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Did You Have Weird Symptoms When You Went Gluten Free?

CathyG

By CathyG
in Coping with Celiac Disease

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CathyG Rookie
CathyG
Posted

So, I'm soooooo new to this whole gluten free world (I keep forgetting to check the chopping board for bread crumbs and the tea towel for example). Anyway, I've been feeling really vague, VERY tired, lots of dizziness etc. I have been diagnosed with chronic fatigue as well, but I've noticed that these symptoms have become 10 times worse since starting this diet. I'm wondering if it's just a coincidence that everything is getting so much worse of if my body is adjusting to the new diet.

Did anyone else have trouble adjusting to the new diet or did you feel better pretty quickly after starting?

Thanks

Cathy

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mushroom Proficient
mushroom
Posted

Most of our posters have reported going through a period of withdrawal from gluten, and they seem to react in their own unique way. Some get migraine headaches, some get very fatigued and lethargic, some crave gluten so badly they can hardly stand it. Gluten is like an opioid to the body and, just like cigarettes, when that opioid is withdrawn you are most likely going to feel bad for a while, You just have to ride it out and realize that this, too, shall pass, and you will enter a whole new field once you have walked through all the cow patties in this one :lol: - there may even be some edible mushrooms there :D

Noche22 Rookie
Noche22
Posted

Yes, I am feeling alot worse too. I am only gluten free for a week now, as newly diagnosed a week ago today for Celiac. I quit cold turkey and my body is freaking out. I get gushes of dizziness too. It is unsettling to have our lives one way one day and the next day it is completely different. A major adjustment. We will make it through this.

tea-and-crumpets Explorer
tea-and-crumpets
Posted

I definitely had a period of gluten withdrawal -- at one point I was so exhausted I couldn't sleep. It was wretched! But luckily, at least for me, it passed fairly quickly. I hope it passes just as quickly for you.

CathyG Rookie
CathyG
Posted
  • Author

Yes, I am feeling alot worse too. I am only gluten free for a week now, as newly diagnosed a week ago today for Celiac. I quit cold turkey and my body is freaking out. I get gushes of dizziness too. It is unsettling to have our lives one way one day and the next day it is completely different. A major adjustment. We will make it through this.

Oh thank you so much for your replies, I thought I was going mad!!!

I too am extremely dizzy and can't function properly. I'm struggling to hold a conversation at the moment and these symptoms have only happened since going gluten free. My doctor told me that the dizziness wasn't related to the gluten free diet, but I found it a coincidence that it happened only a couple of days after giving up gluten and lactose.

Thanks again for all the replies :)

LivesIntheSun Apprentice
LivesIntheSun
Posted

I felt terrible for about a week- I was shakey, dizzy, very very irritable, and I had to bed at 7pm for a few nights. I remember fighting with myself not to be as rude to people as I felt like being, and I remember standing up and falling back down again, and my workmates buying me energy drinks because they were worried about me. The tiredness and dizziness went away quicky and I felt much better than before, but the irritablility took a while ;)

FooGirlsMom Rookie
FooGirlsMom
Posted

Yes, gluten withdrawal is real. Many people who go on low carb diets, for example, experience the same thing. I didn't know what it was 15 years ago when I first experienced it because I didn't know it was gluten. Low carbers call it "carb withdrawal".

My symptoms always are: headaches, weakness, periods of brain fog, fatigue, flu-like feelings, occasional dizziness, sadness/melancholy to name a few. The same thing happened when I went gluten-free.

Hope you feel better soon.

FooGirlsMom

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ravenwoodglass Mentor
ravenwoodglass
Posted

In addition to the withdrawl you need to get your own dedicated cutting board. You also should get a new colander, replace scratched non-stick pans and avoid baking with wheat flour for others.

It can take some time to heal. Hang in there and I hope you are feeling better soon.

  • 5 weeks later...
healinginprogress Enthusiast
healinginprogress
Posted

Sigh, I hate that any of us are going through this withdrawal, but honestly am comforted that I am not the only one. I almost went off the deep end last week, super irritable, brain fog, crappy memory, my depression, anxiety, and insomnia are worse and my skin is more sensitive than before. I'm into week two and still not feeling great...really tired, mood swings, etc. It really is frustrating, especially the depression, I might have to go see my doctor about my meds...but I'm trying to believe that, as everyone seems to say...this too shall pass. I'm excited for the possibility of my mental health issues actually subsiding from going gluten-free, as well, of course, all the gastrointestinal issues. It's just too bad we can't take a vacation from life until all our symptoms improve :P

rosetapper23 Explorer
rosetapper23
Posted

I just want to add that when a person removes carbs suddenly from a diet, this lowers one's sugar levels. When sugar levels drop suddenly, symptoms of hypoglycemia crop up--like dizziness, brain fog, fatigue. I believe that this is probably the main reason why people who jump into a gluten-free diet have these types of issues at the beginning. Now, I'm not telling you to eat sugar, but you might wish to add some extra fruits into your diet until your body adjusts to fewer carbs.

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      is my cleiac disease gone?

      By trents · Posted

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      Thank you for the reply In the early 2000's I did not have the endoscopy nor the biopsy I do not have those initial records I have only consulted a GI drs in the USA 
    • trents
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      Welcome to the forum, @numike! We sometimes get reports like yours from community members who believe their celiac disease has "gone away." We think there can sometimes be cases of remission but not long term healing and that continued consumption of gluten will eventually result in a relapse. This is the state of our knowledge at this point but there is still a lot we don't know and celiac disease continues to surprise us with new findings on a frequent basis. So, we would not advise you to abandon a strict gluten-free diet. Perhaps you can draw consolation from the fact that at the present time you seem to be able to consume gluten without consequences when in situations where you do not have the option to eat gluten-free. But I would advise you to not generalize your recent experience such that you throw caution to the wind. But I want to go back to what you said about being diagnosed by blood test in the early 2000's. Did you not also have that confirmed with an endoscopy and biopsy of the small bowel lining? Normally, a celiac disease diagnosis is not concluded based on a blood test alone because there can be false positives. What kind of doctor did this testing? Was it done in the U.S. or overseas? In the last few years, it has become common in the U.K. to grant a celiac diagnosis from blood testing alone if the antibody test scores are 10x normal or greater. But that practice has not caught on in the U.S. yet and was not in place internationally in the early 2000's. Do you have a record of the tests that were done, the scores and also the reference ranges for negative vs. positive for the tests?
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