ciamarie

It may be part of the healing process, I sometimes get random itchy spots for no apparent reason. However, they itch for a few minutes or maybe the afternoon / evening and then they're gone. On the other hand, I quit drinking almond milk and similar items long ago, due to the carageenan and natural flavors since I noticed MSG type additives as well as sulfites cause problems for my skin, in addition to gluten.

So, since it appears to be spreading, I'd be sure to note it in your food diary and maybe try eliminating anything new you've had in the last couple of days and see what happens. If you have some lotion with tea tree oil, that might help soothe the itch.

That stinks, sorry to hear it! I'm guessing you probably already use shampoo without wheat, but I thought I'd mention it. In addition, check out this thread with some possible solutions for itch relief:
http://www.celiac.co...__+itch +relief

I'm only speculating, but one of the articles mentioned that the network gave the impression they think it's 'all in her head'. Sound familiar? And It may be while they're 'on set', they put in very long days. And trying to maintain a gluten-free diet in those conditions may be pretty challenging. Plus they were apparently not allowing her to work elsewhere, and she's on unpaid leave. Though I could certainly give her some pointers on living a very low-budget lifestyle.

I don't watch the show myself, but I'm on the side of thinking she may well have a valid complaint.

Hi LJ,

I just read through this thread, and as a fellow DH sufferer (though mine is MUCH better now), and I saw you mention the cheese rice cakes, my first thought was sulfites. Or MSG (or both). I found that both of those things cause me problems.

Here are some links that may help for either of those, and some ingredients are actually on both lists:
For sulfites:
http://holdthesulfites.com/
http://www.readingta...com/nosulfites/

For MSG:
http://www.msgmyth.c...dden_names.html
http://www.msgtruth.com/

Now for what I have figured out I can eat, and I just tested quinoa a few days ago, and it didn't cause problems with my ears (one of the areas I get symptoms), but I did get a bit itchy behind my knees, so I have it on the 'probably ok' list. Another thing I've added recently that's on the 'probably ok' list is blanched almond flour.

The things that I know are o.k. for me are:
* Foster farms chicken
* Natural beef (in the case of beef, 'natural' makes a difference....) though I've had regular hamburgers a couple of times at my brother's house over the past summer and seemed to be fine with that. When I buy it for myself, it's the 'natural' stuff.
* Sweet potatoes
* green beans (fresh and frozen)
* peas (frozen)
* pumpkin (can - Santiam brand is the only one I've tried, only ingredient is pumpkin)
* rice and rice noodles (white rice, noodles and rice flour in particular, I mix in brown rice and/or brown rice flour a lot of the time)
* grapefruit (I almost never used to eat this, but I had a craving for it a couple of weeks ago, and after testing I'm fine with it.)
* red rose tea
* eggs ( I try to get organic)
* organic corn tortillas (I've reacted to most tortilla chips, even the organic ones, so I create my own using the fresh organic tortillas and ex light olive oil)
* honey from a local farmers market
* maple syrup (I'm pretty sure, it's been a few weeks since I've had some...)
* navy beans, great northern beans, split peas
* C&H pure cane sugar
* Pamela's mini ginger snaps cookies
* plain yogurt, add my own applesauce & honey / sugar and not something I eat regularly. I also use it in baking sometimes as an acid with baking soda.
* apples (red and golden delicious both seem fine, haven't tested many other varieties yet)
* Challenge or Tillamook butter. (I recently tried Darigold butter because it cost a bit less, and reacted badly to it, a sulfite reaction with my ears getting waxy & blocked)
* Danish havarti cheese (on occasion)
* Lundberg brown rice cakes (I can usually only find the unsalted)
* yellow onion
* Applegate hot dogs (the great American hot dog I think they call it?)
* Sake (rice wine, only occasionally)
* carrots (usually get fresh organic)
* patty pan squash and zucchini (fm farmers market)

For baking, I use rice flour, and baking soda w/ vinegar or yogurt, and avoid the starches. It's a bit challenging, and I'm still working on it. I use guar gum (Now foods) and sometimes psyllium husk powder. I have some other things to test, but for the most part the above things work for me.

