Frustrated with Fatigue and Headache Post-Gluten-Free Diet

[Lex-]

I am not diagnosed yet. Have been gluten free for almost 4 months. Felt incredibly good for the first couple of weeks. Eczema disappeared. Fatigue disappeared. Gastrointestinal discomfort disappeared. Then I had a couple of inadvertent gluten exposures with terrible symptoms ensuing - the common celiac symptoms. As the symptoms subsided, I started to feel better again. Not as good as the first couple of weeks but much better compared to the pre-gluten-free time. For the past 2 weeks, however, I have had an unprecedented sense of fatigue, brain fog, and headache. I have no other symptoms generally associated with celiac. Only fatigue and headache. I am guessing it might be nutritional deficiency due to the change in my diet [I understand this happens to many who go gluten free]. 

 

I will be seeing a doctor soon. In the meanwhile, the fatigue is so bad that it's interfering with my daily activities. I have never felt this weak in my life. Few days ago I tried exercising - I thought maybe it would generate some energy. But it made matters worse.

 

If this is indeed due to malnutrition, what nutrients could I be lacking? I have a rather diverse diet with a lot of greens and fruits, so I have no idea what the problem might be. I am getting tired even writing this now.

 

Any advice will be appreciated.

[Ennis-TX]

18 minutes ago, Lex_ said:

I am not diagnosed yet. Have been gluten free for almost 4 months. Felt incredibly good for the first couple of weeks. Eczema disappeared. Fatigue disappeared. Gastrointestinal discomfort disappeared. Then I had a couple of inadvertent gluten exposures with terrible symptoms ensuing - the common celiac symptoms. As the symptoms subsided, I started to feel better again. Not as good as the first couple of weeks but much better compared to the pre-gluten-free time. For the past 2 weeks, however, I have had an unprecedented sense of fatigue, brain fog, and headache. I have no other symptoms generally associated with celiac. Only fatigue and headache. I am guessing it might be nutritional deficiency due to the change in my diet [I understand this happens to many who go gluten free]. 

 

I will be seeing a doctor soon. In the meanwhile, the fatigue is so bad that it's interfering with my daily activities. I have never felt this weak in my life. Few days ago I tried exercising - I thought maybe it would generate some energy. But it made matters worse.

 

If this is indeed due to malnutrition, what nutrients could I be lacking? I have a rather diverse diet with a lot of greens and fruits, so I have no idea what the problem might be. I am getting tired even writing this now.

 

Any advice will be appreciated.

B-vitamins...most gluten and processed foods are enriched...your basically eating a multivitamin every time you have a slice of bread etc. Look for a full spectrum B-vitamin supplement, others can be magnesium, iron, vitamin d, folate, etc. You mention plenty of greens and fruit so ruling out vitamin A,C,K, and a few others. Hmm did you drop off your carbs too much? If your carb dependent you need more complex carbs from like sweet potatoes, rice etc. And what about fat and protein? I am a keto dieter, my body burns fat instead of carbs for energy so I can say it is quite important to have plenty of fats and protein in your diet. Try snacking on nuts/seeds between meals or making up a protein shake with almond butter in it between meals (again going but what you said you eat vs what you might be missing)

I use Liquid Health for my spectrum B vitamins and vitamin D. Might look into them, being in liquid form you can just add it to a beverage. Might see about magnesium also, huge issue with many with this disease.

On other after thought, your probably already very aware of...but you mention your not "diagnosed yet" you will have to do a gluten challenge of eating gluten for a extended amount of time daily prior to getting tested. Open Original Shared Link

[Lex-]

6 minutes ago, Ennis_TX said:

B-vitamins...most gluten and processed foods are enriched...your basically eating a multivitamin every time you have a slice of bread etc. Look for a full spectrum B-vitamin supplement, others can be magnesium, iron, vitamin d, folate, etc. You mention plenty of greens and fruit so ruling out vitamin A,C,K, and a few others. Hmm did you drop off your carbs too much? If your carb dependent you need more complex carbs from like sweet potatoes, rice etc. And what about fat and protein? I am a keto dieter, my body burns fat instead of carbs for energy so I can say it is quite important to have plenty of fats and protein in your diet. Try snacking on nuts/seeds between meals or making up a protein shake with almond butter in it between meals (again going but what you said you eat vs what you might be missing)

I use Liquid Health for my spectrum B vitamins and vitamin D. Might look into them, being in liquid form you can just add it to a beverage. Might see about magnesium also, huge issue with many with this disease.

