Passing out

[Mary Em]

I was diagnosed with celiac disease after being anemic for most of my life especially the last few years. That was 10 years ago and I am increasingly experiencing violent reactions to accidental glutening, vomiting, diarrhea, chills.

This last time I passed out and woke up having vomited. Has this happened to anyone else? It was frightening!

Has anyone else fainted after gluten ingestion? Along with the vomiting, diarrhea and chills, I passed out   First time doing that and it scared me. 
10 years celiac and I have been very careful but eating out is a gamble. 

[trents]

I've never fainted but do get severe cramps and intractable nausea followed by diarrhea. There's probably a lot of blood flow being diverted to the gut to support all the stressful activity happening there and, coupled with the dehydration that occurs, I can easily see how insufficient blood flow to the brain and fainting could occur.

By the way, welcome to the forum, @Mary Em!

[Mary Em]

Thanks! It should be quite helpful once I learn how to navigate properly🙏🏻

[ElisaL]

I have a few times but I have other health problems made worse by the reaction. The main one being a migraine disorder, so really it was the migraine that knocked me out not the gluten. The gluten just set off everything.

[Wheatwacked]

Welcome @Mary Em,

Vitamin D plays an essential role in producing serotonin and minimizing oxidative stress, both of which can affect the migraine brain. Low vitamin D levels may contribute to migraine.  42% of Americans are deficient in vitamin D, 60% of UK adults and up to 75% northern Canadians are deficient in vitamin D.  Virtually all Celiac Disease sufferers are vitamin D deficient.

I have been taking 10,000 IU of vitamin D daily since 2015.  In 2019 my 25(OH)D blood test was 47 ng/ml.  Another two years to get up to 80 ng/ml (equal to 200 nmol/L) the normal homeostasis level, where it stays as long as I continue taking oral vitamin D.  

Thiamine (vitamin B1) has been associated with a lower risk of migraine.

You might start by taking significant amounts of vitamin D and Thiamin supplemental to increase your levels.  If available to you there are blood tests that will give you a baseline.  Worth checking out.

Just eating a gluten free diet does stop the ongoing damage that gluten causes, but it does not replenish the vitamin and mineral malnutrition caused by years of undiagnosed Celiac Disease caused by malabsorption and food avoidance.

I also take:

• Morning 6am or waking.
• Clonidine 0.1 mg every 6 hours (Blood pressure)
• Vitamin D 10,000 IU (250 mcg)
• DHEA 100 mg
•  
• Midmorning
• 500 mcg Iodine 10 drops of Liquid Iodine
•  
• Once a day, midafternoon
• B1 Thiamin 250 mg
• B2 Riboflavin 100 mg
• B3 Nicotinic Acid 500 mg
• B5 Pantothenice Acid 500 mg
• Vitamin C 500 mg
• Selenium twice a week 200 mcg

 

Edited November 5 by Wheatwacked

[cristiana]

At the time of the one awful, substantial glutening I experienced a few years ago, I felt very near to passing out.  I think if I hadn't been able to lie down, I might have.   As a child I was prone to fainting, and was told then how to avoid it, by putting my head between my knees, or lying down.  So now, if I feel things going grey that is what I do and I've never fainted since. 

But I felt so unwell when I was glutened on that one occasion with chills and cold sweats, waves of nausea, etc, and amongst it all I remember thinking that my heartbeat was also 'all over the place', so much so I might end up in hospital.  Until I was actually sick, then I began to feel a lot better.  

I felt well initially after eating gluten, the symptoms hit like a wall about 1 1/2 to 2 hours later, and then when I was sick, they quickly subsided.  I could not believe how violently I reacted.   

[Patty harrigan]

That’s exactly what happens to me. I have been unconscious twice, vomiting afterwards for up to 9 hours and then the bone breaking chills start. I have never vomited while unconscious, thank god.  It’s an unusual presentation and my doctors were reluctant to think it was due to gluten ingestion. However, I know it was gluten as both times it happened within 2-2.5 hrs of eating. I no longer eat food that I haven’t prepared myself and it’s been 6 yrs since it happened.  I was behind the wheel once and was lucky to get off the road before I went out. I feel, and all my doctors reluctantly agree, that it’s a vasovagal reaction. If I can lay down it seems I don’t pass out but I still vomit and get the chills. It’s terrifying to say the least. I could have killed myself or others. I’m as strict as I can be for that reason. 

