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Beginning around age 11 or 12, I began to experience severe gas cramps 2 or 3 nights per week. This persisted until about a year ago, when I was first advised by a no-nonsense old doctor to try removing wheat products from my diet. He told me from a blood test that my IgA was a bit high, but everything else was okay. I stopped eating wheat bagels in the mornings and switched from bread to corn tortillas, and now cramping is VERY rare
I'm afraid that my problem might go beyond intolerance, though. I avoid gluten products for the most part, but still snack on graham crackers and even enjoy certain breads and hot-pocket type items a few times per week without much issue. But my mental health in the past few years has spiraled all over the place. I am severely obsessive-compulsive and locked into a daily routine that I never needed as a young child. My days are dictated by racing thoughts and rituals that have taken the pleasure out of traveling or eating out, so much that I avoid a number of social activities. I think that there might be a biological reason that this is happening, because I grew up in and continue to live in the best of circumstances, with a steady, successful academic life and a wonderful family. But enough of the story; is it possible that an adverse reaction to something like gluten could harm my...brain? Has anyone experienced anything similar?
I was also interested in getting tested for celiac disease because of a few other typical symptoms I have experienced, including mouth sores as a child and a prominent, permanent yellow spot on my bottom front tooth that has baffled dentists over the years
. Finally, my menstrual cycle is irregular and did not start until after age 15. Any thoughts?One more thing: For fun, I was genotyped by 23andme a few months ago (I am a NERD for that stuff
). I do have a marker for an increased risk of celiac disease (HLA-DQ1, I think), but from what I've read it's certainly not an absolute and merely increases risk from 0.2 to 0.6 percent.
