Mental/mood Issues Related To Calcium Deficiency?

[elle's mom]

OK, I am going to give a short paraphrase/update of my situation. I have been gluten free for approximately 4 months. I rarely experienced any abdominal issues, except for sometimes after eating at restaurants, but only went on the diet for my daughter(s). In spite of this, I highly suspect that I have had non-abdominal symptoms related to gluten consumption my entire life: short, small, irritable, constant extreme fatigue, acne, anxiety etc. I've always noticed that my fatigue/irritability/anxiety virtually go away when I'm pregnant (possible "remission" OR prenatal vitamin?).

Anyway, the past three weeks I have been a raging maniac, so to speak. Crying, yelling, super tired (even more than usual) headaches, can't concentrate etc. If I didn't know better I'd think maybe I was having a "gluten reaction", which I'm not sure I'd know because I've never had one. My husband and I just last night discussed my need to probably see my dr. for Post-pardum depression (but after 5 months?). I had this type of thing about 7-8 months after my third child, but my symptoms were dismissed casually by the dr: "of course I felt this way, my daughter had just been diagnosed and we were struggling with her diet, I was busy with three kids, running a business" etc. But this time did seem worse.

Anyway, I take my prenatal (at breakfast) still since I'm nursing, and a twice a day calcium (at lunch and dinner). I have been slacking on the calcium at times just because I seem to forget either the lunch &/or dinner one for some reason. Today, for the first time in a long time, I made it a point to take the calcium as directed and "suddenly" since this afternoon my mood is better and I feel fine. It may be totally unrelated, but has anyone else ever seen a connection between their mood and a calcium deficiency? Or can anyone relate to the PPD possibility vs. a gluten connection?? I feel sort of ignorant. Thanks for any insight.

[Halleebelle]

  elle said:

OK, I am going to give a short paraphrase/update of my situation. I have been gluten free for approximately 4 months. I rarely experienced any abdominal issues, except for sometimes after eating at restaurants, but only went on the diet for my daughter(s). In spite of this, I highly suspect that I have had non-abdominal symptoms related to gluten consumption my entire life: short, small, irritable, constant extreme fatigue, acne, anxiety etc. I've always noticed that my fatigue/irritability/anxiety virtually go away when I'm pregnant (possible "remission" OR prenatal vitamin?).

Anyway, the past three weeks I have been a raging maniac, so to speak. Crying, yelling, super tired (even more than usual) headaches, can't concentrate etc. If I didn't know better I'd think maybe I was having a "gluten reaction", which I'm not sure I'd know because I've never had one. My husband and I just last night discussed my need to probably see my dr. for Post-pardum depression (but after 5 months?). I had this type of thing about 7-8 months after my third child, but my symptoms were dismissed casually by the dr: "of course I felt this way, my daughter had just been diagnosed and we were struggling with her diet, I was busy with three kids, running a business" etc. But this time did seem worse.

Anyway, I take my prenatal (at breakfast) still since I'm nursing, and a twice a day calcium (at lunch and dinner). I have been slacking on the calcium at times just because I seem to forget either the lunch &/or dinner one for some reason. Today, for the first time in a long time, I made it a point to take the calcium as directed and "suddenly" since this afternoon my mood is better and I feel fine. It may be totally unrelated, but has anyone else ever seen a connection between their mood and a calcium deficiency? Or can anyone relate to the PPD possibility vs. a gluten connection?? I feel sort of ignorant. Thanks for any insight.

Umm, I recently read that calcum has a very good effect on menstrual cramps and also for mood swings generally. I think it had to do with hormone activity in some way, but cannot remember it all.

So I was having a lousy period, and tried the calcium - could not believe the diference it made. - but didn't keep it up after my period.

I've been depressed and extremely angry this last week - after reading your post, I'm grabbing the calcium tablets! Oh - I am not a celiac - my hubby and daughter are the celiacs here.

[elle's mom]

  Halleebelle said:

Umm, I recently read that calcum has a very good effect on menstrual cramps and also for mood swings generally. I think it had to do with hormone activity in some way, but cannot remember it all.

So I was having a lousy period, and tried the calcium - could not believe the diference it made. - but didn't keep it up after my period.

I've been depressed and extremely angry this last week - after reading your post, I'm grabbing the calcium tablets! Oh - I am not a celiac - my hubby and daughter are the celiacs here.

Please let me know what happens! I can't believe no one else has replied to this yet......I'll be patient .

[thethinkinggurl]

First a quick hello to everyone here... I am new to this website .... and somewhat new to the gluten free world. I chose to reply to this post because I was born calcium deficient. I am now 33 years old and am just now putting all the pieces together... When I was a newborn I had a seizure and had a doctor not been in the room I would have died. A few weeks after being home I started having a twitching in my arm, my parents took me back to the hospital and after a few tests it was deemed I was deficient in calcium. I was given calcium and sent home. For many years the only health problem I had is being overweight, I was even put on diets as early as the age of 5. The thing is, though I probably didn't have the most healthy diet, I was fairly active and usually didn't overeat, at least to the effect that I should grow to be over 300 lbs. (when I found the article on here about weight and celiac I cried!!!!) Over the last 3-4 years I have lost half of that weight, with the main weight loss being when on a low carb diet... it surprises me that more doctors haven't made this connection... that you can eat lots of calories on these diets and still lose weight could be because your body rejects the grains... it has been such an experience getting to this point.... I have now started to notice other symptoms, the anxiety has always been there, constipation, and even more recent I have noticed nausea and sinus issues as well as swelling of my tonsils.

The other thing that I did a couple of years ago is have abdominoplasty to remove skin after my weight loss... after that I started eating more carbs, thinking I would return to a normal moderate diet. Even though I still ate healthy and worked out, I put on 40 lbs in a year!! I accredited it to a stressful relationship and still didn