Do I Have A Celiac Sensitivity?

[sweeticeblue]

Hello, everyone:

This is my first post. I've been suffering from a lot of unexplained symptoms for about 4 years now. A couple of months ago, a neurologist diagnosed me with nerve damage from an untreated B12 deficiency. My symptoms were tiredness, tingles and numbness in my arms/legs/back, anxiety, vision problems, and an inability to regulate my body temperature (freezing when it was a little bit cold, toasted when it was a little bit warm). I was put on B12 shots and some of the symptoms went away. I'm still taking B12 supplements, and while these symptoms are showing improvement, I'm still off work and unable to drive because of the dizziness.

Dizziness is my main symptom and has been since day one. I also get so nauseous (usually around the same time every night for almost 10 years) that I can barely move for an hour or so. My mother has been suffering from the same nausea (although it tends to hit her at different times of the day) for about 25 years, but without the dizziness.

The reason I started wondering about a gluten allergy/sensitivity is because I live on carbs - the bread group in general - and it seems that I feel worse after eating certain foods like oatmeal. I saw a naturopath last year who cut out my carbs completely and the nausea went away for the first time in a decade, after a month on the diet. However, he also cut out all of my sources of B12, which I think triggered the terrible B12 symptoms, so I went back to eating the way I did before (including the bread group).

I need to get back to work! I have two children (ages 3 and 13) and my 13 year-old has been babysitting me for the last year. We've lost an entire year of our life to this sickness and I had no idea that (1) B12 and celiac are related, and (2) that celiac problems can cause dizziness - until yesterday.

I'm making an appointment with a local wellness centre that does testing in sensitivities/allergies and vitamin/mineral deficiencies to see what comes up.

Any thoughts? ...and if I DID have a gluten sensitivity or allergy, how long would it take to see a difference if I tried a gluten-free diet?

Thanks!

[ar8]

  sweeticeblue said:

Hello, everyone:

This is my first post. I've been suffering from a lot of unexplained symptoms for about 4 years now. A couple of months ago, a neurologist diagnosed me with nerve damage from an untreated B12 deficiency. My symptoms were tiredness, tingles and numbness in my arms/legs/back, anxiety, vision problems, and an inability to regulate my body temperature (freezing when it was a little bit cold, toasted when it was a little bit warm). I was put on B12 shots and some of the symptoms went away. I'm still taking B12 supplements, and while these symptoms are showing improvement, I'm still off work and unable to drive because of the dizziness.

Dizziness is my main symptom and has been since day one. I also get so nauseous (usually around the same time every night for almost 10 years) that I can barely move for an hour or so. My mother has been suffering from the same nausea (although it tends to hit her at different times of the day) for about 25 years, but without the dizziness.

The reason I started wondering about a gluten allergy/sensitivity is because I live on carbs - the bread group in general - and it seems that I feel worse after eating certain foods like oatmeal. I saw a naturopath last year who cut out my carbs completely and the nausea went away for the first time in a decade, after a month on the diet. However, he also cut out all of my sources of B12, which I think triggered the terrible B12 symptoms, so I went back to eating the way I did before (including the bread group).

I need to get back to work! I have two children (ages 3 and 13) and my 13 year-old has been babysitting me for the last year. We've lost an entire year of our life to this sickness and I had no idea that (1) B12 and celiac are related, and (2) that celiac problems can cause dizziness - until yesterday.

I'm making an appointment with a local wellness centre that does testing in sensitivities/allergies and vitamin/mineral deficiencies to see what comes up.

Any thoughts? ...and if I DID have a gluten sensitivity or allergy, how long would it take to see a difference if I tried a gluten-free diet?

Thanks!

Hi there

Why don't you just get a head start on the appointment and try gluten free (except make sure to get b12-- you know you can just take it sublingually?-- you can pick it up at most drugstores, i got mine from target!) no need to rely on food for EVERYthing, even though "they" say it's better?

The amount of time it might take you to feel better is variable, from one day to 2 years! But you said you felt better in a month last time, so I assume it wouldn't take you much longer than that again, unless it's been a long time since that diet and the gluten intolerance has developed to a much further degree.

good luck!

[Nancym]

Meat is the main source of b12 in the diet. Why did you think cutting out bread would hamper that? Maybe it is an additive to bread, but it doesn't come in bread naturally.

[sweeticeblue]

Sorry, it might have been more helpful to say that I'm a vegetarian (so cutting out the carbs wasn't the reason I was lacking in B12, although I can see why you read it that way)!

I have been taking B12 sublinguals and I love them. I stopped getting the injections because in Canada, only cyanocobolamin injections are available, which are made with cyanide (and I had a reaction to it every time I had a shot). Your body has to convert cyanocobolamin to "real" B12, so you don't really get the full effect of an entire injection anyway. Taking sublingual methylcobolamin (available at health food stores) provides much better recovery for B12 deficiencies. I suffered with my B12 deficiency for years before learning this and I saw more improvement with the sublingual methylB12 after one week than I did after an entire year of cyanoB12 injections!

Thanks to everyone for the info. I haven't eaten gluten since I posted this message and I haven't been nauseous (or vomited) since. I still have a lot of other symptoms (which I can attribute to the B12 nerve damage) but it's interesting that the actual sickness went away already.