20 replies to this topic

[squirmingitch]

Stop worrying about getting enough vitamins, minerals, electrolytes --- stop! When your blood work comes back the doc can tell you what you need. Stressing yourself out is not going to do you any good & it will just use up those things you're worried about.

Read this:
http://www.celiac.co...ewbie-info-101/

You can't get well in a day. You didn't get sick in a day. And you will not die in a day. Just eat. At this point cooked fruits & veggies will be much easier for you to digest than raw ones. There is excellent info. in the link I gave you.

You are young. You will most likely heal a whole lot faster than those of us who didn't find out we were celiac until our 50's & 60's. I will bet that 1 or 2 weeks from now you will be posting on here that you can't get enough to eat --- that you're a virtual eating machine --- that you're constantly stuffing your face. Most of us get ravenous & have insatiable hunger after a week or 2 gluten free.

Calm down & try to relax. I know this is all new & scary but it's really not that bad once you get the hang of it.

[Wheresthebeef]

I know I am way too anxious and thinking crazy. I just have alot of anxiety. My mood improved alot today.

[Madagascar]

it's natural that you're worried, but as others have said, nothing is going to happen to you overnight. i'm in my 50's and just got the diagnosis, and i'm certain i've had this since i was a teenager.

my best advice for you is to eat the simple foods and go out and buy some digestive enzymes and lactase enzymes or probiotics to help your gut cope while it is healing. i've been taking them for years, although not knowing i had celiac disease, they allowed me to eat with whatever it was that was causing me to have so many digestive problems. i bought the Digest that is mentioned in that newbie 101 post you were given. i googled to find the manufacturer and they had an option to find a store - there were 2 stores in my town that sold them. i take one every time i eat. the newbie 101 post suggested Digest Gold, which is the strongest level of their Digestive brand - there is also Digest (medium strength) and Digest Basic (least strong.) I bought the Digestive Gold and it was too strong, upsetting my tummy - so i bought the lesser strengths and am trying them. just something for you to be aware of. with the digestive enzymes i can eat most foods, except those i'm allergic to. it's worth a try for you. somewhere online i saw there was some research going on to see if digestive enzymes would help in celiac disease - speculating that they might break down the gluten strand. the study wasn't done yet, i don't think.

i also take the Schiff's Digestive Advantage Lactose therapy - you take one or two capsules a day and they deal with the lactose you encounter that day. i can have ice cream with them. i think you can do the same thing with probiotics. i buy them at a drug store.

these things will "prop" you up while you heal. in the meantime, try the bananas, applesauce, chicken, rice type of foods - most simple and easy to digest, to help yourself out.

oh - and anxiety can be associated with malabsorption. do you have any insomnia? that can be caused by a malabsorption issue, caused by damage to your small intestine, from not absorbing enough tryptophan. tryptophan is the chemical your brain uses to make serotonin and melatonin.

my understanding is that 5 HTP is a source of tryptophan that provides you with what you need to make serotonin and melatonin. Think of it like making bread (seratonin/melatonin) - if you don't have enough flour (tryptophan) you can't make bread. without enough tryptophan, your brain can't make seratonin and melatonin. Seratonin is your happy hormone - without enough you can also feel anxious and/or depressed. melatonin lets you sleep. i also have been taking 5HTP for several years - my son is 24 and he takes it too. He had terrible anxiety attacks while in college and he also had trouble falling asleep. when he started taking the 5 HTP it resolved. you can buy it at any health food section in the vitamin area. I order it from pureformulas.com and get the one by Thorne Research Labs because my chiropractor sells that brand & recommended it to me. i thought getting from the research lab might be good in terms of purity of the supplement. buy an established brand - supplements aren't regulated. so you want to be confident in what you buy.

here's a link to a discussion about the tryptophan connection: http://glutenfreern.com/fibromyalgia/ this website is run by a nurse who has celiac disease, who left her ER job to do full-time celiac education and counseling. she speaks internationally and really knows her stuff. i know her personally, and she spoke a few weeks ago to a mental health professionals conference about the connection between celiac disease and mental health.

and i'm just a stranger on the internet - and while i am a trustworthy person, just cuz i said so, you should still do more research and make sure these things are ok for you. they keep me going, though, and i do recommend them.

breathe. this is a marathon, not a sprint. don't get yourself worried about things that may never happen. for today, you're ok. it really helped me to think "i know what i'm going to eat for my next meal. then i will deal with the one after." hang in there! you'll get the hang of it before long.

[Wheresthebeef]

Yes I have major insomnia and I'm so tired. I'm going to try to find those things at my drugstore if I can (I have probiotics already). Thanks for the ideas.

[Madagascar]

Here's specific links if you can't find them locally:
http://www.pureformu...e-research.html they say you can take up to 3/day, but i find that they make me sleepy so i take one at night. that's enough. you can take more at once, but maybe try one first to make sure you can get up in the morning. if you aren't deficient in tryptophan, you'll find it doesn't do anything. when i discovered them i gave some to several friends to try out - they weren't deficient and it didn't really do anything for them. but for both my son and i, they're incredibly helpful to both mood and sleep.

http://www.enzymedic...cts/Digest_Gold i'm prefering the Digest (medium strength) and Digest Basic (least strength) better.

http://www.digestive...nse_formula.asp

if you can't find them locally, you can get all of these online fairly quickly. let us know how you do with them! i'll be curious!

[Wheresthebeef]

Here's specific links if you can't find them locally:
http://www.pureformu...e-research.html they say you can take up to 3/day, but i find that they make me sleepy so i take one at night. that's enough. you can take more at once, but maybe try one first to make sure you can get up in the morning. if you aren't deficient in tryptophan, you'll find it doesn't do anything. when i discovered them i gave some to several friends to try out - they weren't deficient and it didn't really do anything for them. but for both my son and i, they're incredibly helpful to both mood and sleep.

http://www.enzymedic...cts/Digest_Gold i'm prefering the Digest (medium strength) and Digest Basic (least strength) better.

http://www.digestive...nse_formula.asp

if you can't find them locally, you can get all of these online fairly quickly. let us know how you do with them! i'll be curious!

I got the regular Digest kind. I think they are helping, but I think I am specifically having a problem digesting fat now. I'm going to try to get one specifically for fat digestion next time, because I take alot of these with a fatty meal. Also I was fortunate to find all kinds of Enzymedica enzymes at my Whole Foods.