BRUMI1968

Lack of vitamin C can also cause easy bruising. Frankly, my whole family bruises easily, so maybe there's some genes to it too, who knows.

Good luck.

Also, if you have bleeding gums and bruises elsewhere, or little tiny red dots on your feet or where you seatbelt hits you or where your pants are tight - go get a CBC done - you could have low platelets. When I did, I didn't even notice I had bruised myself about three inches from my elbows on either side from resting my head on my hands at work. Anyway, just a precaution. Low platelets can be life threatening - so it's important to check if you think you might have this.

Today I'm having a funny breakfast. It is is sauteed swiss chard with a poached egg on top. It seems way to healthy to have for breakfast, which is reserved for maple syrup and butter...ah, the old days.

Calendula is a nautral itch remedy. I found cream with that in it worked well for my itching before I was dx'd. I use one made locally to where I live, though, so that might not help you. You can find others at Whole Foods, natural markets, co-ops, etc.

Good luck.

p.s. I'd suggest some OTC stuff from regular stores, but I don't know what's gluten free and what isn't - I usually stick with the "hippie" stuff.

I have always had C rather than D. When I went gluten free, I had C for three weeks maybe. I did figure out I had hidden gluten in my diet - cross contamination on some pumpkin seeds, the mayo I was using, that sort of thing. I did carefully segregate my kitchen into gluten side, not gluten side - got my own toaster and cutting board, have my own silverware drawer (didn't want crumbs falling into it) - that kind of thing.

My C has diminished a bit, but I still have bloat. My other symptoms have gone away though, canker sores, itching, and apparently, more brain fog than I thought I had (now that I don't, I can see how bad it was).

Anyway, keep at it. Make sure you're not getting glutened. And I agree about the dairy - it makes sense to quit dairy at least temporarily as lactase is made on the villi, and if you have damaged villi, you're not making the required stuff to digest dairy. (Never mind the casein, which is used an industrial glue - there isn't anything we make that allows us to 'digest' that.)

Take care.

I've been paying attention, and frankly, it doesn't matter what I eat. Once I'm done eating and relax, there goes the bloat. If you look at me in the mirror, you can practically see where my intestines are. The other thing that gets me bloated in that way is hot showers. Not always, but almost always. The only one that doens't is the first morning shower. (I just made it sound like I take ten showers a day. Actually, depending on how weird my hair looks when I wake up, sometimes I shower at night.)

Hmmmm.....

Side effects of fosamax:

Stop taking FOSAMAX and call your doctor right away if you get any of these signs of possible serious problems:

I'm glad you're going to quit.

Women should not drink alcohol. As much as the news likes to tell us it is good for our hearts, women's chances of reproductive cancer go up with even as little as one alcoholic beverage every day. It is a blessing that we are the bearers of life - but it has a cost. Our bodies are more sensitive to things like 'poisons', be they fermented plant matter or pesticides or whatever. (and tea and grape juice and other things have the same qualities as wine, but without the negatives...the news doesn't like to say that.)

I don't think "defining" alcoholism is very productive here. Your definition, the one you gave in your query, is the definition that counts. You sound concerned, so there is something to be concerned about. We all know ourselves better than anyone - we just need to listen to ourselves when we know something...that is where most of us fail.

Okay...I'm going back to keeping a food journal, especially now that i graze all day long. I just ate a small bagful of Rainier cherries. Yum. They were hugely expensive since the rains messed up the harvest, so I kept the weight off the scale and only bought enough to eat on my walk home.

Now I'm bloat galore. It doesn't hurt - I just look like someone whose intestines are inflamed.

What about fructose intolerance? Anyone here with that issue? I'm getting my food panel blood drawn in a week, so in a few weeks I'll know if I'm eating anything my body hates -- until then, it'd be great to decrease the bloating.

Also, secondary question...the pain from the bloating is mostly gone, and the C is gone, ever since I quit grains altogether about five days ago. If my intestines were inflamed from eating grains, how long would one suppose it would take them to normalize?

Actually the recommended daily allowance for pregnant woman is 1,000 mcg. But since I take a prenatal it takes me well over what I need. But she is not pregnant yet, so she can take a lower dose than what is needed until she becomes pregnant. Actually, just the prenatal would be more than enough for her in this case.

