Please Tell Me It Will Get Better

[cheesycow5]

I'm at about 5 and a half weeks gluten free. These have been the worst continuous days I've ever had. Insomnia, low energy, severe anxiety, severe depression, diarrhea, brain fog, mood swings. I barely have the motivation for my once or twice a day ten minute walk or bike ride. I mainly just sit at home and watch TV shows on my laptop when the anxiety isn't too severe.

I took the last quarter of school off because I couldn't function anymore in college. I have until September to basically do nothing at home. Even without responsibilities, this is terrible. I have Klonopin for anxiety, which barely works, and I'm not trying to get addicted, so I barely take it.

All I eat is meat and fruits, and I'll add in other foods when I start feeling better. My brother got diagnosed by Enterolab as being gluten sensitive. Tests showed I have very low testosterone, and thyroid levels are at the bottom end of normal. I see a doctor on April 26, and I think I'll schedule a psychiatrist.

I didn't know it would last this long. I've never really enjoyed life, but this is torture. Please tell me it will end soon or help me get out of this.

[kenlove]

YOu sound like me 5 years ago although I dont think the anxiety was so bad. I didn't spend time on denial either. I did get a couple of hormone injections that helped. Yolo on others on the forum here suggested some B12 which helped a lot with energy. start thinking about some creative things you can make that are gluten free. finding food you can enjoy helps a lot. focus on what you enjoy and do it for you.

good luck

ken

I'm at about 5 and a half weeks gluten free. These have been the worst continuous days I've ever had. Insomnia, low energy, severe anxiety, severe depression, diarrhea, brain fog, mood swings. I barely have the motivation for my once or twice a day ten minute walk or bike ride. I mainly just sit at home and watch TV shows on my laptop when the anxiety isn't too severe.

I took the last quarter of school off because I couldn't function anymore in college. I have until September to basically do nothing at home. Even without responsibilities, this is terrible. I have Klonopin for anxiety, which barely works, and I'm not trying to get addicted, so I barely take it.

All I eat is meat and fruits, and I'll add in other foods when I start feeling better. My brother got diagnosed by Enterolab as being gluten sensitive. Tests showed I have very low testosterone, and thyroid levels are at the bottom end of normal. I see a doctor on April 26, and I think I'll schedule a psychiatrist.

I didn't know it would last this long. I've never really enjoyed life, but this is torture. Please tell me it will end soon or help me get out of this.

[Lgood22573]

I'm sorry you are feeling so bad. I have Celiac disease and Thyroid disease (Hashimoto's disease). Try to hang on until you get into that appointment. Even the "low" end of normal can affect some people a great deal. Make sure you voice exactly how bad you feel, some doctors want to look at the numbers and not the symptoms when it comes to thyroid tests. With medication, I feel fabulous.

[tarnalberry]

Are you being treated for the low testosterone and borderline low thyroid? Both of those will significantly contribute to everything you've said.

(I have low testosterone, and under normal circumstances, I am on meds for it. Topical didn't do much for me, so I took a 1mg troche (dissolve under the tongue, has to be compounded at a compounding pharmacy) every day.

[cheesycow5]

Are you being treated for the low testosterone and borderline low thyroid? Both of those will significantly contribute to everything you've said.

(I have low testosterone, and under normal circumstances, I am on meds for it. Topical didn't do much for me, so I took a 1mg troche (dissolve under the tongue, has to be compounded at a compounding pharmacy) every day.

I just found out right before I left college when I still had student insurance, and now I have Medicaid and the earliest they could schedule me was the 26th. I now have a psych appointment on the 20th as well. Should I try to buy testosterone replacement myself?

[Brien]

See if your doctor can screen you for vitamin levels. Your vitamin D and B's may be way off. Have your hormone levels checked as well as your adrenals. Some regular doctors may balk at this approach, if they do, leave and see a holistic or integrative doctor.

[cheesycow5]

See if your doctor can screen you for vitamin levels. Your vitamin D and B's may be way off. Have your hormone levels checked as well as your adrenals. Some regular doctors may balk at this approach, if they do, leave and see a holistic or integrative doctor.

I can barely see a regular doctor with medicaid insurance, and even for that I have to wait a month. They'll probably retest my levels, so I won't get prescribed anything for at least a month and a half.

[tarnalberry]

I just found out right before I left college when I still had student insurance, and now I have Medicaid and the earliest they could schedule me was the 26th. I now have a psych appointment on the 20th as well. Should I try to buy testosterone replacement myself?

There are testosterone precursors that you can buy OTC, but I would just wait until you can get the real stuff (which requires a prescription) instead, as you don't know what your rate of conversion is in your own body. (It's not really cheap, but I think I paid $100 for a three month supply, without insurance.) Not all doctors will treat it (especially in women :/ ), but some will.

