Jump to content

  • Welcome to Celiac.com!

    You have found your celiac tribe! Join us and ask questions in our forum, share your story, and connect with others.



  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A1):

    Celiac.com Sponsor (A1-M):

  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Our Content
    eNewsletter
    Donate

Tennis Players Gluten Free .

tennisman

Recommended Posts

tennisman Contributor
tennisman
Posted

I have recently found out a number of top Tennis players have said they are gluten free . One minute they say going Gluten Free has helped and the next minute it's there hard work that has helped them and going Gluten Free hasn't done much .

They often say they are allergic or intolerant to Gluten but never say they are celiacs. I really want to find out if they are celiacs or are just avoiding gluten for other reasons.

Also when asked about it Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic always changes the subject really quick :S If he really is a celiac he could really raise the profile of the disease . But it seems like he is hiding something , maybe he doesn't want his opponents to read about celiac disease , it just seems he is acting like it helps him yet when he has a chance to let the world know about he doesn't want to talk .

2nd thing I read on tennis sites lots of people saying going Gluten Free has helped this player so they think it will also help them . Yet I think they will do the Gluten Free fad diet approach and make celiac less serious. After 8 year's I hate Gluten Free and people want to try it because they think it will turn them into a superhero it makes me annoyed ,we are all forced to stick to the diet and yet many of us develop extra health problems.

Also how can coming off Gluten turn a great athlete into a superhero , since I was diagnosed with celiac disease I have had health problem after health problem it makes no sense.

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):


chasbari Apprentice
chasbari
Posted

Turned back the clock for me, especially after going basically paleo and raw dairy and eggs. I can personally understand how this might help him. It probably doesn't hurt that he has top level folks working with his whole regimen from training to food. I know I get tired of talking to people about my health even though I have come sch a long way in a relatively short amount of time. I bet he would rather just talk about tennis since he is at the top of his game at present. It still takes a lot of discipline and hard work regardless of the other issues and he looked beyond mentally prepared for today's match with Nadal. Of course, the gluten-free diet might just have helped the focus and mental clarity.

I hope you get to the real root of your complications soon. Just getting DX'ed with celiac after a whole host of other autoimmune complications wasn't enough for me. I had to go over the edge dietarily before I really turned the corner after struggling with the whole strict gluten-free diet. Just keep digging. and, good luck.

ElseB Contributor
ElseB
Posted

A lot of people think Djokovic is on steroids and just using "gluten free" as a bogus way to explain his very rapid and sudden improvement in fitness levels.

Juliebove Rising Star
Juliebove
Posted

I don't keep up with tennis any more, but... I would think anyone in the public eye like that who has a dietary issue would be best served not to make a big deal of it in public. I say this because someone who is not on the up and up could easily use this against them. And by this I mean like sneaking the substance into their food, arranging to have it thrown on them, etc. Sad but true.

MJ-S Contributor
MJ-S
Posted

I have to laugh reading this thread because I'm also a big tennis fan and I've been thinking of posting about the same thing!

First, I wonder how much of this is a "fad" and how much is actually medical. In Djoker's case (no, I'm not a fan), he stated earlier this year that the gluten diet was recommended by a new nutritionist he's using. That, coupled with his on-going histrionics and lack of mental stability leads me to believe that it's PROBABLY not celiac, but rather a tool that is being used to feel better and instill more confidence. I certainly hope he's actually ncgs, because it's annoying if he's just "using" this for now.

This is in contrast with Sabine Lisicki, who just made the Wimbledon semi-finals. The story with her is that doctors told her not to have gluten, so I wonder if she actually does have celiac disease. She has struggled quite a bit, going so far as so experience severe cramps and have to be taken off court in a stretcher at the French Open, which she later said was from loss of energy from still learning the ropes of the gluten-free diet.

I'm not familiar with any other top tennis players touting the diet.

