Aweful Symptoms

[Becky72]

I started having problems about 2 years ago. After i drank alcohol i noticed my heart would race at night. I would also sweat and my temp would actually go up. I finally went in to my doc and i went through a heart monitor for a week which did show my heart racing at around 120-130 . They also did a glucose monitoring thing they put in my stomach for a week. It showed my blood sugar would rise at night sometimes in the 200's and stay up till the morning then it would sometimes crash to about 50. I have had hypoglcemic symptoms most of my life. All of the times my blood sugar was high at night i had had alcohol that evening or alot of carbs.I had glucose tollerance test which was fine. My doctor also did blood tests which shoowed i had a very low ferritin level and my gliadin was high( almost tripled i think). She told me i probably have celiacs. I didnt want to belive it because i didnt want to have to go gluten free. She has put me on metformin to see if it my blood sugar but it has not helped my heart racing. I wish i could find someone els with my symptoms because it would be so much easier for me to accept. When i eat an offending food it is not an instant reaction. Sometimes i can feel my heart pounding right away and sometimes its not tilll the middle of the night. Some of the worst foods for me are popcorn, subway sandwiches, pretzels, ice cream,

. The wierd thing is if it is celiacs could a reaction be to raise my blood sugar? Also, i have had this type of reactions to foods without gluten...i am so confused. Recently i also had some bad ankle pain to where i couldnt walk and they did a bone scan and could see bone loss pretty bad! I had more blood work and had low vitamin D. I am also hypothyroid. Sorry so long! I hope someone can help me.

[Rachel--24]

All of the problems you listed can be caused by celiac (not too sure about the blood sugar though). Are you not on the diet? If not, you really need to be. If the test was positive and the numbers were triple the normal range its not something to be ignored. Most if not all of your symptoms are probably due to the fact that you're still eating gluten.

[Mango04]

Hi - you should start by eliminating all gluten from your diet. If you still have some symptoms, you could have some additional intolerances to other things, such as dairy, corn or soy.

[Nancym]

Celiac disease is believed to be a cause of diabetes and I know a lot of diabetics have BS problems at night.

Could you stop the drinking?

[Becky72]

Celiac disease is believed to be a cause of diabetes and I know a lot of diabetics have BS problems at night.

Could you stop the drinking?

I havnt drank any alcohol in over a year. It causes my worst symptoms and just wasnt worth it! I was not diagnosed as having diabetes because my fasting and glucose tolerance test were normal. I even had the 5 hour GTT and it was fine...confusing to me.

[Guest nini]

what you described sounds a lot like what I used to go through years before my dx, at least 10 years ago... used to go out drinking after work and eat pizza's and other high gluten bar foods... didn't realize it at the time that it was related to Celiac. Had never heard of Celiac back then. I too quit drinking because I couldn't stand the way it made me feel afterwards, it just wasn't worth it. Even a tiny amount of wine seemed to set me off so it wasn't a hangover issue. I never really monitored my blood sugar back then but I knew I was having "hypoglycemic attacks" where my blood sugar would absolutely plummet... it's very possible I was having episodes where it was rising too...

you do have elevated antibodies, which indicates that YES gluten is a problem for you and like it or not, if you want to be healthy you need to eliminate gluten from your diet for ever.

[Becky72]

what you described sounds a lot like what I used to go through years before my dx, at least 10 years ago... used to go out drinking after work and eat pizza's and other high gluten bar foods... didn't realize it at the time that it was related to Celiac. Had never heard of Celiac back then. I too quit drinking because I couldn't stand the way it made me feel afterwards, it just wasn't worth it. Even a tiny amount of wine seemed to set me off so it wasn't a hangover issue. I never really monitored my blood sugar back then but I knew I was having "hypoglycemic attacks" where my blood sugar would absolutely plummet... it's very possible I was having episodes where it was rising too...

you do have elevated antibodies, which indicates that YES gluten is a problem for you and like it or not, if you want to be healthy you need to eliminate gluten from your diet for ever.

Did your heart race? Mine can get so bad i cant sleep. It beats so fast and can last til morning. Most of the time i wake up with my heart racing. Sometimes i wake up in a sweat with it racing.