The "100% of daily value" came from the bottle.

Gotcha! Thanks for the clarification.

I know my anxiety got better when I quit wheat two years ago, but I can't remember if it was sudden or not. Since I quit gluten a couple months ago, my itching has gotten better right away, but the rest of the changes I hope for are taking their time.

Good luck.

I went to the doctor today and he took several pints ( ok vials but it felt like more)

of blood. He said it could be an infection of the gland, mono, or even mumps, but he really doesn't think it could be mumps. He should know something Wed. He put me on an antibiotic and said if I wasn't better Wed. He may want to do a biopsy.

Not to dis your doc, but what is up with docs giving antibiotics B4 they know what's wrong with people. That's so annoying, especially when folks have sensitive guts and those antibiotics are going to fry all your good bacteria. Arg.....

It is a bizarre way to conduct medicine - give the pills first, if they work, that's what it was. What if time cured it and the pills were just wasted.

Sorry. I shouldn't rant about this on your post. I hope that your pain/lump gets better. I know it's always disturbing to find lumps and bumps that don't belong.

I just read some awesome stuff on dairy - at doctorj.com I think. He's a vet. Anyway, casein, soy, corn, and gluten are al glue - and all of them affect the small intestine. I'd stay away from dairy at the very least at first, and then consider goat dairy, which has way less casein, or continuing on dairy free. I've been dairy free for two years (except for a vacation in Hawaii on which my husbands father kept baking bread [before i was dx'd celiac] and I ate bread and butter for ten days)...and I think it's really helped, especially intestinally, but also in balancing out weight and the like.

Good luck.

Nature Made products are all gluten-free and I am currently taking a folic acid supplement (with my prenatals). I buy them at Costco, however, if you go onto their website (www.naturemade.com) they have a list of retailers that sell them. They are very inexpensive and if you purchase enough of their products, you earn rewards.

The ones I take have 400 mcg or 100% daily value. Contains no artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, chemical solvents, yeast, starch, or gluten. WORRY FREE!!

I understand the recommended daily allowance for pregnant women is 800mcg.

I've given up a lot of foods--but I have to say that one of the hardest was peanut butter! I have just ordered a jar of Maranatha Raw Almond Butter (no stores around here have it) and hope that it will fill the peanut butter void I gotta have something to put on my apple slices...

Hey there! I love the Marantha raw almond butter...and eat it all the time. I just found WALNUT BUTTER.

Oh man, is it ever good. It's $9/jar, and not a big jar like regular peanut butter - half of that. Wow. I actually use PB on my apples because the WB is too expensive and tastes too good - that I eat out of the spoon, with or without some yummy jam on the swpoon.

You don't eat grains, right? Me too and it's tough to figure it all out. BUT, after 4-1/2 days, I already feel better. I'm still bloated, but it doens't hurt anymore. AND I don't feel as though I need naps now...I really like that. Anyway, try the walnut butter next time you win big at the casino. (If you need a brand name, I'll PM you or something - it's at home.

I have taken Xanax. The only warning I have, and it probably woulnd't happen from just one event taking it, but you can get nightmares when you don't take it. So imagine flying better (and you will - and I plan to do that the next time I fly too), but then don't freak out if you get nightmares that night or the next.

I'm glad to hear it's gluten free - I take it in order to go to the dentist, and it's about that time again.

Shall I assume valium is gluten-free too then?

There is a product called FLORASTOR. It is a good yeast, not a bacteria, but it is supposed to do wonders for diarrhea especially. It is sold as a probiotic. I'ts expensive. I paid $52.00 for 50 pills. Anyway, just an option.

I wonder if it could be blood sugar issues. I say this because of the way grains are turned to sugar in our bodies. If you have replaced your gluten with other gluten-y stuff, like rice flours and soy flours and whatever, it would probably not change the way you deal with sugars/carbs/insulins. But if you've cut them out entirely, you might be adjusting that way.

Another way to think of headaches that I read once is that they are either expansive or contractive. If you take a bit of something salty, does your headache diminish? If so, it is an expansive headache and you're too expansive (veggies, fruits, etc.) and need more contractive food (meat, grain?, coffee) and the like. If it doesn't respond to salt, then there's no way to test the other one.

