Can stress make celiac symptoms worse?

[grossi]

Hello guys, a few weeks later I had positive EMA and in January I am going to have biopsy. If Its connected my symptoms are mostly mental. I have fatigue, brain fog, sometimes depression and anxiety. 
 

Weird thing is that. When I have for example summer vacation and minimum stress I feel better. But when the school starts and I become feel more stressful. I will strart feel foggy and have low energy again. Its hard to study with this. I think the brain fog also give me social anxiety. 
 

Do you think that stress can make celiac symptoms worse and give me social anxiety? Thank you for your reply

 

[trents]

A few weeks later than what? Is there more to the story? Did you have other celiac antibody tests run besides EMA? Usually, they don't run that one unless tTG-IGA is negative. But positive EMA is pretty definitive for celiac disease. It is relatively expensive test so Docs don't order it very often.

Yes, stress can and typically does exacerbate the symptoms of most any medical condition.

You must not start on a gluten-free diet if further testing, such as a biopsy of the small bowel, is planned.

[grossi]

2 hours ago, trents said:

A few weeks later than what? Is there more to the story? Did you have other celiac antibody tests run besides EMA? Usually, they don't run that one unless tTG-IGA is negative. But positive EMA is pretty definitive for celiac disease. It is relatively expensive test so Docs don't order it very often.

Yes, stress can and typically does exacerbate the symptoms of most any medical condition.

You must not start on a gluten-free diet if further testing, such as a biopsy of the small bowel, is planned.

Hello, thank you for your answer. I though before a few weeks. I wrote it wrong. Maybe I had eleveted something more but I dont have the medical report right now. I was tested with my father and He had positive IgA. 
 

Okay, it is kind a weird because I feel better in summer. I dont know if it is about stress or weather. But I had something with TSH levels too so maybe the winter can make these levels worse. 
 

Yea, I know. I tried gluten-free diet for 2 weeks but I didnt see any differences. The biopsy is in two months so I already started eat gluten again. But thank you for advice. And sorry for my english. 

[trents]

Have you considered SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)? Many people suffer with this. It has to do with the decreased amount of sunlight as we leave the summer season and enter winter. One thing you can and should try is adding about 5000IU of vitamin D3 daily to your diet. Sunlight striking our skin causes our body to make D3 naturally but so many spend most of their time inside with work and studies and in the colder months there is also less sunlight.

[grossi]

28 minutes ago, trents said:

Have you considered SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)? Many people suffer with this. It has to do with the decreased amount of sunlight as we leave the summer season and enter winter. One thing you can and should try is adding about 5000IU of vitamin D3 daily to your diet. Sunlight striking our skin causes our body to make D3 naturally but so many spend most of their time inside with work and studies and in the colder months there is also less sunlight.

Yea I took some D3 but I didnt see any effect so I stopped. I still have some in the box. Should I take them anyway? Can these pills distort deficiency test? :

[trents]

You should not be taking supplements if you are anticipating a vitamin/mineral deficiency test. Deficiency tests, IMO, have limited value since they only measure serum concentrations of vitamins and minerals and not what is actually getting into the body's cells. Symptoms are a more reliable indicator IMO of vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Furthermore, deficiency thresholds are set too low, IMO. They only establish what is adequate to prevent acute disease like scurvy or beriberi, not what is optimum.

Have you had general blood work done recently like a CBC and a CMP?

[grossi]

7 minutes ago, trents said:

You should not be taking supplements if you are anticipating a vitamin/mineral deficiency test. Deficiency tests, IMO, have limited value since they only measure serum concentrations of vitamins and minerals and not what is actually getting into the body's cells. Symptoms are a more reliable indicator IMO of vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Furthermore, deficiency thresholds are set too low, IMO. They only establish what is adequate to prevent acute disease like scurvy or beriberi, not what is optimum.

Have you had general blood work done recently like a CBC and a CMP?

Okey, I will wait. I had several tests for vitamine, etc.. I said to doctor that I have fatigue, problem with concentration and moodiness. So they checked some Fe,Hemoglobin and some regular stuff like Iron and D3. But I have never seen these regular tests results. They only told me everything is okey. Next time I will ask for results. 

Also I had Thyroid test and everything was normal. 
 

btw. Thank you for your fast replies.:)

[knitty kitty]

@grossi,

Welcome to the forum!

Thiamine deficiency can cause those symptoms.  Thiamine is Vitamin B 1.  Vitamin D and Vitamin B12 are the only vitamins frequently tested for. 

Vitamins like Thiamine are used inside cells and organs.  Blood tests can't measure vitamins inside cells.  Blood tests can reflect how much of a vitamin  you've eaten in the past twenty-four hours.  

