Low-carb Awakening

[sunface21]

Hi everyone-

Since I was 10 or so (I am 26 now), I can remember having these canker sores in my mouth- sometimes very severe, like 9 or 10 huge sores at a time. Sometimes I couldn't even eat because they were so painful. I went to the doctor many times to get help, but it was usually attributed to stress, etc. I am somewhat of an anxious person, so this did not seem to be too far off the mark. Over the past 16 years, I became used to them and accepted them as a part of my life. I went to the dentist recently and she mentioned something about Celiac's Disease (first time I had ever heard of it) and I have been doing some research. I do have fatigue during the day, but nothing I wouldn't consider a normal rise/fall in blood sugar due to highly processed carbs....I don't seem to have any other symptoms related to Celiac's. Just fatigue and mouth sores.

Recently, I went on South Beach and was on the phase where you cut out carbs completely (and so I was ingesting no breads or pastas during this time) and the sores went away. I lost the weight I wanted and rewarded myself with a weekend where I ate all the carbs I wanted, like pancakes and cookies- and the sores came back. I went back to carb-free, and they went away again.

I guess my questions are:

1. Does this sound like Celiac's, GI, or GS?

2. If it is not Celiac's, and this is as bad as my symptoms will get, what happens if I just ignore it? I don't seem to have any intestinal type symptoms related to eating gluten...just the mouth sores.

3. What do I need to do to get diagnosed, if I do have celiac disease, GI or GS?

I have been reading some of the other posts, and I realized that I do not have some of the debilitating symptoms that others are exhibiting- so would it be detrimental to just stick to my low-carb lifestyle and eat gluten every now and then?

Thanks for any advice you can give!

[Guest nini]

It sounds like it could be Celiac or Gluten Intolerance... to be tested for celiac you would have to be consuming gluten (a lot of it for a while before testing) ... there is a whole panel of specific blood tests you would want to have done... That info is floating all over this site, and maybe someone with more technical no how can post them for you.

A lot of people are self diagnosing gluten intolerance by the success that they achieved on a low carb diet. My theory is that the reason these diets work is because of the elimination of gluten containing foods from the diet and then, just like any other fad diet, when you reintroduce gluten containing foods, the diet stops working... I think this is because way more people are gluten intolerant than is currently thought.

[ianm]

Nini I agree with your low carb theory completely. It was when I tried the Atkins diet that my poor health made a drastic turn for the better. There is a chapter in the Atkins book about food intolerances and that led me to believe I have Celiac or am gluten intolerant. I won't get tested because I won't eat gluten and go back to the mess I used to be. I also used to have a mouth full of canker sores but they all went away when I went gluten-free.

[Carriefaith]

1. Does this sound like Celiac's, GI, or GS?

2. If it is not Celiac's, and this is as bad as my symptoms will get, what happens if I just ignore it? I don't seem to have any intestinal type symptoms related to eating gluten...just the mouth sores.

3. What do I need to do to get diagnosed, if I do have celiac disease, GI or GS?

Some people can have celiac disease and have no symptoms at all, but they still have intestinal damage. I think that you should be tested for celiac especially since you noticed improvements with the sores on the low carb diet. To get diagnosed I would go to your doctor and ask for the tissue transglutamase blood test or the celiac blood panel. I'd tell the doctor that you noticed improvements with your sores on the diet and would like to see if celiac disease is the cause.

[skbird]

Count me in the boat of those who self-diagnosed after going low carb. The low carb bread is full of gluten - when I tried that stuff out, not only did it taste terrible, but it caused me lots of problems.

I get canker sores, too. In fact, last Friday I was at the rheumatologist, and we were talking about the sores I get. He told me they were most likely due to my gluten-intolerance, as opposed to anything regarding rheumatology (lupus and some other connective tissue diseases also have mouth sores as a symptom). I was surprised my rheumatologist seemed to know more about Celiac and gluten than any other doctor I've been to. I lucked out!

Stephanie