[Takala]

Same advice as was given to you on this thread in February:

If you don't clean up and balance your diet, eating more than just meat and fruit, no amount of medication can fix that. Doctors are terrible at properly diagnosing any sort of nutritional related disease, and most of them are clueless about the symptoms of gluten intolerance and celiac.

If you are stuck in a lousy medical group I would suggest you find and print off the real symptoms and side effects of celiac, which are not just "GI symptoms," such as can be found written by experts in this field, and take those with you with every doctor's appointment if you are dealing with one of these clowns who doesn't listen well. My current PCP humors me on this topic, but that is because I explained the story of the neurologist from He(( to him and he's seen the test results said neuro tried to blow off as nothing ( I had the brain lesions from long term damage). I've also told him I don't care what the blood tests show, that after "x" years gluten free no doctor would ever convince me to eat it again because I like being able to do things like walk, hike, swim, type, think, write, etc, and I've obviously improved.

______________________

example of things American Doctors haven't heard about Celiac:

Gluten ataxia in perspective, epidemiology, genetic susceptibility and clinical characteristics , by Marios Hadjivassiliou1, Richard Gr

[cheesycow5]

If you don't clean up and balance your diet, eating more than just meat and fruit, no amount of medication can fix that. Doctors are terrible at properly diagnosing any sort of nutritional related disease, and most of them are clueless about the symptoms of gluten intolerance and celiac.

How should I balance my diet? I'm trying to avoid any possible intolerances until I get better. What do you recommend?

I will do what you suggested when seeing the doctor, but I'll have to wait at least a month for anything from them. Any suggestions for while I'm sitting here at home?

[Reba32]

but you don't know you have an intolerance until/unless you eat something you're intolerant to. You cant just decide not to eat a whole range of foods because you *might* be intolerant to it. Go slowly, but you still need to eat in order to find out what you *can* eat.

Stick with whole, natural foods, vegetables, fruits, meats, dairy, eggs, etc etc etc... When you're grocery shopping stick to the outside aisles. No packaged or manufactured foods, no "frankenfoods", no multi-syllabic ingredients that you can't identify or pronounce. Get a proper balance at every meal of fats, protiens and veggies/fruits (more on the veggies than fruits though IMO). Get lots of fibre, and drink lots of plain water.

Get a good multi-vitimin, and then take extra B, C, and D. Take fish oil tablets, and calcium, and magnesium.

It does get better, but it won't do it on it's own. YOU have to get better. And YOU have to make up your mind to do it yourself. Most doctors have no clue about Celiac or nutrition in general. (one brilliant nurologist I know has even said it doesn't matter what or how much a person eats, as long as they take a multi-vitimin )

If you need medication yes, by all means you need to get that from a doctor. But you can't get better unless you eat better.

[sandsurfgirl]

I agree with people who say to expand your diet. Why aren't you eating any vegetables? If you are not getting enough carbs and going into ketosis that's compounding your problems.

Eat brown rice. Try some plain potatoes eventually (yes some people do have nightshade troubles but not everyone.) Try sweet potatoes. Eat zucchini, green beans, lettuce, carrots.

If brown rice agrees with you, get some brown rice pasta. You need carbs. Also eat avocadoes and olive oil for good fats.

Low thyroid causes depression and anxiety as does celiac. The thyroid might be the key to your problems with that. If you can get a doctor to prescribe natural thyroid like Armour or Westhroid, not only is it very effective (and many on thyroid forums love it way more than the synthetic) it's super cheap. I pay like $20 a month for mine out of pocket. It's cheaper to buy it than my insurance copay.

[Takala]

How should I balance my diet? I'm trying to avoid any possible intolerances until I get better. What do you recommend?

I will do what you suggested when seeing the doctor, but I'll have to wait at least a month for anything from them. Any suggestions for while I'm sitting here at home?

_________________

Ah, for the days before that stupid USDA food pyramid.... There used to be this thing called the "basic four" that everybody understood. Then the food pyramid came out, treating us all as vegetarian feedlot animals, completely overloading everyone on grain recommended servings per day, and everything went pffffffffffffffft. Basic 4 = Meat or protein, dairy, fruit&vegetable, grain. They said eat some of each at all meals and it would work out, and it usually did.

Eat more green vegetables. That is the thing most people lack.

For each meal, look at it and ask yourself, does this contain the following out of the Basic Four:

1.protein meat, fish, chicken, or other protein such as eggs, nuts or beans

2."dairy", such as yogurt, hard cheese, butter, cream, or non dairy milk substitute containing calcium, such as a nut milk, hemp milk, rice milk, or fortified other gluten free drink. If butter doesn't work for the fat, you can use olive oil, coconut oil, coconut milk. avocados are great for cheese substitutes.

