Sudden Encephalopathy And Possible Celiac?

[Mtndog]

Hi Y'all- My aunt woke up one day two weeks ago (I just found out today) and had NO short term memory. She's had all sorts of tests ruling out tumors, etc and they haven't mentioned Alzheimer's or dementia because it was so sudden. My cousin told me the doctors are baffled.

I told her that maybe celiac was a possibility since her blood niece (I'm adopted so I'm not blood related) has celiac on her siter's side has celiac (my mom- her sister- died of stomach cancer and no one has a CLUE why she got it).

I told her to have her tested.

Encephalopathy can be caused by malnutrition so I'm wondering if malabsorption is an issue.

Any thoughts? I'm really worried.

I found this link, but could it happen THAT suddenly?

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[georgie]

My mother had that happen. She woke up and didn't know who she was , or where she was , or anything at all. It was really scary. Mums improved. She had to go back to bed for a long deep sleep of 20 hours ( drug induced ) and then when she rewoke she was lots better. There is a name for it - can't recall it now. Does that sound like your aunt ? Mum's happened 20 years ago now, and she made nearly a full recovery with just some memory loss.

[Mtndog]

No, my aunt remembers everything but what happened five minutes ago.

Here's the freaky thing. i emailed her daughter to tell her about the neurological part of celiac and my cousin emailed me back to say that my aunt has known for several years that she has a "mild" case of celiac but hasn't been following the diet because her symptoms aren't that bad.

I wanted to scream! I told her that you can have no symptoms and still be doing damage internally and that I have friends whose only symptoms are neuro.

What really freaks me out is that this is my mom's side of the family and my mom died of a rare form of stomach cancer 3 years ago. She was never tested for celiac and if she had it, she was asymptomatic.

[Guest nini]

I'm so sorry about your aunt, I haven't got a clue... isn't it frustrating when you find out someone you love KNOWS they have a problem but aren't doing anything about it because "it's not that bad"??? Especially with Celiac... the effects are cumulative, it can only get worse if she doesn't decide to stick to the diet.

[Mtndog]

Thank you for the support. Sometimes I feel like the celiac police, but I just want to spare everyone else what Ii've been through. Argghhh!

[Guest adamssa]

Hi!

I'm sorry that I didn't notice this thread earlier. I had something somewhat similar happen to me--when I first got long lasting brain fog it came on suddenly. I was having really terrible gi problems at the same time and dizzy after eating. At first, after the severe dizziness went away my mind was clear. Then, one horrible day last year I got very, very, dizzy and was in a lot of pain and ended up in the ER. I then had brain fog (and at first it was pretty severe) that did not lift entirely until this summer after I had been gluten-free for a few months. (Then it came back and now I"m getting it under control again...long story...I post obssively about possible fog causes

It was very, very, very, very scary and depressing for me, and I know that you are more mentioning memory loss than brain fog. But, if I can recover from a sudden onset of brain fog that severe than a good thing is that it is possible for similar things to happen to everyone.

Unfortunatly, the thing with me is that there were a lot of factors. I had my gallbladder out shortly after going to the ER, they thought that was it. My own theory though, is that it was a combination of that and the gluten, and that at some point something just tipped the balance and my body couldn't take anymore. Something else to look into is a severe hypoglycemia episode.

The good and bad thing about message boards is that we all post about our own experiences, and try and connect everything that happens to someone else with what's happened to us to make sense of it. Sometimes it's hard to know when you should make connections or not. But, I guess I would say that I would guess that fog can suddenly happen because of a gluten probem.

all the best,

Sara

[AndreaB]

Bev,

I'm sorry about your Aunt. It's so frustrating when people think Celiac isn't that bad.

Please keep us posted if you will.