Can Anyone Help Me?

[cressy75]

I've been having serious health problems for over a year now including becoming sensitive to various foods, perfumes as well as developing various neurological problems. I've noticed that these problems are significantly worse whenever i eat certain foods including anything that is processed or includes aspartame, msg, gluten. I decided to go a few weeks without and i started to notice a difference but the last few days i've lost control and started consuming all the wrong foods again and my mood has changed dramatically. I can't think clearly like i'm in a fog, i'm irritable, feel extremely angry and my throat feels like it's closing up and i'm having difficulty swallowing food. I was wondering if this sounds like a problem with gluten because i'm 34 and i've never had a problem with anything until the last few months, my doctors are totally baffled and i really don't know what to do.

Mark

[Lisa]

Hi Mark and Welcome!

Celiac Disease often needs a trigger for the onset of full symptoms. An illness, mono, stress, childbirth as well as other things can trigger Celiac Disease. Many of us have been diagnoed with IBS, but were in fact, predisposed to Celiac Disease.

You could have a gluten allergy, gluten sensitivity/intolerance or Celiac. Issue with gluten can run the spectrum.

A Serologic Panel can test for Celiac and your doctor can order this:

Anti-gliadin antibodies (AGA) both IgA and IgG

Anti-endomysial antibodies (EMA) - IgA

Anti-tissue transglutaminase antibodies (tTG) - IgA

Total IgA level.

Take a walk around this site. It's the best around.

[cressy75]

Hi there thank you for the welcome.

It's funny how you say that an illness or stress can trigger it because i've been this way since i had a bad viral infection during one of the most stressful times of my life last year. My doctors think i have chronic fatigue syndrome and wouldn't do any tests on me for food intolerances because they think it's a waste of time, not very helpful really.

Glad i found this place, going to take your advice and look around.

Thanks again.

[Lisa]

Hi there thank you for the welcome.

It's funny how you say that an illness or stress can trigger it because i've been this way since i had a bad viral infection during one of the most stressful times of my life last year. My doctors think i have chronic fatigue syndrome and wouldn't do any tests on me for food intolerances because they think it's a waste of time, not very helpful really.

Glad i found this place, going to take your advice and look around.

Thanks again.

Time to find a new doctor.

[GlutenWrangler]

It could be Celiac Disease, but it sounds more to me like food allergies. I think you should find a new doctor, and explore both celiac disease and food allergies. You should definitely ask your new doctor to perform a full celiac panel, and make sure he or she runs all the tests that Lisa included in her post. There are some food allergy tests out there, but they are supposedly notoriously inaccurate. The best method for determining food allergies is an elimination diet, but it isn't easy. It's definitely something to discuss with your doctor. Good luck. I hope you feel better,

-Brian