3. fruit and vegetables at least 2 servings of each per day

4. grain, gluten free, such as rice, corn, sorghum, millet, quinoa, etc, or carbohydrate vegetable substitute, such as potatoes, beans, seeds, nut meals. This varies with how much your body actually needs. Some people need 3 or 4 or more servings a day.

Don't be afraid to eat a non traditional breakfast. I like cereal, but it has to be very nutrient dense, with nuts, and more of a treat as my brain does better on egg, vegetable, fruit, nuts, fish, cheese, or whatever else for breakfast. Most nut milks are too sugary for me, and I had to switch to an unsweetened one for myself, because that and the cereal carbs were spiking my blood sugar and then making me crash.

Where we tend to differ from regular people, is that many of us can, if we want to, switch over to a very low carb diet with relatively a lot of fat, and that will work out for our metabolisms and for our guts during the healing phase. Some people here are on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, or SCD, which is grainless. I started out that way and then slowly added rice and beans (well drained) back into my diet, then got bolder and added potato once in a while. The SCD uses nuts ground up for a grain substitute, usually almonds. I still grind almonds in a blender for gluten free baking, because they are high protein, tasty, and lower carbohydrate, but I add in other gluten free grains sometimes. Almonds sit right in my stomach.

I still can't eat the gross amounts of carbohydrate grains that most Americans consume, it's too much, but I've gotten to where I can eat a few servings a day. But that food pyramid was crazy, it was recommending almost no meat and no fat, and replacing all of it with 9 to 12 servings of grain a day.

Long term, unless you are a carb burner and extremely hyper, that tends to make one more prone to insulin resistance, not to mention heartburn.

Remember, you can seldom go wrong eating more green vegetables and at least 2 servings of that and fresh fruit per day. And don't forget good fat, such as found in olive oil, coconut oil, nuts, avocados, hemp milk.

protein, dairy or fat substitute, fruit and vegetable, gluten free grain or carb sub.

Sample menus:

eggs with almonds, stir fried veggies, fruit, gluten free nut milk or coconut milk in coffee or tea

fish, rice, vegetable, fruit (leftover sushi, or fried salmon, or tilapia, cabbage slaw, apple. )

gluten free crackers with humus or pinto dip, rice cake with peanut butter, tortilla with beans and cheese, salad, fruit

boxed gluten free soup with added vegetables and rinsed canned beans, nuked in microwave. gluten free bread, meat or egg. fruit

corn tortilla with tomato sauce, olive oil, and veggies, and optional cheese = mini pizza

rice pasta with tomato sauce and olive oil and lots of vegetables, such as fresh bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, garlic, and meat cooked into it, with some sort of vegetable on the side (broccoli works)

melon with cream cheese and smoked salmon, almond meal pancakes with strawberries or blueberries, bacon optional. Okay, not all breakfasts have vegetables.

baked chicken, rice, broccoli. everybody eats this. put olive oil or gluten free mayo on the broccoli.

potato, baked then smothered in chile, or yogurt, olive oil, butter, or whatever suits your fancy. side veggie.

pesto. take olive oil, throw in garlic, basil (even dried basil works) and chopped nuts, saute, add to cooked gluten-free pasta. Serve as a side dish to steak or hamburger. you can also do this with spinach.

pumpkin mixed with yogurt and honey, nuts. gluten free toast. fruit. Hah. another way to sneak in a vegetable.

sweet potato oven fries (baked sweet potato in microwave, slice, toss with oil, finish under broiler) with meat and vegetable. very good with chicken

you don't feel like cooking:

take gluten free frozen bread item, like bread or bagel, thaw, toast, add gluten free lunchmeat (yes, buddig is one brand of this) and avocado and/or cheese and tomato.

peanut butter and jelly on corn tortilla.

tuna and green salsa and mayo on corn tortilla.

add some bagged salad greens and fruit.

For salad dressing, you can use real apple cider vinegar, balsamic, or a wedge of lemon or lime, and a little olive oil, a tiny sprinkle of salt. These homemade sprinkle on dressings let you taste the vegetables better.

Gluten free ketchups and mustards are at any health food store and most groceries, they can be added to customize. Ketchup, mustard, and maple syrup = fast BBQ sauce. Tabasco in the US is gluten free. SanJ makes wheat free Tamari soy sauce.

You have to eat. It will make you feel better.

[WheatChef]

Vegetables are miles and miles above fruit in terms of health. Think of fruit as the little kid's version of vegetables. There's just so many various micronutrients available in vegetables and a lot better sugar profiles.