Since you started having issues again after the rice with cheese and chicken, I'd try to isolate which one of those it might be? The probiotic angle may be right on, also... thought I'd throw that out as a possibility.

I got this recipe from a spelt cookbook, and have adapted it to be gluten-free. I have also used the same recipe to make pumpkin muffins, just substitute pumpkin (canned or otherwise) for the applesauce and add about 1/4 cup more sugar if desired, since the pumpkin isn't as sweet as apples. If you want a little more 'lift', especially if using pumkin since it's a bit more dense, then beat the egg whites separately and fold them in at the end before putting into the baking dish or cupcake holders. Also, t = teaspoon

Applesauce cake
1/2 cup soft butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar and 1/2 cup granulated (cane) sugar
3 eggs (or substitute)
2 cups (finely ground) rice or other gluten-free flour.
2 1/2 t baking soda and 2 1/2 to 3 t (rice or other) vinegar
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t allspice
1 1/2 cups applesauce (I make my own)
1 cup dark raisins (optional)
1/2 cup walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 f, butter a baking dish (7"x11" works for me), set that aside. cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs and beat together in a mixing bowl. Sift the dry ingredients together (I sift them on to small piece of wax paper), add dry ingredients to egg mixture and mix until just blended, then add the vinegar and applesauce, and add raisins and nuts if wanted. (Using a hand or stand mixer will add a little more air than mixing by hand, always a good thing with gluten-free ingredients. I use the hand mixer until the last addition with the applesauce, then mix that by hand.)

Pour the mixture into the baking dish, bake at 350f for 30-35 minutes. I rotate the pan about 1/2 way through, for even baking. If making muffins, bake for about 20 minutes. It's done when a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely (or at least 20-30 minutes) before cutting into squares.

I started getting headaches, as well as being very tired in the afternoon after about 3 weeks of eating gluten-free. I think that lasted about 2 weeks. However, you should probably double-check what you're eating, and possibly food prep areas, etc. to rule out being glutened. If you have improvement in a few issues, it sounds like that's your answer -- along with the biopsy results. Do you have your blood test results? If not, you should get those and post them here also. It's possible you only had partial tests. From what I've seen on here, it's not uncommon for only 1 or 2 of the full panel of tests to be positive; and sometimes not even that. It's not an exact science... so don't panic.

I read the book before I gave it to my brother as a birthday gift. He won't read it. Then again, he got himself a kindle so if I'd have gotten a kindle version he might have looked at it.

I think Dr. Davis provides a lot of very good info. about the harmful effects of modern wheat. However, when it comes to America's waistline, I think that's only part of the problem. I think neurotoxins like MSG are another part of the equation.

Here's some links, in case you're interested:

http://www.reuters.c...E74Q5SJ20110527 http://www.naturalnews.com/024438.html

Edit: wow, I edited the post to remove too many uses of the word 'however' and when I added it back it had all of the html formatting showing up (such as <br> and the like), so I edited again to remove all of that. Between that and not finding any emoticons to add at the end of a sentence, I think adding and editing messages on here is a bit broken. :-/

I'm not a big fan of the pre-mixed flours, mostly due to their cost. What I've done is substitute about 25-30% of the flour quantity using one or a combination of starches (tapioca, potato and/or corn starch -- though for tapioca it may be called tapioca flour and that will be the same as tapioca starch. For potato and corn, you want the starch and not the flour.)

The for the remaining 70-75% of the flour I use a combination of white rice and brown rice flour. (I was using some sorghum for a short while also, but I think it's not agreeing with me...). And if I want to use buckwheat (i.e. for pancakes), I'll sub some of the starch for buckwheat. I've successfully used that method with a couple Fannie Farmer recipes, though for cookies I need to cut out some of the butter. Oh, I also add a little extra leavener (baking powder or soda) than the recipe calls for. One last tip is to add the rice flour to whatever liquid your recipe uses and let it sit for about 15 minutes or so before mixing the rest of it, or mix it all and let it sit before baking it, so it's not gritty.

