queenofhearts

He said with my history he is shocked he didnt question it before and apologized for not noticing it

Now I know unfortunately this gi dr will want to do a gluten challenge and bloodwork and I'm not up for it. Personally I just want to follow the diet and feel well since having the true diagnosis wont change a thing.

How wonderful to have a doctor who will admit he was wrong! And even apologize! You have a gem.

The more I look into this, the more I believe that having an official diagnosis is really not necessary, if you are already convinced the gluten-free diet is making you healthy. No one can force you to eat gluten! Now if you have family members who aren't cooperating, that might be an impetus to seek the diagnosis. But if not, & with your primary care physician on your side, you should be in pretty good shape.

I haven't been tested for bone density yet myself, though I fit the pattern for osteoporosis... I have heard that it is more of a problem for underweight people. Also your doctor may feel that since you are still quite young, if you follow the gluten-free diet you should be able to build up your bone strength without difficulty.

Leah

Great to hear you are feeling better, Lister! Hope this is the beginning of real healing for you.

Ah yes, the green ones have special powers. (But we'd better look out, we're hijacking this thread!)

Well, it could use more variety. Have you thought of adding M&Ms now & then?

I think going gluten-free in & of itself is not necessarily healthier, because there are plenty of gluten-free foods that are still not so good for you. (For example, a diet of nothing but Snickers bars would not do much for your health!) But if you are taking the approach of eating a purer diet with more whole foods, fruits, veg, &c. & less processed stuff, then you could certainly reap health rewards yourself. It won't be as dramatic a difference as if you were removing an allergen, but it couldn't hurt!

And by the way, it will make things very much easier for your husband, & you won't have to brush your teeth every time you kiss him! I think it's a very generous thing to do. (And even if you eat gluten outside the home, having a gluten-free household will make his life much less stressful.)

I've not tried it personally, but have read that it functions similarly. However, I've also heard that it causes D in some folks, so if that's the direction of your reaction, it might be a problem.

Leah

I would definitely advise you to stick with this patiently for several months before you decide it is not helping you. I went gluten-free at the end of May & it took at least 6 weeks before I started noticing real changes. I also agree that starting with the purest diet you can manage, then adding in foods one by one when you feel better, is a better way to approach it than the way I began, which was to try all sorts of gluten-free products, almost compulsively, & bake lots of gluten-free treats-- for me it was like a psychological addiction, but I got it out of my system eventually, & I feel better now that I keep to a more whole-food diet most of the time. I had the opposite problem to yours, by the way, but it almost seems that the symptoms are random expressions of the gluten reaction, & whichever direction your digestion is going wrong, it evens out once the toxin is removed.

In our family, we have a toaster oven & I have a perforated tray that I use to make toast, &c. I avoid gluten containing lotions & so on because I think the possibility of accidentally ingesting some (touching my lips with my fingers, for example) is too high. If you don't already have Nini's newbie list, it will help you identify some of the hidden sources. I had some vitamins with gluten for instance... & sunscreen...

Nini's site: Open Original Shared Link

Good luck! It gets easier & is well worth the trouble. There is a wealth of information here & always someone who can answer your concerns.

Leah

As I understand, you can get B12 from eggs-- so unless you are vegan or lacto only, you don't need the supplements. I used to eat loads of eggs in my veggie days, partly because they were easily available, partly because I could only eat limited amounts of beans without distress. I still turn to them often when I feel I need a protein boost. They're an excellent match of amino acids for human protein needs. I also eat plenty of nuts. Peanut butter on rice or corn cakes with raisins is my favorite quickie breakfast, & I use nuts in salads & breads, & snack on them too. I keep a few in my purse when I'm going to be away from home in case I need an emergency snack.

Hi Lister,

Glad it's over & you're feeling better!

Sorry about all the mishaps en route, but I hope some answers come from the biopsies.

You'll find rice vinegar with Asian foods in a well-stocked supermarket. But I often use cider vinegar in bread recipes & it works fine.

I really understand where you are coming from. I was a strict lacto-ovo vegetarian for 14 years, then decided to include fish & chicken in my diet because I just had a strong feeling that I wasn't well nourished. (This was long before I was diagnosed Celiac, & I now suspect that both the distaste for meat & the feeling of being malnourished were/are related to Celiac.)

To this day it feels slightly odd to me to eat meat more than once or twice a week, even though I've been eating some fish & chicken for over 20 years now. I'm trying now to talk myself into red meat... but that's just too hard for me still. I've had anemia for years & everyone said "Eat red meat!" but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I'm still trying to keep an open mind about it, & someday I may be able to do it, I just don't know.

I am an avid gardener & I have great respect for plant life, so I agree with Lisa, in a sense you are killing whatever you eat. (There is some valid argument for fructarianism, but then you might be killing yourself!) Even when I was vegetarian, I realized it was a philosophically fuzzy line to draw-- really it just came down to eating what I was comfortable with. And I've certainly never felt I had any semblance of a philosophical argument for eating chicken but not beef... it's a purely physical feeling of recoiling. Hard to explain, really.

I certainly can't argue that one is naturally drawn to eat what is good for one's own constitution, because all my life I absolutely loved all wheat products! When I felt ill the first thing I did was go the dry toast route... so much for healthy instincts!

Hmmm, I love bleu & have missed it because of the could-be-gluten warnings. But I just had a thought... these molds that grow on wheat... could they possibly be advantageous to Celiacs? Maybe they actually digest & destroy gluten! I'm thinking they might be analogous to the bacteria that make yogurt more digestible for the lactose intolerant. It's probably just wishful thinking, but maybe our bellies need some Roquefort!

