One Year On Diet

[AVR1962]

Been on a gluten-free diet now for a year. The year has been a very hard and challenging one to say the least. So many issues have bore their ugly head and one by one I have stomped out the fire to keep my body going. What I can say, as much as I seem to have taken 2 steps fwd and 1 step back, I have improved. The diet REALLY does help and persistance pays. Once I could get all the gluten out of my diet I regained my balance, had been off-balance for 9 months. Vit supplements were a HUGE help top getting my health back. I am sleeping well again.

I do have some nueropathy issues and still in the process of seeing if there could be any other source for it besides gluten. Recently blood work showed I am pre-diabetic which has been kind of bewildering but thanks to learning the gluten-free diet, the changes I have had to make to exclude more carbs has been quite simple and I am feeling better.

To the newbies, don't doubt it, hand in there. It does take awhile but it is well worth working thru the struggles.

[BabsV]

Congrats on your first anniversary! I am glad that you are regaining your health slowly but surely. I hope you continue to improve.

[Bubba's Mom]

Been on a gluten-free diet now for a year. The year has been a very hard and challenging one to say the least. So many issues have bore their ugly head and one by one I have stomped out the fire to keep my body going. What I can say, as much as I seem to have taken 2 steps fwd and 1 step back, I have improved. The diet REALLY does help and persistance pays. Once I could get all the gluten out of my diet I regained my balance, had been off-balance for 9 months. Vit supplements were a HUGE help top getting my health back. I am sleeping well again.

I do have some nueropathy issues and still in the process of seeing if there could be any other source for it besides gluten. Recently blood work showed I am pre-diabetic which has been kind of bewildering but thanks to learning the gluten-free diet, the changes I have had to make to exclude more carbs has been quite simple and I am feeling better.

To the newbies, don't doubt it, hand in there. It does take awhile but it is well worth working thru the struggles.

It's really a long process of finding out just what's right for your body isn't it? I can really relate to the two steps forward and one back part of it.

I'm still having balance issues, but if they'd go away I'd feel pretty good!

Wishing you continued improvement in this journey.

[IrishHeart]

Good for you! Yaay! I know you have struggled this past year, yet here you are, reporting such good news.

Slow and steady progress is proof that the body can heal.

One thing that helped me in the last year of healing was to come to terms with how long it takes to recover. While I do not like the idea of a slow recovery, it beats the hell out of NO recovery. Near death was not much fun.

Like you, I still have issues to resolve, too--but I look at how far I have come and I just think how much better I will be a year from now.

You may be interested to hear this story: I met a fellow celiac in her 70's who told me she feels better now than she has in her entire life. (she was Dxed 8 years ago) She moves, acts and looks like someone in her 50's. (oh goodie, we can age backwards!) She told me, "things get better and better". She said she never knew what I felt like to "feel good" but she does now.

So, A, my friend...we will be a couple of healthy old broads.

Hang in there and believe!

All the best,

IH

[AVR1962]

Good for you! Yaay! I know you ahve struggled this past year, yet here you are, reporting such good news.

Slow and steady progress is proof that the body can heal.

One thing that helped me in the last year of healing was to come to terms with how long it takes to recover. While I do not like the idea of a slow recovery, it beats the hell out of NO recovery. Near death was not much fun.

Like you, I still have issues to resolve, too--but I look at how far I have come and I just think how much better I will be a year from now.

You may be interested to hear this story: I met a fellow celiac in her 70's who told me she feels better now than she has in her entire life. (she was Dxed 8 years ago) She moves, acts and looks like someone in her 50's. (oh goodie, we can age backwards!) She told me, "things get better and better". She said she never knew what I felt like to "feel good" but she does now.

So, A, my friend...we will be a couple of healthy old broads.

Hang in there and believe!