Real life examples:
buckwheat pancakes - recipe calls for 1 cup flour, I use 1/2 cup white rice flour, 1/4 cup tapioca starch and 1/4 cup buckwheat flour. Recipe also calls for 2 teas baking powder, I added that plus an additional 1/4 teas baking soda.

Banana nut bread - called for 2 cups of flour, I used 1 1/2 cups of rice flours (3/4 c each of white and brown rice), and 1/4 cup each of tapioca and potato starch. It also called for 1 teas baking soda, I also added 1 teas baking powder. (I use Rumford, it's non-aluminum and non-GMO).

Hope that helps!

I have a stove-top pressure cooker that I mainly use for cooking beans. It also works great for popping popcorn, (not under pressure) with another lid from a large pot that happens to fit it. I like it for beans because cooking them on the stove, even after soaking for 6-8 hours just takes forever. In a pressure cooker it's like 30 minutes. I've also used it for a couple of other things like chicken, for which it works well.

I've never cooked rice in it, possibly because I don't cook large enough quantities of rice at one time, and it's easy enough to do on the stove. Plus there are cautions about blocking the stem vent area with the foam that forms when cooking rice, which would result in too much pressure building up and it could be dangerous, etc. I actually cook rice more often than I cook beans, but I'd vote for the pressure cooker. If I had the counter and cupboard space I'd probably also get a crock pot.

I would suspect it may be at least partially due to withdrawal, and your body adjusting to less inflammation. However, it may point to nutritional deficiencies (s?) such as B12, and/or issues with excitotoxins in your diet; namely aspartame and / or msg. I'd suspect you probably avoid those anyway, but thought I'd throw it out there.

I also have issues with ringing in my ears, some days more than others (along with DH which is mostly controlled now...), and I have noticed a correlation to diet. I really hope to have that issue resolve soon, too! But dizziness is pretty much gone since I've been gluten-free.

There's a sticky topic at the top of the forum topic (and linked here) with an FAQ (frequently asked questions) about Celiac Disease. It has links to several good articles on this site, including a list of foods to avoid as well as gluten-free foods. Hope that helps!

Is your gastro appointment for the actual biopsy, or just an initial appointment to see if a biopsy is needed which would be scheduled another time? I'm not positive, but 1 week on a gluten-free diet may not make a great deal of difference on the biopsy results, but generally you should continue to eat gluten until all testing is complete.

According to what I just saw on this other thread: http://www.celiac.co...e-on-celiaccom/ it's possible to get a false negative on the blood test, but if it's positive then it's positive. If the dr. will diagnose you based on the blood test without the biopsy, that might be the way to go. In the end it's your decision, though.

It certainly sounds like it very likely could be related to gluten. I agree with what ravenwoodglass said. Do you have the actual test results with reference ranges, or can you get them, and then post them here? I know there's one test (IGG I think?) that is most specific to gluten antibodies, so if it's elevated at all (equivocal I think they call it), it's still pointing to gluten intolerance if not celiac. If it was at all elevated while you were gluten lite, that would be an even stronger indicator, imo.

If that's the case, you could save yourself from having to go through more testing and get to give up those 'healthy whole wheat' sandwiches.

Eric, these all can be symptoms of radiation poisoning, particularly the chronic fatigue, weight loss and nosebleeds. Did it all start since the Fukushima accident? The situation is quite a bit worse than the Japanese government admits. Where in northern Japan are you, what is the microseivert/hour exposure where you are sleeping and spending most of your time, and how much care are you taking to avoid radioactive cesium in your food?

That was actually my thought, also. The nuclear plants at Fukushima are still emitting large amounts of radiation, and from recent articles I've seen (http://enenews.com/) the status of 'cold shutdown' may be questionable. So, it may depend where in northern Japan you are, check out this site: http://blog.safecast.org/

My personal suggestion would be to get an iodine supplement (I have a liquid one) or some vitamin supplements that have iodine. Also try to eat as much food as possible that's from outside of Japan. Or just leave.