Severe leg pain

[Peter-b]

Hi all.

Starting 5 months ago, I had an incredibly weird sensation in my right leg as it rested whether sitting down or in bed. Pain and maybe a pin/needle or two every so often. Very minimal. Then after a few days it started hurting a lot especially when I sat down. Walking around was fine and made it feel much better. Driving was very painful and I would shift body weight to left side and try and drive with left foot while I bent my knee or shifted my leg offering minimal comfort. I searched for any cause. I stumbled upon celiac disease and gluten intolerance symptoms including neuropathy. Guess what happened about 1 month before all this started? I bought a new stand mixer and made bread, pasta, sweet breads, cookies, cakes and more bread. I went into a baking frenzy and loved the fresh pasta almost every night. I went gluten free 1 month ago and my leg symptoms totally disappeared.

Last night however, I suddenly became 'aware' of my right leg. This morning sitting in a chair was super mildly painful and uncomfortable. What happened? Suddenly I realized I tried a new salad dressing last night. I always eat Newmans Own olive oil and vinegar. Last night I bought Sesame ginger and loved it I ate so much. Sure enough it has soy sauce made from wheat. I was never sure if gluten was causing my symptoms because with COVID, I haven't been able to get tested or wanted to bother my dr. Last we spoke he had mentioned b12 deficiency so I've also been taking b12 for a couple months. But after that unprompted feeling last night ( haven't thought of my leg pain in a couple weeks, it was non existent), and noticing I had gluten in my dinner, my radar is more focused on gluten. I know fermented soy sauce gluten is broken down but who knows, this is very suspect. I went for a 2 mile walk this morning and haven't had leg discomfort since getting back.

 

I never really had much digestion issues. Not that I'm aware of.

 

Has anyone ever heard of this? My Dr at the same time of the b12 talk mentioned sciatica and neuropathy but I couldn't get into the physical therapist before COVID shut it all down. I did manage to get into a chiropractor and he said my xray looked fine from a spine point of view and didn't see anything that would cause neuropathy.

 

Thank you for reading. I have plenty more suspect things I can talk about, and other events but this is long enough for now.

 

 

[cyclinglady]

Hi!

I am not a doctor, but my bet would be that sciatica is the cause of your symptoms and not gluten.    It just happen to coincide with your increase in gluten.  If you had neuropathy issues in both your legs, I would suspect a B-12 deficiency, but one leg?  Sciatica.  Not to mention that it feels best when you are walking and not sitting.  

Of course, the best thing would be to get tested, because you can not determine celiac disease or deficiencies based on symptoms because  these same symptoms often overlap with many illnesses.  The catch for celiac disease testing is that you would have to go back on gluten for 6 to 12 weeks for the screening blood tests.  Your doctor can also check you for B-12 deficiencies and insure you are not anemic (CBC test).  

I get Piriformis Syndrome occasionally which can aggravate or cause sciatica.   Being gluten free has not prevented it.   Sitting, for me, really aggravates it.  It flares up due to sports injuries, in my case.  

https://www.healthline.com/health/piriformis-syndrome#treatment

https://www.spine-health.com/video/piriformis-syndrome-video

You could have celiac disease.  Who knows?  To find out, get tested.  

Edited May 19, 2020 by cyclinglady

[Scott Adams]

Yes, it might be a good idea to get your vitamin levels checked. I have a similar issue with my right leg that is related to restless leg syndrome (RLS), and my B12 levels are actually high, but I've been supplementing B1 lately and it seems to help with the tingle/needle feeling, which, in my opinion, triggers the RLS, at least in my case.

[Regenia]

On 5/18/2020 at 8:17 PM, Peter_b said:

Hi all.

Starting 5 months ago, I had an incredibly weird sensation in my right leg as it rested whether sitting down or in bed. Pain and maybe a pin/needle or two every so often. Very minimal. Then after a few days it started hurting a lot especially when I sat down. Walking around was fine and made it feel much better. Driving was very painful and I would shift body weight to left side and try and drive with left foot while I bent my knee or shifted my leg offering minimal comfort. I searched for any cause. I stumbled upon celiac disease and gluten intolerance symptoms including neuropathy. Guess what happened about 1 month before all this started? I bought a new stand mixer and made bread, pasta, sweet breads, cookies, cakes and more bread. I went into a baking frenzy and loved the fresh pasta almost every night. I went gluten free 1 month ago and my leg symptoms totally disappeared.

Last night however, I suddenly became 'aware' of my right leg. This morning sitting in a chair was super mildly painful and uncomfortable. What happened? Suddenly I realized I tried a new salad dressing last night. I always eat Newmans Own olive oil and vinegar. Last night I bought Sesame ginger and loved it I ate so much. Sure enough it has soy sauce made from wheat. I was never sure if gluten was causing my symptoms because with COVID, I haven't been able to get tested or wanted to bother my dr. Last we spoke he had mentioned b12 deficiency so I've also been taking b12 for a couple months. But after that unprompted feeling last night ( haven't thought of my leg pain in a couple weeks, it was non existent), and noticing I had gluten in my dinner, my radar is more focused on gluten. I know fermented soy sauce gluten is broken down but who knows, this is very suspect. I went for a 2 mile walk this morning and haven't had leg discomfort since getting back.

 

I never really had much digestion issues. Not that I'm aware of.

 

Has anyone ever heard of this? My Dr at the same time of the b12 talk mentioned sciatica and neuropathy but I couldn't get into the physical therapist before COVID shut it all down. I did manage to get into a chiropractor and he said my xray looked fine from a spine point of view and didn't see anything that would cause neuropathy.

 

Thank you for reading. I have plenty more suspect things I can talk about, and other events but this is long enough for now.

 

 

I don't know if this helps u at all to know ? But I have had restless leg syndrome for over 20yrs along with horrible acid reflux ,I am 46yrs old and was just diagnosed with celiac disease about 6 months ago. I have been strictly gluten free for 6 months now and both restless leg syndrome and acid reflux are gone.?