[cristiana]

I remember reading about a passenger who was served the wrong food on a plane and reacted so badly to gluten they ended up having to sue the airline for the medical expenses incurred whilst in the States, where they were hospitalised on arrival.  At the time my reaction to gluten was quite mild, and I couldn't understand how anyone could be that ill, but now I can.  If I have a mild glutening the symptoms are less severe, but that one piece of cake made with normal flour a few years ago was anything but mild.

Edited November 6 by cristiana

[trents]

With the passage of time after going gluten free, we tend to react more intensely when we do get glutened. We eventually lose all tolerance to it that we may once have had when consuming it regularly.

[knitty kitty]

Y'all may want to get tested for POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome) which can cause fainting, and Gastrointestinal Beriberi, which manifests with vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, fever, chills, and low blood pressure.

POTS and Gastrointestinal Beriberi are Thiamine Deficiency Disorders.  Celiac Disease causes malabsorption which results in malnutrition.  Malabsorption affects all the essential vitamins and minerals.  Thiamine, in conjunction with the other B vitamins, makes life sustaining enzymes which enable our body to function. 

Gluten free diets can be low in essential B vitamins, especially Thiamine Vitamin B1.  Gluten free processed foods are not required to be enriched with vitamins like gluten containing products.  We need additional extra Thiamine when we consume a high carbohydrate diet.  Consistently eating lots of empty carbohydrates (like gluten free processed foods) can precipitate Thiamine Deficiency Disorders because Thiamine is necessary to turn carbohydrates into energy for the body. 

We have an increased demand for Thiamine when we are physically ill, emotionally stressed and physically active, especially in hot weather.  Thiamine cannot be stored in the body longer than three weeks, so deficiency symptoms can appear in as little as three days.  Early symptoms which are vague, include fatigue, depression, irritability, anxiety and malaise.  Symptoms can wax and wane depending on how much Thiamine we consume in our daily diet.  A twenty percent increase of dietary thiamine causes an eighty percent increase in brain function.  The brain, just sitting and worrying, uses as much Thiamine as muscles do while running a marathon.  The cerebellum and the Vagus nerve, which controls blood pressure, digestion, heart rate, also use LOTS of Thiamine.  

I limped along for years with a subclinical thiamine deficiency, while suffering from bouts of Gastrointestinal Beriberi and POTS.  My doctors never connected any of my health problems to nutritional deficiencies.  It's just not on their radar.  I studied nutrition before earning a degree in microbiology.  I was curious what vitamins did inside the cells of the body.  I thought "it couldn't be that easy."  Though doubtful, I started supplementing with high dose Thiamine, and had improvement within an hour!  Occam's Razor:  sometimes it's the simplest things.  Thiamine is safe and nontoxic even in high doses.  The B vitamins work together, so I took a B Complex.  The B vitamins are water soluble and easily excreted if not needed.  No harm, no foul to try.   

Do talk to your doctor and nutritionist about supplementing with essential vitamins and minerals.  Testing for nutritional deficiencies (though not accurate measurements of deficiencies) should be done before beginning supplementing otherwise you're just measuring the vitamins you ate.  You can have vitamin deficiency symptoms before there are changes in blood levels.  

Anemia can be helped by supplementing copper, thiamine and the other B vitamins like B12, as well as iron.  

Migraines are improved with Riboflavin Vitamin B 2.  I used to have severe three day long migraines, but Riboflavin made them go away.  

 

Thiamine deficiency disorders: a clinical perspective

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8451766/

Edited November 6 by knitty kitty
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[cristiana]

Thanks, @knitty kitty.  I've been tested and don't have it, but there is certainly something odd going on. 

If I get indigestion that can set off palpitations, my sister has that too.