All the best,

IH

Thanks fopr sharing that story, it is inspiring! I am now 2 weeks into a no grain diet/ dairy-free, thought it would impossible at one point and when people said they were grain free I was feeling pretty lucky that I thought I didn't have to do the same. But I tell you, I have never felt better. I have been doing my glucose readings.....first week a little rough and they were going up and down. This morning I had my first normal range reading before breakfast and I feeling like I am really making progress. No meds for me, doing it all thru diet and exercise. It is possible. How I got this way, I have no idea and sometimes I ask myself "why?" I have seen so many people eat meals stuffed with gluten and sugar and live their whole lives uneffected.....people who drink and smoke and don't exercise and their health is better than mine. I have always been a health nut and this happens? All I can think is either my body is more sensative or stress throughout the years has really done a number on my body. Good thing is when I look back to a year ago, there is NO comparison. And like your said IrishHeart, it was like coming back from death itself. I am now walking up to 1 1/2 hours a day. I do longer have the terrible joint pain I used to deal with. I remember when just vaccuming my rugs was hard and exhausting. Yeah!!!!!!! and to the newbies who I bewildered by doc's advise, READ and take the advise of those who have lived it. If I would have took my docs advise and eliminated the supplments like he suggested and if I would have takne his word and never persued anything more when he told me there was nothing wrong with me, I would be dead now. My body was suffering and eventhough the standardized testing methods were not showing the problem, there definately was issues. For whatever reason standardized testing does not work for me but when they dug a little deeper, more in-depth testing they were able to find the problem.

[notme]

yayyy for you!!! i am 18+ months gluten free and the difference is amazing IH is right: i never believed that after all this time my health continues to improve. my weight is holding steady - although i could use about 5-10 more pounds - and MY HAIR IS GROWING IN!!! all these things i had given up hope in having back - my balance/vertigo is so well in check that i actually *drove* up through florida and halfway through georgia without ANY anxiety (except for the part when i almost ran out of gas lolz) so it actually DOES take this much time to heal. man, i must have been really sick!!

to anyone who is a newbie/struggling with this diet: it is totally worth it. hang in there!!!

[IrishHeart]

yayyy for you!!! i am 18+ months gluten free and the difference is amazing IH is right: i never believed that after all this time my health continues to improve. my weight is holding steady - although i could use about 5-10 more pounds - and MY HAIR IS GROWING IN!!! all these things i had given up hope in having back - my balance/vertigo is so well in check that i actually *drove* up through florida and halfway through georgia without ANY anxiety (except for the part when i almost ran out of gas lolz) so it actually DOES take this much time to heal. man, i must have been really sick!!

to anyone who is a newbie/struggling with this diet: it is totally worth it. hang in there!!!

Fantastic news!

Good for you, too!

My hair is still thin-ish and my pain level is still high, but any time I hear another progress report, I am inspired beyond words.

Have even driven a bit recently, too. I lost that ability when my reflexes were so shot, my vision blurred and my anxiety level uncharacteristically sky high. I nearly lost everything to this thing, but I am taking my life back.

Thanks for posting!

[AVR1962]

Not me, good for you! best to you for continued improvement!!

IrishHeart, I find it interesting that you too had problems with blurred vision. That was one of my first signs that something was wrong. Have you found any other reason or way to improve your vision? For me, eye doc said my eyes were good. I had several diabetes tests all came back negative....they finally did a 2 hour glucose which showed I was pre-diabetic but docs said this could not cause the problems I was having. Eventhough my test levels showed I was in normal range I found vit A (cod liver oil) is what helped me. Yet again docs do not get it and I have had to figure this all out for myself.

Funny how docs love to thru you prescripts but either don't think as vits as a solution, or in many cases actually advise against the use of vits. CONTINUED GOOD HEALTH TO YOU AS WELL IrishHeart!!

[IrishHeart]

My vision has cleared. I did, however, recently have a sudden onset of blurred vision, black floaters or "cobwebs" and lightning in the corner of my right eye. Went to the ER, fearing retinal detachment, but it was "only" vitreous detachment, which hopefully will clear itself. The eye doc said I dodged a bullet for now. These annoying floaters were numerous when I was very sick and had started to go away. I asked the opthamologist--does this have ANYTHING at all to do with vitamin defs, celiac, malabsorption, macular degeneration (which my mother has) or inflammation.

