kittty

Will there come a point in my life where even when I'm black-out drunk I will have the clarity of mind to not eat gluten?

 

Probably not, since being black-out drunk = losing all control. The best option is to avoid getting black-out drunk - which is a good option, celiac or not.

Did your doctor test you for the wheat allergy? It's a pretty straightforward test. It seems odd that your doc would do bloodwork to search for celiac, but not do the proper bloodwork for the allergy. You don't have to be eating wheat to have the allergy test.

 

And I don't agree that celiac has been ruled out. Just because you're not in a position to have the tests done doesn't mean you don't have it. Did your doc look at other bloodwork, like vitamin levels, for other signs of malabsorption? There are more ways to assume celiac without the traditional celiac blood test and biopsy.

This mother is an idiot.

And while she's giving her kid a handful of Goldfish crackers, why not let her puff on a cigarette too? A little couldn't hurt her, right?

I think it depends on your doctors, how skilled they are, and who you feel comfortable with.

I go to my regular doctor. She referred me to a GI before we knew it was celiac, and he was useless! He referred me on to a cardiologist because he didn't think there was anything he could do for me. I still don't know why he sent me to a cardiologist, and the cardiologist was totally baffled about why I was there too.

Later my doctor called a different GI to ask him for advice on celiac for me, because she isn't too familiar with it. He basically answered all of her questions with "dunno" answers.

If you can find a GI who specializes in celiac, or has significant experience, then go to them. If not, you're better off puzzling it out with a good primary who's willing to do some research.

I believed what my doctor told me for years; that if I have an upset stomach, or get acid reflux, to stick to simple foods like bread and crackers. And for my motion sickness, I was told to eat some plain bread before traveling. The idea of gluten actually *causing* all these problems just didn't seem logical.

Pizza and pasta gave me heartburn - it must be the tomato sauce
Chinese gave me diarrhea - it must have been the shrimp
Beef stroganoff made me nauseous - it must have been all those onions

Never ONCE did I suspect bread/pasta/noodles. It all makes sense in hindsight.

How much time did you leave between each experiment? Sometimes the reaction can be delayed, so if you ate the mini-wheats and got no immediate reaction, the reaction could have been present a couple of days later, which may have overlapped another gluten trial.

I don't trust him either but he had a real doctor on with him talking about the subject. Something to look into more anyway.

The "real" doctor who was on his show is just another one of these celebrity-type doctors who make their money selling "lose weight quick" diet books, and goes around telling everyone that the vegan diet is the cure for all ailments.

Well, maybe he's not that extreme, but you get the point. If I followed his advice I'd be eating nothing but microwaved oats!

Try this flour: http://www.bobsredmi...our.html?&cat=5
And this recipe: http://www.bobsredmi...php?recipe=7249

This isn't the greatest bread recipe out there, but it's one of the easiest, and it tastes similar to regular bread. Gluten free doesn't have to be complicated, expensive, or tasteless.

You have to understand that gluten is probably the underlying issue here, and you'll never get better until you cut out the cause of your illness...for good! You need to find substitutes for bread, or you'll continue to get sicker and sicker. Eating gluten is no longer a choice for you, it's a potential death sentence.

The accupuncturist gave me a cross sensativity test and I came back with gluten sensitivity.

Is this the same doctor who told you that you can eat European wheat? Did you get an official diagnosis from an MD, or just this test from an acupuncturist? An acupuncturist wouldn't be able to diagnose celiac, so it could be that you're reacting to something entirely different, such as an environmental factor which would have been eliminated during your trip to Italy. For example, perhaps the sleep issues are stress related, and the stress went away on vacation.

I urge you to get an official diagnosis, just in case your symptoms stem from something else.

I've had those problems for the last 20 years or so. It started with one sprained ankle, which ended up being a fracture, and continued from there. I've re-fractured that same ankle about half a dozen times since, the ligaments are a mess, and the ankle has now developed arthritis too.

After the last break I saw a physical therapist, and other than giving me some stretches to improve mobility and pain, she said it was too late to really do anything to help. I would suggest going to see a physical therapist and asking for advice to avoid long-term damage to your ankle. They can help you strengthen the area now before it's too late.

I've read a few similar stories on these forums (search for 'stress fracture') and it seems to be a pattern with celiacs.

Educate yourselves and you'll be far better off than expecting the government to do it for you.

But what happens if companies start to deliberately hide what is in our food, and the government does nothing about it? They're already doing it with GMOs. It's no secret that the FDA is controlled by corporations, and not the consumers it's supposed to represent. The ONLY reason the USA doesn't have the same stringent standards as the EU is because of corporate control over the government. Without speaking up about it, it may only get worse.

Sorry to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but after growing up in Europe I'm disgusted with the food labeling standards in this country. There is no legitimate reason why they can't be improved.

How can something be 99% gluten free when it has gluten in it? 1% gluten = 100% positive for gluten. It's not like you can cut that bagel into 100 pieces and only expect to find gluten in one of them. Totally false advertising.

Are you in housing that is associated with the university/college you're attending, or is it a private apartment that you rented? If it's on campus you should be able to talk to the housing office about the issues and your illness. They would be expected to find you another living arrangement considering the circumstances.

According to my doctor, the headaches experienced with these diets are often due to a lack of protein.

I'd be careful with juice diets, or any kind of diet that eliminates specific foods (minus gluten of course), because if your body is still not absorbing properly and you eliminate a certain nutrient that it needs, you could end up feeling even worse.

There is also no natural source of vitamin B12 in just fruits and vegetables, so unless you're taking a supplement too you could experience a B12 deficiency on a long-term juice diet.

All went fine with the doctor. She ordered blood testing (which I talked about in another thread), and she seemed legitimately interested in hearing about my gluten free journey, and was happy that I felt better.

They also have a neat new system at her office where you can logon to a website and see information from past medical appointments and blood work. I'd never seen the actual results of blood work before, but always had a call from the nurse who said everything looked okay without going into detail. Well, I noticed that some of my levels were low (only just below the normal range) on some of tests that were done a few years ago.

For example, my A/G ratio was low. So I googled A/G ratio to find out what that meant, and came across this from the first result:

Low total protein levels can suggest a liver disorder, a kidney disorder, or a disorder in which protein is not digested or absorbed properly. Low levels may be seen in severe malnutrition and with conditions that cause malabsorption, such as Celiac disease or inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).


It was right there in front of my face the whole time. Sigh...