Gluten Free For A Year-Let Me Share What Worked For Me

[marycontrary]

Hi guys, it has been exactly a year since going gluten free. First I want to say that this is a serious auto-immune issue---let me tell you the symptoms I had

1. Severe constipation---found out peristalsis almost stopped

2. Severe pain and bloating

3. Severe bruising---every little bump caused bruising

4. Amemia

5. Severe medication resistant insomnia

6. Severe medication resistant bipolar symptoms and panic attacks

7. General retention of fluid ankles, faces, bra area, etc.

It has been a year---let me tell you what worked for me....and what other intolerances I found I had

1. For intractable constipation

Gluten free---HOWEVER, NO GLUTEN FREE breads,corn tortilla cookies, pasta, rice...NOTHING GOOEY---even with drinking lots of water, ANYTHING dense, that "packs" will flare up the bloating, gas, and pain

2. When I get a severe blockage---this is what I do

day one---eat high fluid food---soups, fruits, wet vegtables, drink lots of water

(warning:gross out) day two---insert 3-5 glycerine suppositories. Because the impaction is "high up", this is the only technique I know to stimulate peristalis in the descenging colon. Impaction is immediately loosened.

3. I have a minor intolerance to rice, corn, and dairy...small amounts are OK, but if I overeat, the bloating flares up

4. Inside of a year, all sleeping, bruising, fluid rentention, and psychiatric symptoms have all but disappeared---the only thing is a GI flare up due to "gooey, dense foods" that get "packed" easily

5. Do NOT eat more that 500-ish calories at one time---do NOT overload your system with too much food at any one time

I hope this helps...gluten free breads, etc, are not a solution for me...think "texture". Guys, I have my life back, I am a changed woman.

[ravenwoodglass]

It sounds like you have found what works for you. Glad you are feeling better.

[Mari]

If you want to go the next step and get rid of these occasional problems so you won't have fare-ups read about Clostridia in the intestinal tract. Drs will treat this with antibiotics if it gets bad but there are some alternative programs which work quite well. Two of the Clostridia which grow in our intestine and cause problems are C. dificile and C. Tetani - both produce toxins which partially paralyze the intestinal muscles.

I use the herbal laxative Cascara sangrada which works well for me and also take digestive enzymes - not with food but between meals whenever I feel blocked.

[marycontrary]

If you want to go the next step and get rid of these occasional problems so you won't have fare-ups read about Clostridia in the intestinal tract. Drs will treat this with antibiotics if it gets bad but there are some alternative programs which work quite well. Two of the Clostridia which grow in our intestine and cause problems are C. dificile and C. Tetani - both produce toxins which partially paralyze the intestinal muscles.

I use the herbal laxative Cascara sangrada which works well for me and also take digestive enzymes - not with food but between meals whenever I feel blocked.

Hey guys, thank so much for your responses.

Here is another trick I have done...do not do this if you have diabetes or other metabolic problem...this is what worked for me.

Stress really made the whole GI system peristalsis shut down earlier this year. I will remind ya'll, the auto immune issues with the gluten were gone...but the collateral damage...slow, but sure recovery.

Know I very likely had a bacterial overgrowth problem, due to compromised small intestinal lumen...the only way I knew of (from my background) was to take the mechanical and chemical stress completely off those tissues. I went on a fast.

You have to be smart about this...you must get your electrolytes (Sodium, Cloride, and Potassium) through salt and salt substitutes (potassium) in V-8 or some other low/no sugar alterative. You don't want to have sugars that will feed then beastie overgrowths. I had plain salads, with low cal dressing, nothing else (again, you don't want energy sources feeding the beasts). Basic soups. The key is to starve the beasts, and let the epithelium have a chance not to be challanged for 4-5 days. But remember the fluids and electrolyes...skip the sugar, even sugar alternatives.

It was tough, but two things came from it: peristalis AND no gluten hypersensitivity from cooking in a non gluten kitchen...you reset the B-cell anti-body response, which in conjunction to with certain T-cells, makes symptoms arise with exposure to minute gluten proteins.

I had tried laxative, both herbal and the hard stuff, and they just made the problem worse (for me). Man, I got really screwed up down there...

So now I can cook gluten foods for my SO, and as long as I wash my hands...no problem. Hypersensitivity problem gone.

By the way...I have not cheated once...because I know how friggen ill I was...and I NEVER want to suffer like that again...

Godspeed you guys...I know what hell this is.

[Looking for answers]

Thanks for taking the time to recap your experience after a year's time. Very thoughtful for others.

