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"internal Shaking" And Hand Trembling

flutterby

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flutterby Apprentice
flutterby
Posted

Hey folks,

I started introducing gluten again after the doctor said I could 'cheat' a little before my blood tests. Like everyone else, what this made me realize is that even with negative tests I will remain gluten-free!

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else has experienced the following sensation after getting glutened. I refer to it as 'internal shaking' because it feels like my body is shaking all over, but there aren't any visible signs. After an hour or so, my hands start to tremble and my fingers twitch. It is usually accompanied by disorientation, concentration problems. Sometimes my fingers start to tingle.

When I was younger we thought this was hypoglycemia. It got better when I stopped eating "high carb" breakfasts (i.e. wheat, cereal, etc). So now I realize it must be a gluten or wheat reaction!

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Looking for answers Contributor
Looking for answers
Posted

There have been people on that have mentioned this. You may want to search, but I've read about it several times. Never experienced it myself though.

gf-soph Apprentice
gf-soph
Posted

Hey folks,

I started introducing gluten again after the doctor said I could 'cheat' a little before my blood tests. Like everyone else, what this made me realize is that even with negative tests I will remain gluten-free!

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else has experienced the following sensation after getting glutened. I refer to it as 'internal shaking' because it feels like my body is shaking all over, but there aren't any visible signs. After an hour or so, my hands start to tremble and my fingers twitch. It is usually accompanied by disorientation, concentration problems. Sometimes my fingers start to tingle.

When I was younger we thought this was hypoglycemia. It got better when I stopped eating "high carb" breakfasts (i.e. wheat, cereal, etc). So now I realize it must be a gluten or wheat reaction!

I've had something similar, but for me it's not a direct gluten reaction. I had it for a while when I wasn't eating regularly enough, but was gluten free. At one point my drs medicated me for insulin resistance with metformin, but it made it so much worse. I discontinued it pretty quickly, and my insulin resistance was extremely mild. It may be that the gluten is throwing your blood sugar off?

I think I've also had that sensation when my B12 was too low. For me, glutening can make my B12 levels crash. I have no idea how, but i've seen it twice that I got glutened and my B12 levels crashed by several hundered points in a week or two. Might be worth getting those levels checked if you haven't already.

Also, if the blood tests you're mentioned are the gluten antibody tests, you need to be eating a LOT of gluten, not a little. If you aren't eating several serves of gluten a day for at least several weeks, possibly months, they could come back as a false negative.

There are plenty of other posts about this if you need some guidlines.

Sophie

flutterby Apprentice
flutterby
Posted
  • Author

Also, if the blood tests you're mentioned are the gluten antibody tests, you need to be eating a LOT of gluten, not a little. If you aren't eating several serves of gluten a day for at least several weeks, possibly months, they could come back as a false negative.

There are plenty of other posts about this if you need some guidlines.

Sophie

Thanks, Sophie. Basically, at this point, eating a lot of gluten for weeks or months isn't really an option. I'm not willing to be miserable just to get a positive diagnosis. I've already noticed some symptoms like problem with short term memory ... something I REALLY don't want to mess with. I brought this up with my doctor and he said we'll do the tests, but that they're not the only indicator he uses for a diagnosis, in part because he thinks that reintroducing gluten completely would probably be a bad idea for my health. He's basically THE celiac expert in the country where I live so we'll see what happens.

I think he's more concerned with ruling out that it's not something else besides celiac than getting a positive celiac test. That's more my concern, too.

I had never heard of the B12 thing ... interesting! I did have my bloodsugar levels tested a few years ago. The doctor said my levels weren't "enough to be considered hypoglycemic" but I should follow a hypoglycemic diet. Go figure. I always knew that it wasn't just SUGAR like they use in the test but sugar combined with wheat that made me get that way.

  • 3 years later...
across Contributor
across
Posted

I realize this is an old thread, but I just want to say that I get this, too! It's a terrible feeling! I had it last night. I was trying to figure out how I could have gotten glutened, and the only thing I could come up with is that we just had a whole bunch of drywall work done in our house, and there is a lot of drywall dust around (which apparently contains gluten).

 

It feels like my body is trembling and weak, and when it gets really bad, it even feels like my brain is trembling (hard to explain exactly what that feels like, but it is scary). I didn't get any sleep last night because of it.

 

If you're still around, were you ever able to figure anything else out about this?

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