Symptoms get better and then worse and then better

[CaseyH]

For the past 6 months I’ve been dealing with muscle aches, muscle fatigue, brain fog, fatigue, chronic prostitis, and recently eczema only on my hands and feet. I had not been able to find an answer. I then stumbled upon the AIP diet and noticed a lot of people with food intolerances seem to be having similar issues. I started the diet and after just a few days I felt noticeably better. My eczema began to go away and so did the aches, prostitis even, and the brain fog. I started working out again after Day 4 or so and it was going well up until Day 7 where I felt achy again and muscle fatigued. I assumed it was because I was working out to hard and my muscles were still recovering, and around Day 13 I started feeling better than I ever had before. Almost no symptoms. I began to workout as well. This continued for a couple more days until I ate some plain crawfish and crab for lunch. Just that and nothing else. I almost immediately felt slight aches and uncomfortability. However it was not as noticeable as it had been in the past and shellfish are supposed to be one of those safe foods. 
 

Fast forward to the next day and I still feel that uncomfortableness and slight aches. I then accidentally ingested soy sauce with gluten in it and I felt like s$#& after. I could tell from then that gluten is one of the things that affects me for sure but I’m still not certain about the shellfish. Anyways, Im recovering form being glutened and after a few days I start to feel better. I have less muscles aches and everything seems to be getting better. I start exercising again and a couple days later I woke up with a sharper type of ache more noticeable on my left side. It almost felt like a nerve pain. It was not reminiscent of what the typical chronic aches I had previously felt felt like. It’s been a few days since then and my muscles are getting bette rebut I’m just worried about them getting worse again. 
 

I personally think it could be because of the exercise at this stage. I do a lot of boxing and one of the things I do is shadow boxing with weights in my hands, sometimes going at full speed.

 

And also from what is provided do you guys think that I only have to worry about gluten or that there is a good chance that I’m going to be intolerant to something as well

 

Thank you

[cristiana]

Hello Casey and welcome to the forum!

Trying to find out whether we have intolerances to various foodstuffs is quite a science.   

If you aren't already, I would suggest you  might like to try keeping a food diary to record what you eat at each meal and as snacks and any symptoms the food triggers and see if a pattern emerges.

But re: gluten, if you feel it is causing some of these issues I would strongly advise you to ask your doctor to test you for celiac disease, which will include going on a gluten challenge.  This challenge means eating gluten for six to eight weeks prior to taking the necessary blood tests.  I'm British and here we are told to eat at least two slices of gluten containing bread every day for six weeks.   And even if the tests come back negative, you may wish to have an endoscopy to be absolutely sure, as a small number of celiacs do not have positive blood results, even though their gut is damaged).

That said, if you feel you cannot do this challenge because your symptoms would be so severe that would be completely understandable.   Instead, you could just give up gluten anyway.

If you do have celiac disease, you may have mineral and vitamin deficiencies which could cause symptoms such as muscle pain, cramps, etc.  Something else to be tested for and addressed.

(Incidentally, on a separate note, I have only just started to suffer from eczema in my middle years and I believe mine is triggered by either nuts or soy or both.   So I too am currently trying to keep a track of these things, to find out what is going on.  Gluten isn't always the culprit!)

Cristiana

Edited August 15, 2021 by cristiana

[plumbago]

6 hours ago, CaseyH said:

For the past 6 months I’ve been dealing with muscle aches, muscle fatigue, brain fog, fatigue, chronic prostitis, and recently eczema only on my hands and feet. I had not been able to find an answer. I then stumbled upon the AIP diet and noticed a lot of people with food intolerances seem to be having similar issues. I started the diet and after just a few days I felt noticeably better. My eczema began to go away and so did the aches, prostitis even, and the brain fog. I started working out again after Day 4 or so and it was going well up until Day 7 where I felt achy again and muscle fatigued. I assumed it was because I was working out to hard and my muscles were still recovering, and around Day 13 I started feeling better than I ever had before. Almost no symptoms. I began to workout as well. This continued for a couple more days until I ate some plain crawfish and crab for lunch. Just that and nothing else. I almost immediately felt slight aches and uncomfortability. However it was not as noticeable as it had been in the past and shellfish are supposed to be one of those safe foods. 
 

Fast forward to the next day and I still feel that uncomfortableness and slight aches. I then accidentally ingested soy sauce with gluten in it and I felt like s$#& after. I could tell from then that gluten is one of the things that affects me for sure but I’m still not certain about the shellfish. Anyways, Im recovering form being glutened and after a few days I start to feel better. I have less muscles aches and everything seems to be getting better. I start exercising again and a couple days later I woke up with a sharper type of ache more noticeable on my left side. It almost felt like a nerve pain. It was not reminiscent of what the typical chronic aches I had previously felt felt like. It’s been a few days since then and my muscles are getting bette rebut I’m just worried about them getting worse again. 
 

I personally think it could be because of the exercise at this stage. I do a lot of boxing and one of the things I do is shadow boxing with weights in my hands, sometimes going at full speed.

 

And also from what is provided do you guys think that I only have to worry about gluten or that there is a good chance that I’m going to be intolerant to something as well

 

Thank you

I hope other frequent commenters can chime in about diet and food, but right off the bat, what caught my attention is the exercise. Of course, I'm just speculating here, but I've read of more than few cases of the effects of overexercise especially during the pandemic, and worked with a patient who had elevated CPK (rhabdo) due to other causes. Don't know if it's just an over reaction to extreme sloth that we get into sitting around in lockdown, sometimes, or what, but too much exercise can actually have some bad effects, one of the most severe is rhabdomyolisis (breakdown of muscle tissue), symptoms can be foamy urine, painful muscles, weak muscles, fever, rapid heart rate. Hopefully that's not it. Keep us posted!

[Scott Adams]

Many celiacs seem to have additional food intolerance issues, and the number one that we see often here would be casein/cow's milk. Have you ever tried to be dairy-free for a month or two to see if it helps?

[CaseyH]

Yes. I’ve been on the AIP diet for the past few weeks. The diet cuts out dairy, gluten, non-gluten grains, soy, nuts, and more. I’m tempted to just stick with only no dairy and no gluten, but I keep seeing all these people having the most random food intolerances. 

[Scott Adams]

It seems that one diet does not fit all here, that is for sure. Be sure to keep a food diary so you can monitor how various foods affect you. In time you may be able to add certain foods back to your diet, but not others.