Brain Aneurysm

[dustinwes]

Good evening. 

I'm 3la 38 year old male and have eaten like crap ALL my life (cakes, candy, bread bread bread, etc etc etc) and other than being overweight @ 6'3 350lb, few limitations and high BP I've never had your typical gluten reaction (that I have recognized that is).

I own a large business, have a busy life with family, employees, friends etc and after driving my race car on Sept 23/23 I suffered a brain aneurysm and was air lifted to Toronto, Ontario and spent 3 weeks in the ICU.

After being released and coming home for recovery I slowly came back to my business, eating "better", lowering BP, etc but still eating gluten items. 

Nothing out of the ordinary happened until about 3 weeks ago when I started getting bad diarrhea and major panic attacks (the first one had me calling the ambulance - this may sound ridiculous but after what l went through, you have to understand that calling 911 was the only option considering I've never even had a panic attack in my life).

I started to learn to control the attacks with breathing, meditation, etc but the diarrhea would just be frequent trips to the bathroom. 

I started doing some research by googling "panic attack after..." and found 1000s of posts related to gluten and panic attacks! This is when I found this amazing website. 

For 4 days we stopped gluten and wouldn't you know it, zero attacks or diarrhea! Went out to eat last Friday and got what I thought was gluten free but the lobster on my steak was in a sauce that must of contained meat. 

Back to the drawing board, went another week with zero attacks! Ordered breakfast this morning and the home fries must of had some coating and or been cross contaminated! Panic attacks within an hour along with diarrhea. I listened to my native American flute music and meditated. Had to do this a couple times today along with 4 D BM's.

I'm learning.... and will continue to lurk on here. 

So, I guess I wanted to share my story and ask how any others get the panic attacks and D while being glutoned.

I realize a brain aneurysm is rare (especially surviving, and trust me I'm not recovered fully, it's going to take time. I have some major ptsd now, constant thoughts of why did I survive, is it going to happen again, but with time I'm confident this will subsisde. I have a beautiful wife and 2 year old who rely on me, along with employees, family, friends). 

My theory is that because my brain has now gone through a major change that I'm now more prone to gluten intolerance (I don't believe its celiac as from what I see, the allergy is way worse symptoms than I'm getting and I'm definitely not interested in eating gluten for the next few months to get an actual diagnosis). Like I mentioned, 38 years of gluten and zero symptoms ever, brain goes through a monster shift and there it was, just to say HELLO I'm here! 🧠 💩 

 

Dustin

[plumbago]

Wow - thank you for sharing your amazing story! (When you say aneurysm, did it burst or were you taken care of before that happened?) I've had only one or two panic attacks, but I don't think they were precipitated by gluten, at least not that I know of. All I know is that I had to go out walking and burn off a lot of energy, which helped. I have heard of gluten causing neurological symptoms like anxiety, among a few others. Sometimes when I inadvertently eat something that is too sweet, I feel a degree of anxiety.

Plumbago

[trents]

Welcome to the forum, Dustin!

First, let me explain that celiac disease is not an allergy, it's an autoimmune disorder that causes the small bowel to react to gluten as an invader. Celiac disease is often referred to as "gluten intolereance". There is another gluten-related disorder known as NCGS (Non Celiac Gluten Sensitivity) or just "gluten sensitivity". The physiological mechanism of NCGS is no well understood but it does not seem to be an allergy. The difference between celiac disease and NCGS is that the immune system reaction of celiac disease causes inflammation that damages the villous lining of the small bowel. This typically results in vitamin and mineral deficiencies since this is the section of the intestinal tract where all the nutrition from the food we eat is absorbed.

With NCGS, on the other hand, the small bowel lining is not damaged. However, with NCGS there may be other toxic effects to body systems that can cause things such as neurological damage. Some experts feel that NCGS can be a precursor to developing celiac disease.

Celiac disease requires a genetic potential for developing it but it also requires some kind of stress event to trigger the genes into an active state. The stress event can be physiological (such as a viral infection) or even psychological. About 40% of the population has the genetic potential for celiac disease but only about 1% of the population develops an active form of the disease because the genes are triggered by some stress event. I certainly think the medical trauma associated with your aneurism could have been that trigger.

At the end of the day, whether a person has celiac disease or NCGS, the antidote is the same: a serious, lifelong commitment to eating gluten free. But to achieve a truly gluten free state consistently typically involves a considerable education curve. It's easy to achieve a lower gluten dietary status but to eliminate the hidden sources of gluten through disguised terminology and cross contamination is more difficult. I am including the following article to help with that: 

 

[Scott Adams]

Welcome Dustin, amazing story and it's great to hear that you survived and will hopefully regain your health. I had panic attacks as a common symptom, and also went to the emergency room a few times before I was diagnosed with celiac disease. I recall my panic attacks being first triggered by vertigo, or the feeling that I was falling.

Many people with celiac disease are also overweight, which is contrary to what doctors have been taught about the disease, at least until recently. This means that overweight people are less likely to be properly diagnosed. If you do have undiagnosed celiac disease, going gluten-free may also lead to a healthy weight loss for you.