Nighttime Paresthesia And Some Other Stuff Figured Out!

[domesticactivist]

As some of you know, I went gluten-free because of my son last November. For me, lots of symptoms got worse right away. Then our family started the GAPS diet at the beginning of February (which we are still on - now slowly transitioning into the full diet). Most of my symptoms got better or completely resolved on GAPS.

It's been really hard to tell exactly what caused what. I can say I'm better off grain-free, but who knows? Maybe my problems are made better by the GAPS diet for other reasons.

Anyway, lately my paresthesia returned. I'd wake up in the night with my hands asleep or in pain, sometimes a whole leg asleep/in pain/numbish, sometimes even parts of my belly, and in the morning my hands wouldn't work right. This had been a common thing that I'd been to the doctor for many times before we started GAPS and it had completely gone away. It started coming back again lately... 3 AM and I'd wake up miserable.

A friend who is also on GAPS commented to my partner that she woke up at 3 AM due to hypoglycemia because she had cheated and had rice. It suddenly dawned on me that I've been snacking on fruit right before bed! I googled hypoglycemia with paresthesia and there was the connection.

It's summer and my partner has been processing fruit like crazy. On the full diet fruit is allowed. I've been seemingly ok with fruit although I've always had to watch my blood sugar. But lately I've been going to bed late, and being lazy it's been the easiest thing. (Eggs used to be a quick before bed snack but I've realized they don't treat me right in other ways.) My nighttime waking and symptoms have perfectly coincided with spiking my blood sugar before bed.

It's funny how something that was a mystery for years can suddenly seem so obvious.

[GFinDC]

I used to get cramps in my calves when waking up. I started paying more attention to what I was eating at night and it turned out whenever I ate rice at night I would have cramps in the legs on waking. I experimented with eating rice only early in the day, or if at night just a little of it. That all helped, but I figured the best thing was not to eat it at all. My blood sugar was a little high while this cramping was going on also. After I dropped rice my blood sugar dropped back to normal.

I don't eat many carbs nowadays, just a little here and there sometimes.

It's a good thing we've got these funny acting bodies, probably most people wouldn't know what to do with them!