Since you're low in testosterone I'd specifically recommend loading up on cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, collard greens, cabbage etc (google brassica oleracea). These vegetables have a compound in them which are fantastic for male health as they alter hormone metabolism and help decrease any estrogen dominance. A concentrated form of this compound is taken by bodybuilders in their "off" phase to prevent gynocomastia, but additionally the brassica plants are chock full of a lot of different polyphenols and other strong antioxidants which are great for optimum health.

Additionally from the sound of your diet you're probably very far below good consumption levels of omega 3 fatty acids. Consumption of most grains and grain oils normally causes too high a ratio of omega 6/omega 3 and causes structural changes not only in your body but your brain as well. The same can be said for the meat we eat as for example grain fed beef (the majority of beef sold) contains a much higher ratio of omega 6/omega 3s than grass fed beef. Either you can swap to grass fed beef (more expensive) or you can just add in moderate consumption of tree nuts and/or supplement with flaxseed oil. The flaxseed oil often times can be bought with extra lignans which are also beneficial to peak testosterone health.

[kenlove]

I would have to dispute this to some extent -- primarily its the balance thats needed although if your only talking about the usual, picked way to early, flavorless fruit found in most American grocery stores, your right. Fresh, more exotic tropical fruit with their different amino acid compounds, natural digestive enzymes and highest natural occurrence of different vitamins (C in Acerola and A in Canistel) are much healthier than the average tasteless picked way to early overcooked veggies. The micronutrients in tropical fruit ( not the sugar processed network marketed junk) and natural antioxidants far outweigh most common vegetables.

Ken

Vegetables are miles and miles above fruit in terms of health. Think of fruit as the little kid's version of vegetables. There's just so many various micronutrients available in vegetables and a lot better sugar profiles.

[Midwest]

I hear ya.

About three years ago my wife told me she was tired of my being tired all the time and that I needed to go to the doctor. The doctor said it had to be low testosterone. I took the required blood tests and he was right, it was pretty low. He prescribed Androgel, a gel that is smeared on the shoulders and abdomen daily, and he assured me that I'd soon be full of energy again. He also said that was why I was losing my hair.

Then here I am three years later, at 40, still losing my hair and still feeling pretty much exhausted.

It was only through a friend about three or four weeks ago saying that I probably was wheat intolerant that I learned about Celiac disease and gluten intolerance. I've been eating gluten-free for three weeks now (except one case of being glutinated) and my symptoms have started disappearing (stomach pain, throat irritation, tiredness, etc.). I'm definitely not so energized that I'm back to where I was in my 20's but I can start to tell the difference so far.

But it still seems like such a slow process. As I remember somebody writing on these forums somewhere, if one has suffered for years, it isn't going to take a month or two of eating gluten-free to be up to par again. It takes time.

Of course it is still depressing to wait while the body heals. I am very optimistic person and have started finding myself a bit depressed this week. I chalk it up to the knowledge that I'll have to live this way forever probably and that my body is going through some changes as a result of the new food lifestyle. To put it plainly, it sucks. But I also know that most of the folks here have reported improvements in their lives and so I know things will get better and better over time.

Hang in there. We all just need to try to adjust as best as we can despite it all. Eventually things will improve.

[WheatChef]

I would have to dispute this to some extent -- primarily its the balance thats needed although if your only talking about the usual, picked way to early, flavorless fruit found in most American grocery stores, your right. Fresh, more exotic tropical fruit with their different amino acid compounds, natural digestive enzymes and highest natural occurrence of different vitamins (C in Acerola and A in Canistel) are much healthier than the average tasteless picked way to early overcooked veggies. The micronutrients in tropical fruit ( not the sugar processed network marketed junk) and natural antioxidants far outweigh most common vegetables.

Ken

Trust me whenever the trees in my yard get ripe I feast on copious amounts of mangoes and atemoyas yet anywhere else in the mainland states the tropical fruit supply is not only low in quantity but horrendously low in quality. Barring some local specialties most of the supply of available fruits comes in the form of apples and bananas. Those two alone account for 50% of American fruit consumption and those have been progressively bred for higher and higher sugar content. Basically what you end up with is a soda pop fruit with pretty small quantities of actual substance especially when you consider the large percentage of people who peel their apples before consumption, virtually eliminating any beneficial elements. Those two fruit you mentioned possibly can be found very sporadically along the western 3 coastal states but are absent everywhere else.

I always recommend vegetables because they are severely nutrient dense in regards to calories when compared to fruits. This becomes even more important with all the new research coming out in regards to possible health complications of fructose consumption. The botanically fruit yet culinarily vegetables (tomatoes, avocados, plantains etc) are also normally really good bets for consumption, and citrus consumption is quite splendid as well as a decent way to cut down on salt consumption.