Fatigue, moodiness, trouble thinking are early symptoms of Thiamine deficiency that I experienced.  I take high dose Thiamine in the form Tetrahydrofurfuryl disulfide (Allithiamine, Benfotiamine) and Thiamine Hydrochloride.  

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8533683/

Keep us posted on your progress!

[grossi]

3 hours ago, knitty kitty said:

@grossi,

Welcome to the forum!

Thiamine deficiency can cause those symptoms.  Thiamine is Vitamin B 1.  Vitamin D and Vitamin B12 are the only vitamins frequently tested for. 

Vitamins like Thiamine are used inside cells and organs.  Blood tests can't measure vitamins inside cells.  Blood tests can reflect how much of a vitamin  you've eaten in the past twenty-four hours.  

Fatigue, moodiness, trouble thinking are early symptoms of Thiamine deficiency that I experienced.  I take high dose Thiamine in the form Tetrahydrofurfuryl disulfide (Allithiamine, Benfotiamine) and Thiamine Hydrochloride.  

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8533683/

Keep us posted on your progress!

Hello, thank you for your advice.:)

I think the best thing I can do is that I will not take any supplements and I will have gluten in diet before biopsy. After the biopsy If I have positive result I will start gluten free diet and I will see If its help. When It is not going to help I will try the blood tests without supplements. Do you think it is the best thing what I can do?

I will, but it may take a while. The biopsy is in two months and only then will I be able to hold my gluten-free.

[grossi]

@knitty kitty
I also think If celiac can influence serotonin levels. It can cause similar symptoms. 
Do you think It is possible?

[cristiana]

 

Hi grossi

Months before I was diagnosed with coeliac disease I had the same symptoms you describe in your first post:

"fatigue, brain fog, sometimes depression and anxiety"

When tested my B12 levels were borderline normal.  Because they were technically normal, I wasn't prescribed B12 but I have since learned through this website that British normal levels would be considered low in, say, Japan.  My nutritionist knew this was the case and encouraged me to take B12 sublingual tablets.  Even drinking a large glass of milk or a glass of Berocca those days helped me feel less anxious.  

However, thankfully I also came across a book which helped a lot:  

The Depression Cure by Dr Steve Llardi.  The author explains how the following can make a huge difference to how we feel:   1) improved diet (he focusses on Omega 3 supplements), 2) exercise, 3) more sunlight, 4) better sleep, 5) stopping ruminating, 6) spending time with other people.

You can google it on Amazon and read what people think.  Better still, maybe buy a copy.  It explains the need for sunlight really well.  I bought a SAD lamp and it really did make a difference.

Another good book which helped with my anxiety was at Last a Life by Paul David - you can google it, there's a website too

I started reading these books long before my diagnosis and putting into practice some of their suggestions and they made a big difference. 

Cristiana

 

Edited November 26, 2022 by cristiana

[itarachiu]

22 hours ago, grossi said:

Yea I took some D3 but I didnt see any effect so I stopped. I still have some in the box. Should I take them anyway? Can these pills distort deficiency test?

You also need to take D3 with magnesium to have a proper absorption of vitamin D. As @trents mentioned you need vitamin D with 5000 UI if you suspect that you are deficient for vitamin D. Do you have magnesium rich foods in your diet?

Me as a celiac I can confirm that when is summer and I stay outside in the sun or when I go fishing or to the beach... any activity in the sun yes I do feel better but my guess is that we as humans we love the sun... me personally I love it.

[grossi]

1 hour ago, cristiana said:

 

Hi grossi

Months before I was diagnosed with coeliac disease I had the same symptoms you describe in your first post:

"fatigue, brain fog, sometimes depression and anxiety"

When tested my B12 levels were borderline normal.  Because they were technically normal, I wasn't prescribed B12 but I have since learned through this website that British normal levels would be considered low in, say, Japan.  My nutritionist knew this was the case and encouraged me to take B12 sublingual tablets.  Even drinking a large glass of milk or a glass of Berocca those days helped me feel less anxious.  

However, thankfully I also came across a book which helped a lot:  

The Depression Cure by Dr Steve Llardi.  The author explains how the following can make a huge difference to how we feel:   1) improved diet (he focusses on Omega 3 supplements), 2) exercise, 3) more sunlight, 4) better sleep, 5) stopping ruminating, 6) spending time with other people.

You can google it on Amazon and read what people think.  Better still, maybe buy a copy.  It explains the need for sunlight really well.  I bought a SAD lamp and it really did make a difference.

Another good book which helped with my anxiety was at Last a Life by Paul David - you can google it, there's a website too

I started reading these books long before my diagnosis and putting into practice some of their suggestions and they made a big difference. 

Cristiana

 

Okay thank you for your recommendations. I will check these things. I am glad that you are feeling better. Do you think that is because you started doing different things? Or Do you thing the Gluten free diet was the main reason?

