Gluten...down Upon Eating

[JerryK]

I've noticed this for a while now...

When I consume gluten...a couple hours later, I get a Very Profound "down" feeling.

Upon avoidance, I feel "up". In fact this is one of my strongest indicators that I have a gluten

problem.

I'm wondering how many others feel this effect? Also, if anyone has any data or links that explain this phenomena in more detail, I'd like to hear about it.

Thanks, Jerry

[Nancym]

Did you ever read the links in The Gluten File regarding neurological (or specifically depression) effects of gluten? I keep posting the link for you.

Open Original Shared Link

[celiacgirls]

I don't ever purposely eat gluten but when I have accidently had it, I immediately feel very tired and brain foggy. The next day, I am very emotional and irrational. I continue to feel tired and irritable for a couple of weeks.

When I first went gluten free, I immediately felt that "up" feeling. While I have been fine lately, I noticed yesterday that the initial "up" feeling I had in the beginning was back. It makes me think I had been having some gluten some where or I just had not fully recovered from the last mistake.

I don't know why it works that way but I don't need any scientific explanations to know that it does have that effect on me.

[JerryK]

Did you ever read the links in The Gluten File regarding neurological (or specifically depression) effects of gluten? I keep posting the link for you.

Open Original Shared Link

Yes I did, thanks very much for posting it. I don't believe the depression I feel is related to malabsorbtion, as it resolves within 24 hours when I abstain from eating gluten. I think it just frigging

gorks me out...when it's out of my system, I feel better. I also think it's directly related to the immune or "sickness response". You know, shut down the doors and fight off this bug. Well

how many people feel depressed and lethargic when they have a cold or the flu?...I'm guessing most of them. I think the same thing can happen with gluten. Your body is responding to this threat by conserving energy....

[Nancym]

Yes I did, thanks very much for posting it. I don't believe the depression I feel is related to malabsorbtion, as it resolves within 24 hours when I abstain from eating gluten. I think it just frigging

gorks me out...when it's out of my system, I feel better. I also think it's directly related to the immune or "sickness response". You know, shut down the doors and fight off this bug. Well

how many people feel depressed and lethargic when they have a cold or the flu?...I'm guessing most of them. I think the same thing can happen with gluten. Your body is responding to this threat by conserving energy....

We describe three adult patients with undiagnosed or untreated celiac disease without particular intestinal signs, causing persistent depressive symptoms in three of the parents of our pediatric patients. In all three patients, the depressive symptoms improved quickly with a gluten-free diet.

Depression in adult untreated celiac subjects: diagnosis by the pediatrician PMID: 10086676

There's little interest in the medical field for looking into non-celiac gluten sensitivity, but I suspect when they finally do we'll see a tidal wave of stuff like this.

Hadjivassiliou and Grunewald From:

The Neurology of Gluten Sensitivity: Science vs. Conviction

"Neurologic manifestations of gluten sensitivity are a scientific fact, not a theological issue. Whilst the debate continues, we owe it to our patients to screen them effectively for gluten sensitivity with the simple widely available antigliadin antibody test so that we do not in the meantime deprive them of a harmless but potentially effective treatment in the form of a gluten-free diet."

This (Hadjivassiliou) guy is finding all sort of non-celiac gluten things going on in the brain. Pubmed (and the Gluten File) is full of stuff he has published.

[JerryK]

There's little interest in the medical field for looking into non-celiac gluten sensitivity, but I suspect when they finally do we'll see a tidal wave of stuff like this.

This (Hadjivassiliou) guy is finding all sort of non-celiac gluten things going on in the brain. Pubmed (and the Gluten File) is full of stuff he has published.

I for one can now FEEL the effects that gluten sensitivity has on my consciousness. What a few months ago, I would consider bordering on the absurd...is happening to ME. Honestly, I was pretty sure it was all a load....until I experienced relief of symptoms upon abstaining, and resumption of symptoms upon reintroducing gluten. Indeed, not just a resumption of symptoms...exacerbation of symptoms...worse then ever. I had no idea that it was even a remote possibility that wheat could be making me feel depressed and lethargic...none whatsoever.

[chocolatelover]

I've noticed this for a while now...

When I consume gluten...a couple hours later, I get a Very Profound "down" feeling.