He said "Honestly, I do not know, but it is associated with diabetes and inflammation. I do know that in time, it resolves."

That was a month ago. It is clear but I still get "light shows " in my eye at night, which he said is no cause for alarm.

I still have poor night vision, but it has improved. I do not drive for that reason.

He did say "Take a good multivitamin with LUTEIN", which I already do

P.S. Be very careful supplementing with high levels of Vitamin A. It can cause serious problems.

[inspired421]

Wow, I am so glad to hear others with symptoms similar to mine - vertigo, balance problems, blurred vision, floaters.

IH, I used to have flashes of light every month when I ovulated. The flashes stopped, but come back occasionally. Weird. Sometimes at night, if I close my eyes & press on the corner of my right eye, I see what you described as "lightning." Also weird.

Thank you so much for sharing.

[IrishHeart]

Wow, I am so glad to hear others with symptoms similar to mine - vertigo, balance problems, blurred vision, floaters.

IH, I used to have flashes of light every month when I ovulated. The flashes stopped, but come back occasionally. Weird. Sometimes at night, if I close my eyes & press on the corner of my right eye, I see what you described as "lightning." Also weird.

Thank you so much for sharing.

You want to tell your eye doctor this, hon---so they can dilate your pupils to make sure there are no retinal tears. (I see it without pressing on it)

Best wishes, IH

[AVR1962]

My vision has cleared. I did, however, recently have a sudden onset of blurred vision, black floaters or "cobwebs" and lightning in the corner of my right eye. Went to the ER, fearing retinal detachment, but it was "only" vitreous detachment, which hopefully will clear itself. The eye doc said I dodged a bullet for now. These annoying floaters were numerous when I was very sick and had started to go away. I asked the opthamologist--does this have ANYTHING at all to do with vitamin defs, celiac, malabsorption, macular degeneration (which my mother has) or inflammation.

He said "Honestly, I do not know, but it is associated with diabetes and inflammation. I do know that in time, it resolves."

That was a month ago. It is clear but I still get "light shows " in my eye at night, which he said is no cause for alarm.

I still have poor night vision, but it has improved. I do not drive for that reason.

He did say "Take a good multivitamin with LUTEIN", which I already do

P.S. Be very careful supplementing with high levels of Vitamin A. It can cause serious problems.

IrishHeart, by floaters do you mean these little things that you can see that seem to be on the surface of the eye? I have them, most the time not many but when I was having trouble with my blood sugar they were alot more.

Do you take any vit A? My doc approved me for 2500 IU daily but I do know I have to be careful. Was taking cod liver before and after 3 months I felt it was affecting me so I stopped and started having eye issues again. Do you find the lutein helps your vision? Do you also have diabetes?

[IrishHeart]

Floaters look like black cobwebs, but when you examine the eye, there is nothing there to see. They seem more pronounced in the sunlight or if you look at a white wall or the ceiling.

No, I do not have diabetes, thank goodness (my sister does) but I do have erratic blood sugar spikes and dips sometimes, although that has leveled off in the past few months.

My multivitamin has 2500 IUs of A in it, which, I believe is the standard daily dose. My vision is 20-25. I had lasik surgery in 2007 and for the first time in my life, I could see everything when I opened my eyes in the morning! What a gift.

The floaters are not considered dangerous but they are a nuisance.

The brain accomodates and gets used to them. I barely notice them, but when there was a sudden increase that day, I was a little concerned and when the eye blurred and I saw the lightning bolt, well, I thought "crappers, my retina is detaching" and we went to the ER..." I was on my first vacation in 5 years and thought "Are you freakin kidding me??" the doc said retinal detachment happens in some cases and it was a good thing I went in for an exam.

It's vitreous detachment. Here, read this:

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