Is This Just Wishful Thinking?

[EVERYBODY'SAUNTIE]

Hi , I just read an article in womans world magazine about gluten sensitivity and weight loss and it piqued my interest, so here I am. I am 34 years old. I developed alopecia (autoimmune disorder where your hair fall out in clumps) at age 13 and all my hair fell out by the time I was 20. Over the years my weight has gone steadily up. Lo carb worked for awhile but not anymore. I still try to eat that way tho because if I don't I feel pure wretched and have bad cravings. Also, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia 6 years ago and continue to struggle with it in varying degrees of severity.

My question is: Have I maybe, finally found the missing piece? Is there anyone else out there with similar experiences who can attest to the validity of this way of eating? I have reached a point of desperation and am afraid to get my hopes up too high. Thanks

[jnclelland]

Welcome! If you browse this web site for awhile, you'll learn lots about gluten intolerance/celiac disease.

The short answer is that yes, all the symptoms you mention can be signs of gluten intolerance/celiac disease, although they can certainly have other causes as well. You certainly would have nothing to lose by trying a gluten-free diet and seeing if it helps you feel better!

One word of caution, though: if you want any kind of official diagnosis, you have to be eating gluten - and lots of it - for the standard tests to turn up positive. So you might want to talk to your doctor about getting tested before you try the diet. That said, the tests have a high false negative rate, so regardless of the results of any testing, it's worth trying the diet to see if it helps.

I'm sure you'll get lots of advice here, but my top few tips about starting the diet would be:

1) There's a steep learning curve at first; gluten hides in all sorts of places that you'd never imagine. Hanging out here is probably the best way of learning the ropes!

2) You need to give the diet time - a few months, at least - before you can really judge whether or not it's helping. Some people see results right away, but many don't for awhile.

Good luck!

Jeanne

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Welcome!

I just wanted to add that if you check the list of symptoms for fibro and the list of symptoms for celiac disease--they are practically identical. Many people on this board have seen their fibro symptoms completely disappear when they stay on a gluten-free diet.

And I remember seeing posts from at least 2 women whose hair did grow back when they stayed off gluten, but it took a long time, as I remember. I do hope it works for you!

[Nantzie]

Welcome!

I had fibro-type pain symptoms for about three years before I figured out the gluten connection. Mine went away after I went gluten-free. Poof! Now the only time I have it is if I get "glutened".

Since you've already been eating low carb for a while I'd seriously doubt any tests would come back positive. They say you have to eat the equivalent of 3-4 slices of bread a day for 3-4 months. So at this point, you might want to just try the diet and see how it goes.

I also got really bad cravings, and one of the things I was able to look back on as an A-ha! was a diet I had been on that had cut out wheat.

Nancy

[kbtoyssni]

I'm another one who was diagnosed with fibromyalgia whose symptoms have disappeared after going gluten-free. If you do have celiac, gluten is like an addictive drug to your system so going low carb can cause you to crave gluten and feel really awful withdrawal symptoms. They will go away if you stick with the diet for a bit. Autoimmune diseases also come in pairs (or triples, or quads...) so I'd say you're a perfect candidate for celaic. I think you should get tested, but remember there are a lot of false negatives. If you do get a negative from conventional testing, you might want to try the diet just in case.

[EVERYBODY'SAUNTIE]

Thanks everyone, for your input. I dare say I feel just a little bit of hope for the first time in a long time. here goes nothin'.....