Upon avoidance, I feel "up". In fact this is one of my strongest indicators that I have a gluten

problem.

Thanks, Jerry

[chocolatelover]

Hmmm...not sure what I just did...sorry.

Anyway, my question is to you, Jerry. Do you always notice the feelings? How do you know they are related to gluten? I'm not questioning you, just wondering how would *I* know if it's related?

[Betty in Texas]

hello about 6 months before I was diagnosed I had been having hives really bad for about 2 years nearlly every day and I finally went to the dr and told him all of this and that I had been really crying all the time my Husband thought I was trying to have a nervous break down . Well the dr says you are depressed and probably is because of your hormmones so I going to put you on prozax and it will make you feel better and he thought that's why I was having hives. Well I told him I have them as a kid all the way up to marriige and took allergy shots for 6 yr. and went 25 yr with out having then they started back up again. He didn't know. He doesn' know any thing He does know alot about race horses .

[tarnalberry]

*nods head* yep.

[Nantzie]

I've been gluten-free for over a year now. I've been reading your threads and am really identifying with a lot of the stuff you're going through. The psychological effect of gluten in people who are susceptible to that type of effect is horrifying isn't it?

My dad suffered with depression/anxiety/ADD/despair for years upon years upon decades. It was nine months after he died (of stomach cancer) that I first found out about celiac and gluten. I'm 99.99999999% sure that taking gluten out of his diet would have been a miracle for him.

When I get glutened many times it's the anxiety/depression/irritability that's my first signal that something has gone wrong in the gluten department.

When I start getting irritated about something that didn't happen that day or that week, I've started taking note of it. Sure enough, the rest of the gluten symptoms invariably follow over the next day or so. For example, if I'm doing the dishes and I start noticing that I'm getting wound up and irritated about something someone said to me six months ago, I can guarantee that I'll start getting other glutened symptoms within hours.

My experience is that even though I tested completely negative for celiac; negative blood tests and negative biopsy, I'm extremely sensitive to gluten. I have to be extremely careful about cross contamination. I've been glutened more times than I can count by shampoos and other haircare products, cosmetics, etc.

I still think that when all is said and done, there will be a group of gluten-related conditions. Some will have symptoms that are mostly digestive, some mostly neurological and some mostly psychological.

The whole thing makes you want to enforce a trial gluten-free diet (followed by dairy-free, sugar-free, soy-free, x-free, y-free, z-free.... ) in all the mental health care facilities and groups in the world. I think that if all psychologists would require their patients to go through an elimination diet and try to identify what foods effect their patients psychologically, a lot of people would see a huge difference.

I'm glad to see you seeing so much improvement with the gluten-free diet. It's amazing isn't it?

Nancy

[JerryK]

Hmmm...not sure what I just did...sorry.

Anyway, my question is to you, Jerry. Do you always notice the feelings? How do you know they are related to gluten? I'm not questioning you, just wondering how would *I* know if it's related?

Well, after my Enterolab results, I reluctantly went two weeks gluten free. After two weeks, upon eating gluten again, I felt very horrible in about two hours. Body aches, depression, anxiety, weepiness, irritability itching...and then diarrhea. Repeated glutening ALWAYS produces these symptoms. Incidentally, several years ago I was prescribed an anti-depressant for exactly the

same depression/anxiety/weepiness. Putting two and two together, it's easy to see how gluten intolerance could get you prescribed an AD....it's a quick fix. Not to mention that during this period, I was eating an apple fritter or donut every morning for breakfast...

How do I know it's related to gluten? It is that every time I eat gluten, it follows the same pattern.

depression/anxiety/agitation/fatigue sets in within two-three hours, I feel like curling up in a ball.

this feeling is most prominent for 12-18 hours then they dissipate after that. Within 24 hours after eating gluten, I will have a bout of diarrhea. When I don't eat gluten for a couple days...I FEEL GREAT. Better than I have in 10 years. How do I know for sure....well, if I stop eating gluten, my gastrointestinal symptoms go away, I feel great...that's a lot of data. So, while I don't KNOW absolutely it's the gluten, I believe it is.

The whole idea that my symptoms were caused by wheat, sounded terribly absurd to me, until I went totally gluten-free. Going back on gluten made a believer out of me.

If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck...probably is one.