Regarding the comment about Djokovic on steroids (and again, I'm not a fan), that's just wildly irresponsible. Tennis is heavily controlled for drugs, and while he's widely disliked, he has been a top player for years. Not fair to accuse someone with no evidence at all.

tennisman Contributor
tennisman
Posted
  • Author

I have to laugh reading this thread because I'm also a big tennis fan and I've been thinking of posting about the same thing!

First, I wonder how much of this is a "fad" and how much is actually medical. In Djoker's case (no, I'm not a fan), he stated earlier this year that the gluten diet was recommended by a new nutritionist he's using. That, coupled with his on-going histrionics and lack of mental stability leads me to believe that it's PROBABLY not celiac, but rather a tool that is being used to feel better and instill more confidence. I certainly hope he's actually ncgs, because it's annoying if he's just "using" this for now.

This is in contrast with Sabine Lisicki, who just made the Wimbledon semi-finals. The story with her is that doctors told her not to have gluten, so I wonder if she actually does have celiac disease. She has struggled quite a bit, going so far as so experience severe cramps and have to be taken off court in a stretcher at the French Open, which she later said was from loss of energy from still learning the ropes of the gluten-free diet.

I'm not familiar with any other top tennis players touting the diet.

Regarding the comment about Djokovic on steroids (and again, I'm not a fan), that's just wildly irresponsible. Tennis is heavily controlled for drugs, and while he's widely disliked, he has been a top player for years. Not fair to accuse someone with no evidence at all.

Cool Who are your favourite players ? I was thinking of posting it a long time ago but kept forgetting lol.

Djokovic said the gluten free diet made him lose weight and become sharper and faster on court and said it had helped him . Now I find he says it's his hard work that has got him to where he is this year. One postive thing is a serbian restaurant in London has added gluten free pasta and beer to the menu because of Djokovic going gluten free. Maybe one day he will say if he is celiac or not , I met him twice I should have asked him lol.

Sabine Lisicki is great I have been a fan since her amazing Wimbledon run 2009, finding out she is now gluten free I like her even more :D She wrote this on her website - " Doctors recently discovered that I

tennisman Contributor
tennisman
Posted
  • Author

Turned back the clock for me, especially after going basically paleo and raw dairy and eggs. I can personally understand how this might help him. It probably doesn't hurt that he has top level folks working with his whole regimen from training to food. I know I get tired of talking to people about my health even though I have come sch a long way in a relatively short amount of time. I bet he would rather just talk about tennis since he is at the top of his game at present. It still takes a lot of discipline and hard work regardless of the other issues and he looked beyond mentally prepared for today's match with Nadal. Of course, the gluten-free diet might just have helped the focus and mental clarity.

I hope you get to the real root of your complications soon. Just getting DX'ed with celiac after a whole host of other autoimmune complications wasn't enough for me. I had to go over the edge dietarily before I really turned the corner after struggling with the whole strict gluten-free diet. Just keep digging. and, good luck.

I'm glad it helped you :) I guess your right he wants to just talk about Tennis , I just want him to talk about it maybe he could raise more awareness about celiac disease but maybe not if he only has an allergy and not celiac disease.

Thanks , hopefully things will improve soon :)

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):


tennisman Contributor
tennisman
Posted
  • Author

A lot of people think Djokovic is on steroids and just using "gluten free" as a bogus way to explain his very rapid and sudden improvement in fitness levels.

I haven't seen many people say this. I see more on tennis sites how people say going gluten free has helped Djokovic and now they think it will do miracles for them :rolleyes: lol.

tennisman Contributor
tennisman
Posted
  • Author

I don't keep up with tennis any more, but... I would think anyone in the public eye like that who has a dietary issue would be best served not to make a big deal of it in public. I say this because someone who is not on the up and up could easily use this against them. And by this I mean like sneaking the substance into their food, arranging to have it thrown on them, etc. Sad but true.

That would be bad. But you would think Djokovic would only eat foods he or his team has prepared , because restaurants are not always telling the truth when they say this dish is gluten free.

