Dizzy Around Gluten Foods

[cfritz]

I've been gluten-free about 2 yrs now. I am not diagnosed as celiac, but pretty much have all the symptoms. Of course I can't get tested since I'm been gluten-free. I am so much better since gluten-free, but still have lots of issues. I have about a million questions, but I'll start out with asking if anyone gets sick or dizzy just being around gluten foods being cooked. I get dizzy if I make pasta or any other grain related food for the family, it seems if I inhale the fumes it makes me sick. If I touch anything with wheat in it, it makes me dizzy. I cook my own food completely separate from the rest of my family since I'm pretty sure I get contaminated from the fumes of anything wheat related.

Does anyone have this problem?

[cdford]

If I am in the room when gluten foods are being prepared, I get a reaction. I have DH so the itching did not surprise me. It took me a while to figure out that all it has to do is come into contact with my mucous membranes and I get a gluten reaction. I don't think everyone is quite this sensitive, and I am not as sensitive as I was initially.

[lovegrov]

It sounds like to me that you are either allergic to wheat or this is a psychological thing.

richard

[KaitiUSA]

I have the same problem. I am too the point at church when they serve communion I have to go out of the room because I get feeling like I can't breathe right....same way around other wheat. I think I may be allergic to wheat as well because I can't be around it.

I agree with Richard it may be you are allergic to wheat too but it could be a psychological thing too.

[westiepaws]

I get a headache at the Harry's/Whole Foods where I shop when they are doing a ton-o-baking in the bakery and I walk through there, and also when I walk through the cheese section if there is a lot of pungent cheese out (also allergic to casien). I have solved the problem by just not going through that section of the store anymore.

I know that it is not a psychological reaction, because it took me several incidents before I realized that it only happened when they were baking and/or they had a bunch-o-smelly-cheeses out and unwrapped.

My nutritionist says that for a while after beginning to go gluten-free -- months or years, depending on the person -- we will be ultra-sensitive, but that our bodies will calm down after a while.

P.S. This also reminds me: On the cheese that includes good mold and the green algae in some health drinks, my nutritionist said to be aware of how those affect you. Some people who are sensitive to gluten need to avoid those substances, as well.

Hugs,

westiepaws

[anewsprue]

I dont get dizzy, but if I smell a strong yeast smell from bread or even gluten-free bread it makes me gag. I used to love the smell of bread baking, not anymore.

[cdford]

I wasn't thinking. It was really dumb.

My son has lived in our garage apartment for the last year and a half. He is not celiac disease so has not kept his area gluten-free. He was scrambling to finish packing up to move this weekend and asked me for help. I went out there and packed up his stuff like any good mom. Unfortunately, I did not remember to use a mask and take a good shower immediately. I am now broken out from one end to the other with DH spots, itching intensely, brain dead, fuzzy headed, up all night but exhausted, and one frustrated woman. My husband went out and vacuumed very well. My other son spent the night out there and woke up the next morning with swollen and purple eyes and a stuffy nose and queasy stomach. I guess this means Charles gets to vacuum the walls and ceiling, wash down the cabinets, and shampoo the carpets like we had to do with the rest of the house when we went gluten-free. He is so thrilled he can hardly stand it.

[plantime]

I guess this means Charles gets to vacuum the walls and ceiling, wash down the cabinets, and shampoo the carpets like we had to do with the rest of the house when we went gluten-free. He is so thrilled he can hardly stand it.

Ah, this is funny! I would loan my husband, he loves to clean house! Alas, he will not go to someone else's to clean. We have spring-cleaning coming up, and I am exempt now because I can prove, in writing from a doctor, that I am allergic to dust mites. Sometimes I wonder about the psychosomatic side of things like this. Perhaps when we smell something, like bread or cheese, our bodies are telling us to stay away from there, there are things that will make us sick over there! However, an allergy to wheat is a very real possibility. Allergy doc says I am not allergic to wheat, but I am allergic to grass. Wheat is a grass, so doesn't it stand that I would have an allergic reaction to the wheat? Not necessarily the protein that makes it wheat, but the one that makes it grass?

[cdford]

With all the dust flying around his room as we cleaned that kitchen, it is really no wonder I got sick. He works at Papa John's and comes in and drops his uniform in the floor until he can wash it (at least he does wash his own). I suspect we just stirred it all up and I breathed it all in. Too bad your hubby is not close enough by to help him out!

[cfritz]

I've been to two different allergists, one said I wasn't allergic to anything and the next one said I have several allergies to alot of foods. Mold was a big one. There is a definite possiblity I'm allergic to wheat even if it doesn't show up on the tests. Just working with flour and ingesting the dust does seem to bother me, but you never know it could all be in my head. But it has happened so many times and it always came back to some grain, oats or wheat. (I did a journal on my eating habits for about a good year).

Maybe one of these days I can figure it out.

[skbird]

I have only been allergy tested once - age 14 (I'm going to be 34 next month) and was told I am not allergic to wheat. But I had noticed the last year before going gluten-free that when I had white flour food (pizza, for example) it wasn't bad, but that whole grain bread, pizza crust, etc, would make me feel much worse. My uncle is the same way. My mom visits a woman in the rest home who has the same problem and she (the woman) claims it's an allergy. I never had respitory problems or rashes with it, just much worse gastro symptoms. I haven't been able to find anything on the web to explain this - but I can tell you that eating wheat bran or wheat germ makes me very unpleasantly sick and sooner than gluten sick. Whole spelt and rye also made me feel this way. My uncle can't eat rye, either.

I was up in Idaho (visiting the same uncle) and we were driving through some fields (winter - couldn't tell what they were) and I started feeling light headed. Then my uncle points to the fields and says that they grow wheat and barley there. Don't ask me what the connection was, it was pretty weird, though. Around where I live we grow rice and have orchards of nuts and fruit so there's no reason I would assume the fields we were driving though would be gluten foods. It was pretty weird.

Stephanie