[masterjen]

5. Do NOT eat more that 500-ish calories at one time---do NOT overload your system with too much food at any one time

I totally agree with this. I'm almost 4 months gluten-free, and I eat at least 6 times a day (small "snack"-type meals). This has been the best way for me to avoid stomach upset, fatigue and bloating (which I was having trouble with when I first went gluten-free and was usually eating the usual 3 meals a day). I have also found sensitivities to other foods that I don't think I had before going gluten-free: for example, I have trouble with anything more than a little bit of onion (I can tolerate a little bit for flavour), all nuts, and most processed foods. I just eat whole/pure foods these days, and my system is much happier for it!

[summerteeth]

Hi guys, it has been exactly a year since going gluten free. First I want to say that this is a serious auto-immune issue---let me tell you the symptoms I had

1. Severe constipation---found out peristalsis almost stopped

2. Severe pain and bloating

3. Severe bruising---every little bump caused bruising

4. Amemia

5. Severe medication resistant insomnia

6. Severe medication resistant bipolar symptoms and panic attacks

7. General retention of fluid ankles, faces, bra area, etc.

1. For intractable constipation

Gluten free---HOWEVER, NO GLUTEN FREE breads,corn tortilla cookies, pasta, rice...NOTHING GOOEY---even with drinking lots of water, ANYTHING dense, that "packs" will flare up the bloating, gas, and pain

3. I have a minor intolerance to rice, corn, and dairy...small amounts are OK, but if I overeat, the bloating flares up

Oddly, I have a lot of similar symptoms. Bloating and constipation were a huge problem for me - so bad that I have ended up in the ER multiple times for this. Luckily, I have gotten away from laxatives.

Corn and rice are a big problem for me, also, especially in regards to bloat.

And water truly does help a ton when I'm feeling crappy.

[rnbwdiva]

Hi guys, it has been exactly a year since going gluten free. First I want to say that this is a serious auto-immune issue---let me tell you the symptoms I had

1. Severe constipation---found out peristalsis almost stopped

2. Severe pain and bloating

3. Severe bruising---every little bump caused bruising

4. Amemia

5. Severe medication resistant insomnia

6. Severe medication resistant bipolar symptoms and panic attacks

I hope this helps...gluten free breads, etc, are not a solution for me...think "texture". Guys, I have my life back, I am a changed woman.

Thanks so much for your post. It is so helpful to read about people overcoming things rather than trying to figure out how to deal with constant obstacles.

Cheers to you!

[bluebonnet]

cool ... that's awesome to give a 1 year update! i can't wait to see what difference a year makes for me. each day is a step towards healing and feeling better! take care! question- do you sleep through the night regularly now?

[marycontrary]

Guys, thanks for the kind responses. I have a dear younf friend that had carcinoma of the small intestine---ent through chemo and removal of 8 inches---do you know that she has celiac type symptoms---not celiac itself...but an overall intolerance to carbs---because carbs, versus fats and proteins, causes the smooth muscle to contract in an alrady weak intestinal organs---she has to watch everything just like we do...and had the same malabsorption syndrome effects (before chemo)---just like we do----only it was to do a carcinoma.

So the messed up symptoms are not fully due to celiac per se...but they are probably due to ANY compromise of the epithelium of the small intestine---regardless of the disease or injury.

Again, for those of you who are dealling with the auto immune component---you need to find a way to take the pressue of digesion off the GI tract for a number of days, providing you're healthy.

Would you walk on a swollen ankle? You would put mascara on a swollen eyelid? Would you carry a stack of books with a broken, swollen arm? Again, the GI is tricky---cause it is where we get our sustenance.

[marycontrary]

SLEEP----

Sorry, I didn't answer your question!

The sleep is the most profound positive effect. I don't have perfect sleep---but it is amazing how quickly things improve.

Perhaps I have had the best sleep since childhood. I was also a very uptight, extremely nervous person for most of my life.

I am not sure there is any more "laid back" person than me now (LOL)! I had tried and failed at so many anxiety reliving techniques when I was so sick...that now the years of attempted habits have all of the sudden come to roost. I was a whack-job no matter what I did---now I understand between the inflammation and the lack of nutrients for so many years, it was a healthy brain reaction to a diseased body...not an inherently sick mind.

Just kinda makes you wonder how many mentally ill people have simple malabsorption issues.

ALSO...guys UNDERSTAND....that the wheat you eat is genetically engineered (insect, drought, etc resistence)...DID YOU KNOW that wheat has a huge proportion of the amino acid proline...which is thought to be the offending component in gluten. There appears to be a lot more gluten proteins per unit weight versus wheat of a generation ago.

Maybe 50 years ago a lot of us eating regular wheat wouldn't had the problems we do now. Maybe, if our corn, rice, and other grains weren't so engineered we might not have as much trouble digesting them? In genetic engineering, NOTHING comes for free guys---a plant becomes stong in one set of traits, and weak in many others.

Food for thought.