On other after thought, your probably already very aware of...but you mention your not "diagnosed yet" you will have to do a gluten challenge of eating gluten for a extended amount of time daily prior to getting tested. Open Original Shared Link

Ennis_TX, thank you for your response! I will take heed of all your nutritional pieces of advice, one by one. And yes, I am aware that a gluten marathon is on the horizon soon.

 

Before doing the test, however, I shall try to fortify my diet with the nutrients you mentioned, and report back in a week or two.

 

I think adding some iron supplement is wise too.

 

 

[Posterboy]

7 hours ago, Lex_ said:

I will be seeing a doctor soon. In the meanwhile, the fatigue is so bad that it's interfering with my daily activities. I have never felt this weak in my life. Few days ago I tried exercising - I thought maybe it would generate some energy. But it made matters worse.

Lex_

I agree with Ennis_Tx.

You need to take some Magnesium.  It works best as a Magnesium Citrate or Magnesium Glycinate.

Magnesium Citrate are easiest to find.

Take it 2/day for the first couple weeks to see how much more energy you have.

Then you can take it with each meal or 2/day and one hour before bedtime if it is not convenient to take it at work.

If it is working you (right form of as a Magnesium Citrate or Glycinate) you will will experience vivid dreams.

And wake up with enough energy to take on the day.

**** this is not medical advice but it really helped my chronic fatigue symptom's.

It is good for leg cramps too also known as charley horse's.

posterboy,

[Gail W]

One other thought to consider is other food allergies/intolerances you may have that you didn’t know of before that could be causing this change.  Is there any food that you may have added in or increased the frequency of eating since removing gluten from your diet?  I know this has happened with me where I took our gluten, started eating more rice and still getting sick till I figured out I have a rice allergy as well!

[Lex-]

12 hours ago, Posterboy said:

Lex_

I agree with Ennis_Tx.

You need to take some Magnesium.  It works best as a Magnesium Citrate or Magnesium Glycinate.

Magnesium Citrate are easiest to find.

Take it 2/day for the first couple weeks to see how much more energy you have.

Then you can take it with each meal or 2/day and one hour before bedtime if it is not convenient to take it at work.

If it is working you (right form of as a Magnesium Citrate or Glycinate) you will will experience vivid dreams.

And wake up with enough energy to take on the day.

**** this is not medical advice but it really helped my chronic fatigue symptom's.

It is good for leg cramps too also known as charley horse's.

posterboy,

Posterboy, thank you for your response! 

 

Regarding magnesium, do you think relying on food sources like fruits, bananas in particular, is not enough? Just out of curiosity, when you started taking Magnesiums Citrate supplements, did you already consume enough fruits?

[Lex-]

7 hours ago, Gail W said:

One other thought to consider is other food allergies/intolerances you may have that you didn’t know of before that could be causing this change.  Is there any food that you may have added in or increased the frequency of eating since removing gluten from your diet?  I know this has happened with me where I took our gluten, started eating more rice and still getting sick till I figured out I have a rice allergy as well!

Thank you Gail for your response. Of course one should be mindful of the possibility of food allergies but I don't think that's the case with my current situations. Save for gluten containing product, everything I eat now I used to eat before with no reaction whatsoever. I think my issue is more likely to be deficiency in minerals and such.

[Ennis-TX]

10 minutes ago, Lex_ said:

Posterboy, thank you for your response! 

 

Regarding magnesium, do you think relying on food sources like fruits, bananas in particular, is not enough? Just out of curiosity, when you started taking Magnesiums Citrate supplements, did you already consume enough fruits?

In many cases no.....I consume heavy magnesium foods like pumpkin seeds, cocoa nibs etc....and still need 2-3x the dose of magnesium recommendations. Going on more of what poster boy said. You dose magnesium to tolerance with citrate like Natural Vitality Calm you start off small partial doses and slow ramp up....it can hit you hard causing gas and D if you go to quick into it. You dose citrate to tolerance meaning you slowly up your dose til you get loose stools...then back down a bit. You should have vivid dreams with a good dosing....also if it becomes to harsh or you can not handle citrate there is Doctors Best Glycinate...it does not have the gut effects at all...but the dreams and how much it makes you relax is more more felt.

