Forum Technical Assistance

It sounds like you’ve been really consistent with your health, especially staying gluten-free and keeping up with exercise after everything you’ve been through. That’s not easy. The fatigue and low red blood cell count could definitely be connected to iron, especially with a history of celiac. Even after going gluten-free, it can take a long time for the gut to fully heal, and iron is one of the harder nutrients to absorb properly if the small intestine was affected. A few things that might help (along with what your doctor suggests): Getting a full iron panel done (iron, ferritin, transferrin saturation) will give a clearer picture Pairing iron-rich foods with vitamin C (like citrus, peppers) can improve absorption Avoiding tea/coffee around meals, since they can block iron absorption If supplements are needed, sometimes gentler forms (like iron bisglycinate) are easier on the stomach Also, that afternoon fatigue you mentioned lines up pretty well with low iron in some cases, but it could also be a mix of recovery, activity level, and overall nutrition. It’s good that you’re planning to check back in with your GI doctor — they might also look at things like B12 or folate, since those can affect red blood cells too. You’ve already made a lot of progress, so hopefully this is just another piece to fine-tune rather than something major.

Quick update.  I saw the title of this thread and forgot that I'd actually started it!  Oh dear! It seems my new healthy diet was the cause of these symptoms,  I had a clear colonoscopy, thankfully. Now I know what it is I shall try to resume the healthy diet - the symptoms are annoying rather than painful, and I think it was doing me a lot of good, I certainly lost some pounds around the waistline (pity they piled back on again at Christmas!)

Physiological Associations between Vitamin B Deficiency and Diabetic Kidney Disease https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10135933/ "There are recent advances in our basic understanding of the effects of thiamine deficiency on DKD and vice-versa. Thiamine, TPP, and TMP transporters may have an abnormal expression in diabetes [28,29,30]." I explained this in Monday's post.  

Stegosaurus, one size doesn't fit all. Most celiacs do fine with oats and other non-gluten cereal grains. Grains can contribute important nutrients to the diet and are a relatively inexpensive food energy sources. I don't agree with the position that all celiacs should eliminate all grains from their diet. This line of thinking has been promoted for years by books like Dangerous Grains which make the case on logic rather than actual real world data. Like many biological phenomenon, what would seem to be logical doesn't pan out to be true in the real world.  But if you are one of those in the minority of celiacs who cannot tolerate cereal grains at all, I'm glad that you were able to sort that out.

While it's true that lifting heavy weights is a good bone builder, it may not be advisable for those with certain medical conditions like heart disease, arthritis and for the elderly or for those who don't have access to the equipment.  Bone building drugs like Fosamax slow down the disposal of worn out osteoclasts (bone cells) and so help maintain/restore bone density as seen in scans but because the retained cells are no longer healthy, the process may contribute less to actual bone strength than healthy cells would.