[Ursa Major]

My heart used to be racing like that, and skipping beats. Also, I had pretty much the same symptoms as you before going gluten free (and many other things free). My heart doesn't race any more, and rarely skips now.

You really need to be gluten free. You will feel so much better!

[Hoosiergirl]

My heart used to race at night when my symptoms first started. It happened a few times and then it just stopped. I started trying to be gluten free shortly after the first heart racing episode so maybe the diet took care of it.

Sheri

[jams]

I had all of those symptoms AFTER going gluten-free. It was so bad last October that I went on Lexapro. I haven't had any since. I chalked it up to anxiety.

I do agree that if your tests were positive, you need to go gluten-free. You may not even know some of the things that are going on with you until you go gluten-free and feel like what life is supposed to feel like!! That may not make sense to you, but it will to others with celiacs!!

Good Luck!!

[Guest nini]

absolutely my heart would race, it would keep me up all night sometimes... I would get the sweats too...

[Becky72]

absolutely my heart would race, it would keep me up all night sometimes... I would get the sweats too...

Thank you guys so much for replying. I am going gluten free today! I Live on an island in Alaska so gluten free will definaely be a challenge! Can anyone tell me what ice cream is gluten free? I Love Ice cream!also...does anyone know if starbucks mocas are...i have my doubts but its worth a shot...thank you !!!

[SallyC]

Thank you guys so much for replying. I am going gluten free today! I Live on an island in Alaska so gluten free will definaely be a challenge! Can anyone tell me what ice cream is gluten free? I Love Ice cream!also...does anyone know if starbucks mocas are...i have my doubts but its worth a shot...thank you !!!

I don't know about Starbucks Mocas but there are several varieties of Bryers Ice Cream that are gluten free.

[jerseyangel]

On the subject of Starbucks mocha and chocolate, there was a thread about it recently--

Open Original Shared Link

[dawnhulio]

Becky72

Re: Blood sugars ranging from 200 to 50 in early morning...

I am a Type 1 Diabetic (28 years), also have autoimmune thyroid disease, a.k.a. Graves' Disease (irradiated five years ago) and am now getting testing done with EnteroLab to see what comes back regarding the celiac (quite common in folks with other autoimmune problems... long story!!!).

In regards to the wierd blood sugar readings, and let me just say I'm NOT a doctor and am only supplying my personal knowledge: after drinking alcohol, and even just a tiny bit of it, it can cause your blood sugars to rise temporarily while your body is breaking down the simple sugars contained in those drinks, especially ones made with mixers or wine. It's actually common for people to have their blood sugars TEMPORARILY rise after meals containing carbohydrates; they usually drop back into range within 30 - 120 minutes max. HOWEVER, with hypoglycemics, this can cause a dive into a low-blood-sugar status; usually your liver would release glucose, a sugar, into your blood stream to help compensate for this drop; it acts like a quick 'energy' release and is considered to be an emergency energy store.

Whether you are hypoglycemic or not, while the liver is busy metabolizing the alcohol in your system, it is unable to release that emergency energy reserve into your system (hence why diabetics are cautioned against drinking alcohol, if one's blood sugar takes the dive, the liver is unable to compensate, causing diabetic coma and/or death. Hypoglycemics don't take a dive that will create this problem, but it's nonetheless unpleasant to deal with).

Also, our bodies follow a circadian rhythm - the body naturally gets drowsy late at night, you sleep, and before you awake your body begins ramping up for the next day - including releasing extra insulin for your cells which are needing their stored energy to get you going. My insulin pump uses very little insulin from midnight to five in the morning; it then jumps up from 5-6-7 a.m. into the morning hours, or else I'll wake up with nastily high blood sugars. Low blood sugars can cause your heart to race because your body releases a little bit of adrenalin / cortisol, which are our bodies natural 'uppers.'

I'd say if you've been through the glucose tolerance tests and everything looks good, you probably are not dealing with diabetes; but evidence is showing that there may be a third type of diabetes (currently there is Type 1 (juvenile) Diabetes, which is always insulin-dependent; and Type 2, which is considered to be Adult-Onset and may or may not require treatment by a variety of options, including diet/exercise/pills (you mentioned Metformin) or insulin). I've heard the third type referred to as Type 1.5, but don't have much knowledge about it past that.

I wish you the best of luck!!!