it out. The culprit, according to friends and family was aspartame. So in mind allergy tests don't always work; the elimination process is a much better way to go.
I'm not saying I'm health issue free, but it is a big change for the better and life altering.
Good luck everyone.0 -
How bizarre, lady with the aspartame intolerance, that's exactly what happened to me after giving up wheat...that's a v strange coincidence, took me a while to figure out what was going on....but there is no wheat in this hot chocolate lol0
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I see my story in all of you! I am 53 years old & have had stomach problems since birth! My daughter was diagnosed with celiacs 5 years ago & 3 years for me. I didn't find the answer for me but when my daughter was so sick & in her 20's I had to find the answer. Unfortunately, I love bread, pasta & sweets so I started eating the GF products. Big mistake! They are full of calories, fat & sugar. I have cleaned up my act & am so glad I found this website! So much support & help
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I have been a long time sufferer of gluten sensitivity without knowing what was causing it too. The middle of last year I was introduced to a company that sells GF products. In order to be able to sell the products, I first needed to understand what issues gluten could cause. After doing some research I discovered that I was suffering from many of them. The headaches were so severe that they had cost me a number of jobs, not to mention the stomach problems. The headaches we thought were something I would just have to deal with for the rest of my life because we thought they were a side effect of me having to have brain surgery. After doing the research, I pulled gluten out of my diet for a week, and three days into the week, the headache was gone. Now this was amazing to me after dealing with a headache 24/7 for something like 17 yrs. I have been an insomniac since the age of ten, having removed the gluten from my diet I am sleeping better. I still only get about six hours of sleep but now I'm sleeping deep enough to dream, which is something I haven't done in years. And now I feel more rested upon waking in the mornings. At first we thought it was just a intolerance to gluten but after more research I discovered that its actually a sensitivity. Because I have a reaction to ALL products with gluten in them, shampoos, conditioners, toothpaste. So my sensitivity wasn't just to what I was consuming, it was to the products I was using on a daily basis.
As I look back on my life I see now that all the signs were there back when I was in my pre-teen and teen years. There just wasn't enough known about gluten sensitivity back then. So now I'm in my 40s and finally feel like I am on the right track to being healthy. I have talked to my doctor about going GF even though I have not been tested to confirm the diagnoses, she told me that if it makes me feel better then go for it.
And its nice to find this group and have a place where we can support each other in our journeys. Thank you for sharing your stories.0