[grossi]

51 minutes ago, itarachiu said:

You also need to take D3 with magnesium to have a proper absorption of vitamin D. As @trents mentioned you need vitamin D with 5000 UI if you suspect that you are deficient for vitamin D. Do you have magnesium rich foods in your diet?

Me as a celiac I can confirm that when is summer and I stay outside in the sun or when I go fishing or to the beach... any activity in the sun yes I do feel better but my guess is that we as humans we love the sun... me personally I love it.

Good point. I was taking D3 5000 IU daily But no magnesium. I drink a lot of soda that has magnesium in it so I think it might be good. I think the supplements would be still useless if I had a damaged gut. After a while on gluten-free diet I will try D3 with magnesium, thanks for advice. 

[cristiana]

On 11/26/2022 at 7:28 PM, grossi said:

Okay thank you for your recommendations. I will check these things. I am glad that you are feeling better. Do you think that is because you started doing different things? Or Do you thing the Gluten free diet was the main reason?

I think it is a combination of things.  I did feel a lot better when my deficiencies were being addressed and also reading those books and applying their recommendations.   But it took a while to lose the anxiety altogether after I went gluten free.   

It is not easy to predict how quickly recovery will come - it varies enormously from one person to another.   But one thing that I found helpful was to think of recovery in terms of a graph.  There was an oveall upward trajectory representing recovery, but there were ups and downs along the way - like a jagged line but going upwards over time, if that makes sense?  There will be ups and downs but overall I think you should feel better over time.

Edited November 27, 2022 by cristiana

[Kate333]

Hi grossi.  Your comment about feeling better during summer vacation and low stress is very revealing.  

Fatigue and brain fog are among the many classic physical symptoms of chronic stress and depression (celiac disease issues aside).  Chronic sleep problems and poor diet also affect the body and brain functions, so you might want to assess whether you are consistently getting an adequate amount of restful sleep every night and nutrition every day. 

You might want to check out anxietycentre.com, a great free online resource that describes in great detail the many surprising ways in which constant stress can adversely affect your body and present in unexpected symptoms and wonderful articles, tips for how to address problems.  You might also ask your primary or GI doctor for a short-term low-dose antidepressant and/or referral to a mental health specialist for counseling to see if that helps you feel better.  

 

 

 

[trents]

On 11/26/2022 at 11:35 AM, grossi said:

 I think the supplements would be still useless if I had a damaged gut.

Though the gut is damaged that is not the same as nonfunctional. It is still functional and capable of absorbing nutrients to some degree, just less efficiency than when healthy. So, for the sake of illustration, say the gut is only absorbing D3 at 50% efficiency. If you double the amount of D3 you take that would equal an uptake equal to what was being absorbed at the old dosage. That is why we recommend heavy supplementation to celiacs from the get go once diagnosed. High dosages of vitamins and minerals can offset poor absorption efficiency during the healing process.

[grossi]

10 hours ago, cristiana said:

I think it is a combination of things.  I did feel a lot better when my deficiencies were being addressed and also reading those books and applying their recommendations.   But it took a while to lose the anxiety altogether after I went gluten free.   

It is not easy to predict how quickly recovery will come - it varies enormously from one person to another.   But one thing that I found helpful was to think of recovery in terms of a graph.  There was an oveall upward trajectory representing recovery, but there were ups and downs along the way - like a jagged line but going upwards over time, if that makes sense?  There will be ups and downs but overall I think you should feel better over time.

Okay thanks. Yeah I know what do you mean. I know that is run to long distance. I just wanted to know It is could be possible. I tried psychiatrist but I didn't see any improvement.
I dont know why I feel like that. But I think there is nothing that could cause it from my live. 

[grossi]

9 hours ago, Kate333 said:

Hi grossi.  Your comment about feeling better during summer vacation and low stress is very revealing.  

Fatigue and brain fog are among the many classic physical symptoms of chronic stress and depression (celiac disease issues aside).  Chronic sleep problems and poor diet also affect the body and brain functions, so you might want to assess whether you are consistently getting an adequate amount of restful sleep every night and nutrition every day. 

You might want to check out anxietycentre.com, a great free online resource that describes in great detail the many surprising ways in which constant stress can adversely affect your body and present in unexpected symptoms and wonderful articles, tips for how to address problems.  You might also ask your primary or GI doctor for a short-term low-dose antidepressant and/or referral to a mental health specialist for counseling to see if that helps you feel better.  