 

9 minutes ago, Lex_ said:

Thank you Gail for your response. Of course one should be mindful of the possibility of food allergies but I don't think that's the case with my current situations. Save for gluten containing product, everything I eat now I used to eat before with no reaction whatsoever. I think my issue is more likely to be deficiency in minerals and such.

...with this disease you can have a food intolerance or allergy crop up out of the blue....like no where. You have a autoimmune disease....celiac it effects your immune system and can make it really wonky. Like it seems to always be on guard like a sleep deprived sentry on stim packs...jumps at everything and shoots it. If you get sick, eat something odd or harsh you system might red flag it as a issue for awhile and go bonkers....keep a food diary and try a food rotation in the mean time...OH as a example to this, I was fine with chia seeds last week...I got a cold over the weekend....same bag, same brand same way....withing 30mins I now puke if I eat them...new intolerance.....I also am finding jalapenos/paprika making it sleepy tired....so I am removing them both for a few months from my diet and changing to other sources for fats/fiber and vitamin A/C til I get over that issue.....these things just happen. Open Original Shared Link

[Lex-]

58 minutes ago, Ennis_TX said:

...with this disease you can have a food intolerance or allergy crop up out of the blue...

I appreciate your point. However, constancy of my celiac symptoms indicates that I have had the disease for at least three years - while I have never experienced any food allergies in that time. Although I will keep an eye on any emerging allergies, I believe my current fatigue is due to nutritional deficiency, because the only exogenous change in my life style has been the transition to gluten free diet.

 

Yes, I certainly need to keep a food diary. Thanks again for the advice.

[Posterboy]

On 1/19/2018 at 8:00 AM, Ennis_TX said:

Posterboy, thank you for your response! 

 

Regarding magnesium, do you think relying on food sources like fruits, bananas in particular, is not enough? Just out of curiosity, when you started taking Magnesiums Citrate supplements, did you already consume enough fruits?

Lex_,

Again I am afraid Ennis_Tx is right here.

Ennis_tx eats right and is eating all the right things and still has to take/supplement with Magnesium.

The magnesium is a clue? 

We need magnesium to make energy.

I like to say as chlorophyll is to photosynthesis for the plant so is Magnesium for/to the Animal(s).

Meaning we will run down without it.

It is said "we waste away without enough Magnesium"

Dr. Carolyn Dean wrote the book "The Magnesium Miracle" because people genuinely feel terrific when they take it.

they are able to make energy again and function properly but the question remains  why? are we low in it the first place if we need it so much.

Iron plays the same role in the blood/respiration but people still get IDA.

It turns out low stomach acid limits our ability to absorb Magnesium and Iron.

see this link about the role of gastric acid in Iron absorption.

Open Original Shared Link

How do we know this.  . . well it is has been studied and proven.

look no further than the FDA box warning on PPI's entitled "FDA Drug Safety Communication: Low magnesium levels can be associated with long-term use of Proton Pump Inhibitor drugs (PPIs)"

Open Original Shared Link

now this takes about 6 months of use to become low in magnesium but being low in stomach acid limits our ability to absorb Magnesium and why many people have to take it at 2x to 3x the RDA to get the desired effect.

In fact the FDA says only stopping PPI's will reverses this condition.  Obviously  taking higher amount of Magnesium can help alleviate some of these symptom's but only raising the stomach acid will completely alleviate the condition.

quoting

"Although both patients' hypomagnesemia partially resolved with intravenous replacement, in both cases discontinuation of PPI treatment was necessary to stop ongoing symptoms and to stop magnesium loss."

Hypomagnesimia is critically low Magnesiums akin to IDA.

here is a thread about IDA and why this is so . . .  low stomach acid leads to low Iron levels.

I think it will help explain why Celiac's often have to take Magnesium to help with their chronic fatigue symptom's.

I hope this is helpful but when I helped my stomach acid levels my Magnesium begin to be better absorbed from the food I was eating.

Nuts are good Magnesium sources especially Cashews and Almonds.

So is chocolate hence Ennix_tx cocoa nibs etc. . .

***** this is not medical advice but I know taking Magnesium Citrate helped my energy levels.

posterboy by the grace of God,

2 Timothy 2: 7 “Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things”