Feel Worse? Please Help

[ChrisL]

I am writing this for my girlfriend who has recently been diagnosed with Celiac. (about 3 weeks). Her symptoms are fatigue, numbness, chills, blurry vision, brain fog. I have noticed those to be relatively common symptoms of Celiac before diagnosis.

She has gone Gluten Free and the past few weeks have been awful with symptoms. It seems like every symptom has magnified mulitple times without Gluten. I have been chalking it up to the theory of "It gets worse before it gets better" but has anyone had this happen? Also, right after she eats, (which is Gluten Free) she feels dramatically worse. Is this common in the first weeks of a gluten-free diet?

Any info and help is much appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris

[Lisa]

Hi Chris and welcome!

If your girl friend has intestinal damage due to Celiac, it will take some time to heal. Any food will be an issues, gluten free or not.

Be as cautious as possible, eat simply with meat, fish, fresh veggies (cooked well), rice and potatoes. Limit seasonings to salt and pepper until you get the hang of label reading.

She should have her own toaster, and pots and pans should be free of scratches that could hide previous gluten. Meds, vitamins, lipstick, lotions or anything that can get into her mouth should be checked.

With chills and blurry vision, she might be coming down with a bug or the flu. But, it would be worth getting a full metobolic panel done to make sure her thyroid is in good working order or there are no difficiencies.

It's great that she has you in her corner. It's not easy at first, but a good support team, sure makes it easier. Cheers to you!

[sadeew]

Hi Chris~

I felt awful on and off the first 2 weeks I quit gluten.

I recently read that up to 80% of people gpoing gluten-free can experience withdrawal. I had a good 5 days of feeling more tired than I had and I broke out all over, like 80 pimples, I got headaches and was super grumpy.

I am now coming out of it and feeling better than before.

Make sure your girlfriend drinks LOTS of water. Green smoothies would be good, too. I felt so miserable I couldn't believe it because I thought I was supposed to feel better and I definitely did not!

I bet she is having withdrawal. It should clear within 2-3 weeks.

Best of luck to you both.