 

 

 

Hello, I dont think it is the thing. I visit psychiatrist several times but I didnt see any improvement. I do sport, most of the time eat healthy, go to sleep every day in the same time and sleep at least 8 hours. So I dont think there could be problem. Although I feel better in the summer I still have these symptoms for whole year. It just make my little bit scared that is worse these times. 😕

[grossi]

8 hours ago, trents said:

Though the gut is damaged that is not the same as nonfunctional. It is still functional and capable of absorbing nutrients to some degree, just less efficiency than when healthy. So, for the sake of illustration, say the gut is only absorbing D3 at 50% efficiency. If you double the amount of D3 you take that would equal an uptake equal to what was being absorbed at the old dosage. That is why we recommend heavy supplementation to celiacs from the get go once diagnosed. High dosages of vitamins and minerals can offset poor absorption efficiency during the healing process.

Oh I didnt know it but it makes sense. I will talk about this with my doctor after the biopsy, thanks.

[Posterboy]

On 11/25/2022 at 5:18 AM, grossi said:

Hello guys, a few weeks later I had positive EMA and in January I am going to have biopsy. If Its connected my symptoms are mostly mental. I have fatigue, brain fog, sometimes depression and anxiety. 
 

Weird thing is that. When I have for example summer vacation and minimum stress I feel better. But when the school starts and I become feel more stressful. I will strart feel foggy and have low energy again. Its hard to study with this. I think the brain fog also give me social anxiety. 
 

Do you think that stress can make celiac symptoms worse and give me social anxiety? Thank you for your reply

 

Grossi,

Stress can make many medical symptom's worse....

Stress has been tied to GERD/Heartburn in the  6 months prior to it's development.

See this research about it....

Entitled "The effect of life stress on symptoms of heartburn"

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15184707/

Higher stressors burn more energy and why you have more fatigue, and brain fog especially from low Thiamine levels….

The production of stomach acid is HIGH Energy activity and why stress will trigger your GI symptom's to be worse when yout STRESS is High.

A Canadian research studied these same connections when it comes to healhty stomach acid and low Niacin levels....

I will cite the whole article because it will be instructive too you.....Students who were studying for their "Finals" developed more GI problems......just as the above researsch proved!.....first comes your stress then comes your heartburn....

Entitled "Is Vitamin B3 Dependency a Causal Factor in the Development of Hypochlorhydria and Achlorhydria?" aka Low or NO Stomach Acid and his answer was yes! it was.

http://orthomolecular.org/library/jom/2001/pdf/2001-v16n04-p225.pdf

Stress has also been shown to be a potential trigger for Long COVID Symptoms'....

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-11-severely-stressful-events-worsen-symptoms.html

Not suprisingly.....because Stressful events burn through our B-Vitamins!

B-Vitamins (and especially Magnesium) are critical for your body to produce energy.....and we need more B-Vitamins to help use manage/produce more energy when we are STRESSED OUT!

As I like to say everybody knows STRESS Kills us right.....but It MAIMS us first!

I wrote a blog post that might help you.

I hope this is helpful but it is not medial advice.

Good luck on your continued journey(s) in life and dont' let it (life) stress you out too much!

Take some B-Vitamins for your heartburn!

2 Timothy 2:7 "Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.", this included.

Posterboy by the Grace of God,

[Posterboy]

Grossi Et Al,

I knew about this.....but didn't think about it at the time.

NOT Only can Stress makes Celiac symptom's worse.....IT might even be the trigger for Celiac disease.

STRESS is Common before a Celiac diagnosis.....

See this article about it....

Here is another article that expalins how Stress can be a trigger for Celiac disease.

https://www.verywellhealth.com/can-pregnancy-trigger-celiac-disease-562302

As I like to think about it.....FIRST Comes baby, then comes GERD/ NCGS/Celiac disease symptoms....

I hope this is helpful but it is not medical advice.

Posterboy,

[Wheatwacked]

On 11/25/2022 at 1:52 PM, grossi said:

I feel better in summer

It's called Seasonal Affective Disorder. Summer is the only time you get enough vitamin D from sunlight. The rest of the year we use up out stored reserves.  Anything more than 29 ng/ml vitamin D blood plasma is considered as sufficient, enough to keep Rickets and osteomalacia at bay, but the normal level is 70-90 ng/ml. You need lots of unprotected sunlight or foods with lots of vitamin D or in our world, supplement. 

Quote

The body makes vitamin D when skin is exposed to the ultraviolet light (UVB rays) from the sun. During the winter months in New York the UVB rays are not adequate to make enough vitamin D. In addition, as we age, our bodies are less able to make vitamin D from sun exposure. The most important factor that blocks the body's ability to make vitamin D, is the use of sunscreen to protect skin from sun damage. For all of these reasons, especially the importance of protecting your skin, it is recommended that people use sunscreen and get vitamin D from foods and/or supplements.  https://www.health.ny.gov/publications/1991/index.htm