MJ-S Contributor
MJ-S
Posted

Lol, his parents' owned a pizza place in Serbia when he was growing up, so maybe they motivated the place in London. And he's a national hero, so I'm sure a Serbian restaurant in London would be careful enough! They probably convert to ALL gluten-free when he's there.

My favorite players are Federer and Nadal.

color-me-confused Explorer
color-me-confused
Posted

Regarding the comment about Djokovic on steroids (and again, I'm not a fan), that's just wildly irresponsible. Tennis is heavily controlled for drugs, and while he's widely disliked, he has been a top player for years. Not fair to accuse someone with no evidence at all.

It's hardly "wildly irresponsible". A major change in performance for a pro athlete is pretty unusual. If Djokovic is gluten intolerant, or has a wheat allergy, or is even a celiac than a gluten free diet could quite possibly make such a change. It's been tried in other sports. The Open Original Shared Link team has done an "anti-flammatory" diet (with little to no wheat) for pro cycling tours for a few years. Another cause for sudden improvement is, alas, performance enhancing drugs. Open Original Shared Link, of course, along with every other pro sport in varying degrees on the planet.

Whatever the case is for Djokovic if it's really the diet and a related health problem it would be interesting to get the inside story some day...

MJ-S Contributor
MJ-S
Posted

It's hardly "wildly irresponsible". A major change in performance for a pro athlete is pretty unusual. If Djokovic is gluten intolerant, or has a wheat allergy, or is even a celiac than a gluten free diet could quite possibly make such a change. It's been tried in other sports. The Open Original Shared Link team has done an "anti-flammatory" diet (with little to no wheat) for pro cycling tours for a few years. Another cause for sudden improvement is, alas, performance enhancing drugs. Open Original Shared Link, of course, along with every other pro sport in varying degrees on the planet.

Whatever the case is for Djokovic if it's really the diet and a related health problem it would be interesting to get the inside story some day...

How closely do you watch tennis? Hate to get argumentative on a celiac forum, but this is a player who's been in the top 3 since 2007. He won the AO in 2008. Top players will tell you that the differences at that level between winning and losing have the narrowest margins. Djokovic has long been known for mental instability and physically many of his problems have been due to breathing problems, which have in turn have been speculated to be due to asthma/allergy/mental. So while this is a major change in mindset and results it is hardly a major physical change.

I probably won't continue to post about this because this isn't a tennis board, but I stand by my statement. Drug accusations are serious, and should come with more evidence than "better results", especially when you're talking about someone who's already been at the top of a grueling sport for many years.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A19):


  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      131,951
    • Most Online (within 30 mins)
      7,748
    SY8
    Newest Member
    SY8
    Joined
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A20):

  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      121.5k
    • Total Posts
      1m
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A22):



  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A21):


  • Upcoming Events

  • Posts

    • Jacki Espo
      Covid caused reoccurrence of DH without eating gluten

      By Jacki Espo · Posted

      This happened to me as well. What’s weirder is that within a couple hours of taking paxlovid it subsided. I thought maybe I got glutened but after reading your post not so sure. 
    • Mari
      New Celiac Mama in My 30s

