Intro. + My Symptoms

[Arlek]

Hello,

This is my first post.

I've been doing a lot of research on celiac disease since having a conversation with someone who had something like a gluten allergy. We had something in common: oats would give us really, really dry skin on our knuckles (and they would crack and bleed). I don't think they do that to her anymore, though . She suggested maybe I had a similar problem (although it hadn't occurred to me before). I thought maybe oats gave me a cholesterol deficiency, and that made my skin less waterproof ).

I didn't think about it too much for quite a while, though. Not until one day when I was sick, and my teeth were feeling weakened or sensitive to pain. At times like that, I would often eat some raw wheat flour mixed in water (since it helped my teeth to feel better), or whole wheat biscuits, if I had time to make them. However, this time it made me severely nauseous and within a day after that I got horribly dry skin on my knuckles that lasted for weeks (I hadn't had any oats). So, I figured I'd look into gluten allergies, celiac disease, and stuff like that to see what they were all about, and look at the symptoms.

I had probably googled gluten intolerance and celiac before and only seen the most commonly stated symptoms (several of those I don't normally have: i.e. diarrhea, stomach pain, cramps, hives, rashes, etc.). So, I probably went on, looking for something else. However, this time, I investigated more deeply. I should note here that I have, and have had, a lot of symptoms for something (long before the point I just mentioned), but up until researching this, the best thing I found to associate them with was a thyroid disorder. Anyway, this time, I found places that said almost all of my symptoms were symptoms of celiac disease (not all on the same site), although I should note that I don't feel like I'm going to die whenever I eat something with wheat in. My symptoms are more subtle (but they still affect the quality of life quite a bit).

Anyway, here's a partial list of my symptoms. If it helps with the symptom analysis you should know that I'm male. Feel free to check them out and tell me if you think I have celiac disease. I'm sure some of these aren't celiac-related, though, but I thought I'd throw them out there for analysis:

[no-more-muffins]

I can't really diagnose you but you do seem to have many symptoms that could be related to celiac, or gluten sensitivity. If you feel sick when you eat wheat, that is a good indicator that it isn't good for you. Have you looked into other food sensitivities? It may be worthwhile to look at soy, milk or other commen allergens. I have heard that some people dont' feel better until they remove other things from their diets.

I was just talking to an older lady in my neighborhood about recipes and stuff and she gave me a recipe for gluten-free noodles. I'll post it here:

Pasta (no pasta maker required)

1 beaten egg

2 T milk

1/2 t. salt

~1 cup flour (whatever flour or blend you use)

Combine egg, milk and salt. Add enough flour to make a stiff dough. Roll very thin on a flour covered surface. Let stand 20 minutes. Loosen the dough and roll up loosely. Slice about 1/4" wide. Cook about 10 minutes in boiling liquid.

Lasagne noodles (round)

2 eggs

1 T oil

1/2 c. cornstarch

3/4 c. milk

1/4 t. salt.

beat wet ingredients, add salt and cornstarch and beat until smooth. Cook in a fry pan like crepes but prevent browning. Use like cooked lasagne noodles Make your lasagne in pie dishes.

[Arlek]

Thanks for the reply, and the recipe!

Have you looked into other food sensitivities? It may be worthwhile to look at soy, milk or other commen allergens. I have heard that some people dont' feel better until they remove other things from their diets.

I think I'm fine with soy, but I have my suspicions about other things: milk, eggs, peanuts, and citrus (only if citrus, probably the oil, is applied externally, though; I don't seem to have problems eating citrus). I think it's mostly because of a lack of enzymes at certain times, though, except for the citrus-thing (I think that was exposure-related). I really only had problems with eggs as a child, but they made me nauseous if I ate very many of them (unless they were mixed in with other things, and then I was fine).

The peanut thing is much more recent, and also subject to doubt; I think they've been making me nauseous lately, too (but that's about the only symptom other than in some cases general less-explainable discomfort, and very mild, almost not noticeable, throat irritation; maybe I should try organic peanuts and see if they do the same thing; it might be a chemical on them, as I never had a single problem with them before, except in the form of non-natural peanut butter where it made me depressed, although I think that's a hydrogenation issue; I could definitely tell where the feelings originated there, and the same thing happened when I ate other things with partially hydrogenated oils much). The milk thing I talked about in my post a little; I think there are some issues there, actually, but they're not always noticeable.

So, are you saying giving up such as milk (even when there aren't particularly noticeable symptoms) might help to remove the gluten-related symptoms?

On the recipe, do I have to dry them first if I use bean and/or rice flour? I'm worried they might dissolve or something otherwise. I guess the eggs might hold them together, though (and maybe the beans, too, for that matter; they do get thick if given the chance). Maybe rice can hold its own. It must be able to, somehow. I don't think rice noodles are supposed to cook long. I'll have to try it when I'm not so tired and such.

[Foxfire62]

Get checked for celiac disease as soon as possible! If you have it, you can only begin to feel better when you start eating correctly!

[no-more-muffins]

With the milk thing you can either experiment with an elimination diet or get tested at a place like enterolab.com I am getting tested for gluten sensitivity, egg, milk. yeast and soy.

If you don't care about the "specific" diagnosis of celiac you may want to find out if you are gluten sensitive. It is less expensive than going through the biopsy and essentially gives you more info.

[nora-n]

That scab thing you must pick on could be DH. If you get a diagnosis for that, then you do not need a celiac diagnosis because it is the same thing.

nora

[Arlek]

That scab thing you must pick on could be DH. If you get a diagnosis for that, then you do not need a celiac diagnosis because it is the same thing.

That's an interesting thought. It doesn't itch, burn, or anything, though. It's just an annoying thing that I have this really strong urge to pick. Sometimes a layer of scab-like tissue will come off (but it generally just looks like skin). It feels like a somewhat raised bump, like there's something deposited under the skin (maybe an implant j/k). Actually, since being off of gluten and SLS, it has degenerated significantly.

The same one has been there for about 8 or 9 years. I've seen similar scalp reactions if I pick at other parts of my scalp, but those haven't persisted without picking (there have been periods where I've managed to refrain from picking the one in question, although it has been difficult and took more than a conscious effort the entire time, and although it sometimes helped a little, it would come back all too easily). I notice that if I pick it much, my finger skin tingles, like there's a chemical or something rubbing off from the scalp into my fingers

[nora-n]

It is possible to have DH without the intense burning. If it disappears off gluten, it might just be DH.

But you need to get a biopsy of healthy skin close to it during an outbreak.

(healthy skin because the IgA in the DH sore is used up and it is the IgA that shows up (lights up in the microscope) in the test)