Lastly, aspartame causes headaches/migrains in lots of folks. If you're drinking sodas or snackies with aspartame (also called Nutrasweet), you might consider cutting that out.

I think in Europe they think wheat starch is okay. Taz, I'd cut out the wheat for sure. I got glutened off charcoal last Sunday. Charcoal has wheat starch in it. I cooked at home, so the charcoal was the only thing it could have been.

What do you mean you were G'd by charcoal - did you eat it? or you mean cooking over it? Do I have to avoid BBQing my salmon?

--I'm truly just a fan of carbonated drinks.

Have you tried carbonated fruit juices? or natural sodas (Hansens, etc.)? They might be a bit better.

I'm lucky - I HATE carbonation...so it's easy for me to avoid soda. In high school (20 years ago now) I drank two or three diet cokes a day, along with a snickers or two (it was boring and I needed to keep awake).

I became "one who does not eat land animals" about 15 years ago. To be honest, I think it all started with these phenomenally expensive chicken shwarma sandwiches I was eating. I was addicted. So I just quit eating animals. I mean, I also care about the health benefits - but even more care about the economics of eating meat - it is seriously a very big bad deal in this country, the way we raise meat for the supermarket. It is shocking just the amount of water it takes to grow up one cow to become a burger. Anyway, that's how I 'became', though I know lots of folks who 'became' in other ways. One 12 year old I know went to Mexico and saw all the dead chickens and stuff hanging upside down in the market - hasn't touched meat since, and is 18 now.

One more thing,

For those of you concerned about eating tuna, I have been eating the 6 oz packages of albacore (higher quality tuna) 5 days a week for about 3-4 years. I had heard about the mercury warnings so I had my doctor test by mercury levels and they were just fine. If you eat alot of tuna and are worried about elevated levels, have your doctor test your levels.

Nicole

I'm curious how s/he tested for it?

Yeah, my hubby and I are interested in being subsistence farmers (though, that doesn't make it sound as nice as I imagine it could be to take care of critters and grow your own food), but neither of us can imagine raising an animal to slaughter it. We figure he can't hunt wild fowl and fish...I don't know why fish don't seem like animals to me - I know they are - but I eat enough salmon to choke a horse.

Does anyone else wonder why we eat salmon when many types are endangered? We don't go around eating panda bears do we? (we don't, right?)

That's really interesting. I only like to eat well-treated animals too, but I never exactly thought about it in terms of energy.

Oh yeah, this reminds me of the book "Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie. It's his best book by far - and absolutely wonderful awesome book. Anyhow, this woman who makes chutney is a very bitter angry woman, and her chutney always tastes bitter. It is true, in east-Indian life, the mood of the chef is important to the food, and the life of the animal as well. Of course, LOTS of folks in India are vegetarian.

I wonder if I should start making sure my veggies are treated properly, not stepped on or talked bad to...and the moods of the folks picking them. Hmmmmm...

I actually won't eat non-welltreated dead animals at all -- so maybe I'll find a farm near here that does turkey or chicken or something, and cook it myself. I know it may sound odd, but I think that all the negative hormones and chemicals that get released through fear and lonliness, etc. will get into the meat in some way - some energetic way - that will then get into me energetically speaking. Wow, I sound like a fruitcake. Anyway, I'll try the cooking it myself. Thanks, guys!

I quit wheat two years ago and felt so much better. I was not having any digestive symptoms at all when I asked for the Celiac test (positive - came out 35). Ironically, I don't feel as good now digestively as I did before; I'm either adjusting or whatever.

Point being, I had no symptoms from eating spelt. I just got concerned that if stopping wheat made such a difference, I should double check that i wasn't doing small harm to myself whenever I had my toast and poached eggs. (I miss my toast and poached eggs.)

If you're talking tuna, I've seen some cans with "broth", which could easily contain gluten.

As to farmed fish, I would not touch this with a ten foot pole. It is nasty in so many ways, antibiotics, hormones, AND higher heavy metal/pesticide toxicity. I only eat fresh.