      By Mari · Posted

      Hi Tiffany. Thank you for writing your dituation and  circumstancesin such detail and so well writte, too. I particularly noticed what you wrote about brain for and feeling like your brain is swelling and I know from my own experiences that's how it feel and your brain really does swell and you get migraines.    Way back when I was in my 20s I read a book by 2 MD allergist and they described their patient who came in complaining that her brain, inside her cranium, was swelling  and it happened when she smelled a certain chemical she used in her home. She kept coming back and insisting her brain actually swelled in her head. The Drs couldn't explain this problem so they, with her permission, performed an operation where they made a small opening through her cranium, exposed her to the chemical then watched as she brain did swell into the opening. The DRs were amazed but then were able to advise her to avoid chemicals that made her brain swell. I remember that because I occasionally had brain fog then but it was not a serious problem. I also realized that I was becoming more sensitive to chemicals I used in my work in medical laboratories. By my mid forties the brain fog and chemicals forced me to leave my  profession and move to a rural area with little pollution. I did not have migraines. I was told a little later that I had a more porous blood brain barrier than other people. Chemicals in the air would go up into my sinused and leak through the blood brain barrier into my brain. We have 2 arteries  in our neck that carry blood with the nutrients and oxygen into the brain. To remove the fluids and used blood from the brain there are only capillaries and no large veins to carry it away so all those fluids ooze out much more slowly than they came in and since the small capillaries can't take care of extra fluid it results in swelling in the face, especially around the eyes. My blood flow into my brain is different from most other people as I have an arterial ischema, adefectiveartery on one side.   I have to go forward about 20 or more years when I learned that I had glaucoma, an eye problem that causes blindness and more years until I learned I had celiac disease.  The eye Dr described my glaucoma as a very slow loss of vision that I wouldn't  notice until had noticeable loss of sight.  I could have my eye pressure checked regularly or it would be best to have the cataracts removed from both eyes. I kept putting off the surgery then just overnight lost most of the vision in my left eye. I thought at the I had been exposed to some chemical and found out a little later the person who livedbehind me was using some chemicals to build kayaks in a shed behind my house. I did not realize the signifance  of this until I started having appointments with a Dr. in a new building. New buildings give me brain fog, loss of balance and other problems I know about this time I experienced visual disturbances very similar to those experienced by people with migraines. I looked further online and read that people with glaucoma can suffer rapid loss of sight if they have silent migraines (no headache). The remedy for migraines is to identify and avoid the triggers. I already know most of my triggers - aromatic chemicals, some cleaning materials, gasoline and exhaust and mold toxins. I am very careful about using cleaning agents using mostly borax and baking powder. Anything that has any fragrance or smell I avoid. There is one brand of dishwashing detergent that I can use and several brands of  scouring powder. I hope you find some of this helpful and useful. I have not seen any evidence that Celiac Disease is involved with migraines or glaucoma. Please come back if you have questions or if what I wrote doesn't make senseto you. We sometimes haveto learn by experience and finding out why we have some problems. Take care.       The report did not mention migraines. 
    • Mari
      My only proof

      By Mari · Posted

      Hi Jmartes71 That is so much like my story! You probably know where Laytonville is and that's where I was living just before my 60th birthday when the new Dr. suggested I could have Celiacs. I didn't go on a gluten challange diet before having the Celiac panel blood test drawn. The results came back as equivical as one antibody level was very high but another, tissue transaminasewas normal. Itdid show I was  allergic to cows milk and I think hot peppers. I immediately went gluten free but did not go in for an endoscopy. I found an online lab online that would do the test to show if I had a main celiac gene (enterolab.com). The report came back that I had inherited a main celiac gene, DQ8, from one parent and a D!6 from the other parent. That combination is knows to sym[tons of celiac worse than just inheriting one main celiac gene. With my version of celiac disease I was mostly constipated but after going gluten-free I would have diarrhea the few times I was glutened either by cross contamination or eating some food containing gluten. I have stayed gluten-free for almost 20 years now and knew within a few days that it was right for me although my recovery has been slow.   When I go to see a  medical provide and tell them I have celiacs they don't believe me. The same when I tell them that I carry a main celiac gene, the DQ8. It is only when I tell them that I get diarrhea after eating gluten that they realize that I might have celiac disease. Then they will order th Vitamin B12 and D3 that I need to monitor as my B12 levels can go down very fast if I'm not taking enough of it. Medical providers haven't been much help in my recovery. They are not well trained in this problem. I really hope this helps ypu. Take care.      
    • knitty kitty
      Does anyone here also have Afib

      By knitty kitty · Posted

      Fascinating.
    • DebJ14
      Does anyone here also have Afib

      By DebJ14 · Posted

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

NOTICE: This site places This site places cookies on your device (Cookie settings). on your device. Continued use is acceptance of our Terms of Use, and Privacy Policy.