Permanent pms! Yikes! Poor Lister!

You can request complete sedation. My husband had the twilight version, & was completely calm throughout, & I think it is probably enough to dampen any anxiety, but if just thinking about it makes you anxious, let them know you would prefer the full sedation. That 's what I had when I had both upper & colonoscopy, & I felt perfectly calm even after coming out of it. Going in is a little scary, but it's over before you know it either way.

My migraines are much better since going gluten-free, actually, so I'm not sure if I can be of much help there. Though if you have suddenly added a food that you rarely ate before, that would certainly be worth looking into. And given how recently you were diagnosed, it could be a detox/withdrawal issue, or possibly just stress from all the stuff you have to think about suddenly.

This is kind of a long shot, but for those of you with a chronic headache problem, I've just been studying a form of physical therapy called Egoscue, & the author/inventor attributes many migraines to poor posture. If you spend many hours sitting it can throw off your spinal alignment & cause all sorts of pain that seems unrelated. The most fascinating thing to me was that carpal tunnel syndrome is actually linked to poor hip/lumbar position. Check out the book, Pain Free by Pete Egoscue. It certainly set off some light bulbs for me.

Leah

Here's the tough part-- neurology is his specialty!-- when I mentioned my diagnosis he was asking ME about neurological stuff! Balance, that sort of thing. But I don't think he's making the psychological connection. And unless he's tested himself & just not mentioned it, I think he's kind of in denial about his own symptoms. (He's very thin & has trouble with a lot of foods...)

You should let them know just in case. They only asked me about eggs & latex, but you never know when they might need the info... better safe than sorry.

What a heart-warming story! It must make you feel so good.

I'm currently debating about mentioning this diet to a friend whose daughter is diagnosed with depression & schizophrenia. Here's the thing... her husband seems kind of celiac to me too... but he's a doctor! And very much of the pull-up-your-socks-&-no-whining persuasion. So I feel a little bit buttinski to bring it up... especially since it's kind of a long shot & her daughter doesn't fit the classic, underweight profile... but given her daughter's misery, I just feel it would be worth trying the diet. Do I even mention it? She is a very close friend, but not very health-food oriented... & I'm afraid she might take offense & think I was somehow making light of the diagnosis or disrespecting her or her husband... what would you guys do?

There is a place for western medicine and a place for alternative medicine. There are plenty of quacks and snake oil salesmen in both.

I couldn't agree more! But there are truly good practitioners of both as well. And best (though rarest) of all are those who are open to both practices, in a spirit of genuine, humble inquiry & the search for what really works for their patients, whether or not it fits within the canon.

Hmmm... do you by any chance kiss your dog? I know you can get glutened from a person that way!

Hi Susan! I wish we could share cuttings too, though right now anything you gave me might drown... lots of rain lately! Not much on your side of the continent, I'm guessing. Pity we can't share weather!

So are you feeling a bit better, I hope?

My BIL & his family all have Crocs... they look so cute together, like a family of ducks!

Congrats!!! I know exactly what you mean. Everyone stared at me one day in a restaurant when my daughter finally sucked through a straw - she got it. I jumped up and said "GOOD FOR YOU! You sucked through a straw!!!!!!!!"

Had this exact experience with my son!

Another funny one, when the twins were babies, one could do a "raspberry" & the other couldn't. He kept trying & trying & when he finally succeeded, my husband & I clapped. And that was when he learned to clap!

Could the tortillas be contaminated by the mfr. using the same line for flour tortillas? Maybe you could try making your own for a week or so & see if it helps.

Or could it be you have a casein sensitivity? I don't know if that could affect DH though.

Annato color should be gluten-free.

Hi, everybody! I've been gardening & exercising & meditating & not on the computer much lately. Thanks all for your comforting words. You really helped me through a very rough week.

Interesting thought about the breastfeeding connection-- I wasn't breastfed, myself-- has anyone done a questionnaire on this site about that?

We're all wishing you well!

This is an interesting thread...

I know I have some OC tendencies (anyone who saw my artwork could spot that in a second!) & I do think the diet has increased my overall level of anxiety. For instance, I've developed a mild phobia of crumbs! Even the ones I know are gluten-free, from my own bread that I've baked myself, arouse a sort of automatic unease!

But actually, when I was first diagnosed, I made a list of Things I'm Grateful For (yes, listmaking is an OC thing too) & one of the things on the list was "I'm detail-oriented & meticulous." The way I look at it is that a touch of OC is a great advantage in coping with this disease. If my husband were diagnosed, he'd have a dreadful time of it because he has such difficulty in focusing on minute details. He can cope with all sorts of things going on at once (which I decidedly CAN'T) but detail focus is really tough for him. He'd be glutening himself every day.

Luckily I do 99% of the cooking in our household, so I'm not worried about the food I eat. He makes himself sandwiches with gluten bread, & has gluten cereal, but other than that our house is gluten-free. I've always been squeamish about preparing food directly on the counter anyway, so I have little difficulty keeping my food uncontaminated. We have a toaster oven rather than a toaster. I prepare all my toast on a special pan that came with the oven-- it has holes in it, & I think it was meant as a broiling pan, but I'd never used it until I was diagnosed, & everyone in the family knows it must be kept gluten-free. I do NOT share mayo & pb with the rest of the family-- they might be entirely well-meaning but it is just not natural for them to focus on keeping the crumbs out!

I also keep my own stick of butter. Funny thing about that, I have always been totally grossed out by crumbs in the butter-- I considered it bad manners to put a spreading knife into the butter. I was always taught to serve with a clean knife & then spread with your own butter knife. This was merely a question of etiquette & aesthetics though, until 3 months ago!

Leah