cornbread

edit: can this be moved to the 'coping with' section?

Hi guys,

I've been officially gluten-free for 4 months (and recently became CF too). I'm as careful as can be but of course sometimes still get glutened (or caseined!). For me the worst effects of this are the severe fatigue, irritability, depression and the brain fog - the feeling that I'm not really 'there' and if you told me today was a dream, I would believe you. This usually lasts for about 5 days. Urg!

Anyway, I've been desperately searching for something I can take during these times to cut through the fog a little. I've tried all sorts of things (vitamins, supplements, etc.), but recently stumbled upon something called ENADAlert. Basically it's NADH in a sublingual form (dissolves under your tongue). According to what I've read, your body produces the NADH coenzyme naturally. If cellular levels of NADH are depleted, brain and muscle cells lose their ability to function effectively. So taking extra NADH tops up that supply, and in my personal experience taking 2 or 3 of these (10mg per pill) brought me out of the deepest pits of gluten-fog hell in under an hour. I can't remember any 'boost' as such, I just suddenly noticed myself engaging in conversation again, making jokes and feeling like my old happy, alert self, whereas when I'm glutened I don't want to even make eye contact and avoid all conversation. The great thing is, this seemed to banish the fog for good. It didn't come back, so what was normally a 5 day experience ended up only ruining my morning. The pills are sold for jet-lag, hard work-outs, etc. They are meant to promote energy, enhance mood, support memory function, which they did for me, but the way they dissolved the underwater/brain fog feeling was the most astonishing thing.

They are natural and gluten/dairy free, no caffeine or anything either, just NADH. They are quite expensive (I get mine at Whole Foods and they are $18 for a box of 8 I think), but considering I get 2 or 3 'get out of gluten hell free' passes per box, they are well worth it! Also, I've seen them online much cheaper, like $10, so I will source them elsewhere from now on.

Anyway, I hope posting this helps at least one person - and I apologise in advance if this doesn't work as well for you as it did for me.

The chocolate fudge flavour Met-RX bar never gives me any problems. The bar has over 30g of protein and something like 3g net carbs. They are really chewy and filling and good. They don't say 'gluten-free' but I am *incredibly* sensitive (was out for 4 days this week after a beer-drinking friend had a sip of my wine!) ... so I'm pretty sure these bars are gluten-free. I've been through a few boxes with zero problems.

I find I'm really hungry all the time after I've been glutened! I usually end up craving carbs too, which I don't normally eat a lot of (I find I have more energy if I avoid all grains, maybe because by default I then eat more protein?), but for 3 or 4 days after a gluten accident I am hitting the gluten-free cereal, snack bars, hot chocolate, etc. like crazy.

Reading this, I feel so (relatively!) lucky that I don't get sick to my stomach from gluten mistakes, although I get bloating and a stomach tightness, followed by 24-48 hours of severe brain fog and exhaustion, and I get depressed and incredibly irritable and usually an excema/acne breakout too. That all sucks of course, but I do not have to run to the bathroom and I know that if the stomach tightness kicks it's like a warning, and I have about 12 hours before the other stuff starts to happen, so I can usually plan the next day around it.

Thanks for the replies guys. The reason I was unsure about the gluten-free diet pre-testing was this was an Enterolab stool test, not bloodwork, and Enterolab say they can detect gluten sensitivity even after you've gone gluten-free.

I know that if gluten makes me feel bad I should avoid it, but I'm sure you understand the 'not knowing' part is really frustrating... I feel like I'm being a hypochondriact by self-diagnosing myself! Esp., now the offical results say I'm not G sensitive but my body so totally disagrees.

Hello,

I just got my Enterolab results back. My gluten sensitivity test came back as within normal levels, however I have 2 gluten sensitive/celiac genes - HLA-DQB1*0201, 0301. What does this mean? I definitely have a lot of celiac/gluten sensitivity symptoms (severe fatigue, brain fog, depression, irritability, out-of-nowhere nausea/stomach pains) - all of which TOTALLY disappeared upon starting a gluten-free diet and which return within a few hours of consuming even the tiniest amount of gluten (ie: a handful of Cheerios!). In fact as soon as I eat anything with gluten I can feel my heart start to race. I 'tested' myself with a pretzel the other day and I thought my heart would beat out of my chest! These effects (esp. the exhaustion) alone are enough for me to want to stay gluten-free, but I do want to know if I have celiac disease so I know if gluten is actually damaging me or 'just' makes me feel bad.

I had been mainly gluten-free for about 5 months before taking the test - could this have affected the results?

I'm really confused...

Will staying gluten-free mean I can prevent celiac disease that may otherwise develop? Are there any other reasons I could have had negative test results considering the reactions I have to gluten consumption?

Thanks in advance guys.