Gluten free 6 months

[Stef37]

Hi All,

I have been gluten free for almost 6 months now. I was diagnosed with Celiac (no biopsy, only blood). 

Since then my body has undergone very weird changes. I lost a lot of weight, i got dermatitis and my depression and anxiety have been feeling very different. Sometimes better, sometimes a lot worse. I am also getting inflammation in my lymph nodes (behind the ears) usually when i eat. In all, i felt radically better at times, which is why i have followed the diet religiously. However, i now remain searching for those good days again.

Does anybody know why all these changes occur after removing gluten from my diet? Why was i not feeling all these uncomfortable things whilst actually consuming gluten? The only symptom i had was terrible fatigue, depression and anxiety which, after removing gluten from my diet and having them lift significantly occasionally, made me realise that i might have a problem with gluten. 

Should i follow a very specific diet to aid my recovery besides gluten free, lactose free and low sugar? (which i am already doing). 

Gluten has also seemingly affected my testosterone. IF there is anyone out there with similar issue i would appreciate any information, thanks.

[pikakegirl]

I lost 70 lbs in the first year. Water retention weight and inflammation. My blood work was normal in 6 months. I wish i had a full vitamin panel done. Took years to find my folic acid, D3, B2 and K2 crashed. When I stopped eating processed food I stopped getting all the vitamins they are fortified with because they are trash food. Also went to nutritionist but they dont teach how to clean, prep and cook natural food. It was a long learning curve. As for strange body symptoms. Yes I had all those except the testosterone. It takes quite a while for the body to heal and I was detoxing all that gluten out of all my body fat and cells. Losing weight dumps toxins in the blood stream. Things started to get better after a few years for me. Be sure you assist your body in healing by finding out what particular vitamin supplements you may need and keeping food to original scource foods. I contacted manufacturers and even farms to be sure products were gluten free. Cross contamination is a challenging problem and gluten free packaged foods are not gluten free, they can contain up to 20ppm. I limit eating those. Listen to your body and trust it. Drs. I met have no extensive training in nutritional healing. All my data came from research and groups like this.

[Ennis-TX]

3 hours ago, Stef37 said:

Hi All,

I have been gluten free for almost 6 months now. I was diagnosed with Celiac (no biopsy, only blood). 

Since then my body has undergone very weird changes. I lost a lot of weight, i got dermatitis and my depression and anxiety have been feeling very different. Sometimes better, sometimes a lot worse. I am also getting inflammation in my lymph nodes (behind the ears) usually when i eat. In all, i felt radically better at times, which is why i have followed the diet religiously. However, i now remain searching for those good days again.

Does anybody know why all these changes occur after removing gluten from my diet? Why was i not feeling all these uncomfortable things whilst actually consuming gluten? The only symptom i had was terrible fatigue, depression and anxiety which, after removing gluten from my diet and having them lift significantly occasionally, made me realise that i might have a problem with gluten. 

Should i follow a very specific diet to aid my recovery besides gluten free, lactose free and low sugar? (which i am already doing). 

Gluten has also seemingly affected my testosterone. IF there is anyone out there with similar issue i would appreciate any information, thanks.

Pika hit on somethings there is most definitely a detox, and not just gluten but stuff stored in fat gets broken down when you loose it...oddly this can include medications etc that sometimes get stored in fat.

Other things, your body was fighting gluten for years, everything else had a lesser priority. Now that the fight is winding down your body may react to other things you did not expect. DO KEEP a food diary, and rotate foods...might find some odd things that are triggering these lows and other symptoms.

Pika hits on another thing...most gluten foods are sprayed with multivitamins, other wise humans could not live on them alone. Now without fortified foods you need to eat a viratiy of foods OR supplement them. With Celiac damage supplementing may very well be required as you not able to absorb all the stuff you eat, so taking a bit more so your absorb more can be helpful. Full spectrum of b-vitamins, Magnesium, Iron, Vitamin D3 (winter is here you will probably need this anyway), are just among the common ones, others can be vitamin C, K, etc.

IF your ketogenic, and get the flu like symptoms you might need extraneous ketones, more fats like MCT oil or upping the fat intake, etc. The body bogs down in keto if your not getting enough or if you spike your carbs a meal it throws you in the "keto flu". Another big thing on the keto diet is salts intake, we go through potassium, magnesium, and sodium MUCH faster then most people and are very easily dehydrated. Make sure your also drinking a large glass every hour or 2.

Testosterone...trying different things myself on this, having decent luck with longjack extract 5on 2 off a week. I am looking at some other brands of things to boost it but most are over hyped and priced. Tried quite a few  but settling with looking up individual ingredients on them and seeing how they effect me on their own.

[hollylynn128]

Stef37, I came across your post in an email and while reading, it was as if you were writing it about me. I am having all of the same symptoms, except the testosterone, of course, but everything else is exactly the same. Thank you for posting this, as it made me feel much better emotionally. I was so confused as to why I was still feeling so bad and having all these strange symptoms if I was doing everything I was supposed to be doing. Thank you also for the responses from other users! I think I will start a food diary like someone else suggested to see if I can find any links. Thanks again and good luck to you!