Achiness/fatigue

[tammy]

Does anyone else experience fatigue and achiness in the morning? The achiness is inconsistent but the fatigue is more frequent. Each day I keep a journal and make mental notes of how I can feel better. The fatigue is getting much better now. Yet sometimes I am achy in the morning, and I am just not sure why. Although I am not allergie to nuts, I did eat a very generous portion of nuts before bed the other night. The next morning I felt so achy. So I am on yet another mission. I will rotate my diet and exclude nuts for a few days. My menu options are limited, but there is only so much one can do with their vegetables I make a point to eat fresh green salads, cucumbers and peppers. I eat low carb and so nuts are my treats.

Can anyone relate?

[Guest dlf1021]

tammy-

i can relate to both of those, though i'm still searching for answers. i often wake up in the morning with a terrible back ache, but i haven't determined whether it's a problem related to celiac or just a too-firm mattress.

as far as fatigue, it seems as though i'm just always tired. the morning is generally worse, as are times when i ingest gluten. i can always tell almost immediately whether i've contaminated my system because within an hour i'll more or less fall asleep where i stand. i doubt your fatigue is due to gluten ingestion though.

[Lily]

I get the achiness and tiredness. My joints will inflame something terrible along with muscle aches at times. For me, this is my signal that I've picked up gluten somewhere. After I've accidentally ingested, I'll start the aches a few days later and it will last 2-3 weeks. My doc says these are classic celiac symptoms, because when we ingest that poison, it attacks our joints. I eat nuts too, but make sure I get them from the health food store. I haven't found one I can tolerate that has been processed/canned. What about salad dressing? You say you have a lot of salads. I use Annie's Naturals, but I have found I also feel better when I make everything myself.

Good luck Tammy!

Lily

[seeking-wholeness]

tammy,

What brand of nuts did you eat? I (and my baby) have reacted to Planter's dry-roasted unsalted peanuts, so I am having a hard time trusting nuts right now.

I also tend to wake up fatigued with an achy torso, especially if I have recently had an "accident." I have noticed that the aches are much worse if I roll onto my back as I sleep, so I try to stay on my side as much as possible.

The morning fatigue has been improving fairly steadily since I went gluten-free, most likely assisted by the porcine thyroid supplement my naturopath put me on. I was on it before I went gluten-free, too, but it didn't work at all until my antibody levels started going down (at least, I'm assuming that they have gone down ). Do you track (or even spot-check) your basal temperature? If it's low (below 97.8, if I'm remembering correctly), you might want to look into some form of thyroid supplementation. (Or are you already being treated for hypothyroidism? I can't remember....)

I hope you can track down the reason for your troubles, so you can start feeling better. Good luck!

[gf4life]

Hi Sarah,

Do you know if the low basal temp. is the same for children? Could it be a thyroid problem in a child (age 7)? I chart my son's temp. daily at least 3 times and he is often below 97.8, and after a high fever episode (he has a recurrent fever syndrome of some sort) his temp drops down to 96 and sometimes as low as 94.9. Scares me a lot. The doctors don't seem to pay much attention to it when I show them the chart, but he is now seeing a rheumatologist/infectious disease specialist that is running a bunch more tests on him. He also has joint pains and often is very achy and tired in the mornings and doesn't want to get up for school. When I do get him up he is very grumpy.

Do you think it might be thyroid related? I am hoping that it will get better as soon as I can get him feeling good on the gluten-free/casein-free diet. His fat malabsorbtion was 272, which is borderline normal(normal is less than 300), but seems a lot for a child so young. He does not eat a super high fat diet, so I don't know why it would be so high. Mine was 54, my 9 year old was 55, and my 4 year old was 148 (which I also think is high). Anyhow, let me know what you think. I know you like to do research like I do, but I am at a loss with him, (at least until the test results come back and point me in a new direction!)

God bless,

Mariann

[seeking-wholeness]

Mariann,

I would look into thyroid testing, if he were my child. I seem to remember reading that celiac disease-related antibodies can cross-react with thyroid tissue, leading to decreased thyroid function. I'm sure most doctors would assume that there hasn't been enough time for significant damage to occur in your son, but given that he seems to have TWO potentially serious/lifelong conditions, I wouldn't rule out the possibility. His body must certainly be under an astonishing amount of stress just dealing with daily functioning, and as we humans are finally learning, stress can compound ANY health problem!

OK, I just searched for the article I read, and my memory was a little bit off (the article I was remembering pertained to the PARAthyroid gland). I DID find this article abstract here on the site, though, which you may find interesting.

I hope the gluten-free/CF diet works its magic for your son and that his doctors can actually figure out what exactly is causing his fever disorder. Good luck to you both!