I Feel So Much Better!

[Denise121]

Its been two weeks since eliminating gluten and I feel amazing! I honestly didn't realize just how bad I felt. I was getting to the point where I was so depressed because I knew something was wrong but doctor after doctor told me it was nothing, that I had no reason to have agonizing GERD symptoms or that my debilitating cramps were just IBS and I needed to "learn to live with it." I've been off my Prilosec for a few days now, something that was not at all possible before now. I tried. If I was even a little late in taking it, I payed for it for hours. Now, I still have a bit of heartburn at times, but it is actually manageable with Zantac and seems to be getting better all the time.

I actually feel full after eating and I'm losing weight. I worked out like crazy and couldn't lose an ounce. I always felt like I was starving before and would hate myself when I caved and ate more than I wanted to. So many doctors told me it was all in my head and that I just needed to eat less and exercise more. They said my GERD was because I was overweight. All I had to do was lose weight and it would fix everything. I went through almost ten years of this. Even now, my GI says there is nothing wrong with me. I don't think I will ever have an official diagnosis, but I've realized I don't need one.

I don't understand why I had to go through all this for so long and even now don't have a doctor's support. The difference is so amazing that I can hardly believe it.

[mushroom]

Believe it or not, doctors are not GODS, they do not know everything (same goes for lawyers) and you CAN trust your own body and instincts to tell you what's wrong. A lot of the time you MUST.

I am not religious, but philosophical, and believe we were given these trials for a reason. Having figured out what is wrong with us, we have to figure out why we were made to learn these lessons the hard way I am still trying to remember the evils I committed in a former life that I am paying for now Sure hope I enjoyed them!!!

[AVR1962]

So good to hear a wonderful success story. I too don't get what docs are looking at.....all I do know is if I was depending on them and following only their advise, I would be in a world of hurt right now. Good for you for taking this on your owna nd figuring out what your body needed!!

[streethawk]

Great story I love reading these inspires me to carry on in the right direction despite what everyone else says I no wheee near "better" but I do can believe I have spent my whole life like this.

[Leper Messiah]

Great news!! Docs are rubbish with most chronic medical conditions just be thankful that if you avoid gluten you are ok whereas people with other chronic medical conditions such as MS etc can't. Also be glad that it appears you are able to go gluten free relatively easily, I struggle with my flat as I have someone who eats tons of toasties and sandwiches.

Also you have us here, and there's a wealth of information and support on this here forum so I'm sure you'll be fine.

Interesting you say about the weight issue, I have struggled with this too and I'm quite a thin person who doesn't eat that much and has certainly never had any issues with weight before and I used to eat bucketloads. As soon as I'm glutened however, my body loses control over my weight amongst other things (also cold hands and feet). And no amount of not eating reduces it. In fact strangely, but perhaps explained by below, when I eat loads I bizarrely lose a little weight.

My theory is thus:- the reaction causes copious amounts of internal inflammation over the two week period to which your body's automatic reaction is to tell your adrenal glands to release cortisol to suppress the inflammation. Initially your body can cope (it just whips the adrenal glands to produce more) but over time, and it appears a lot of people go undiagnosed for years, your adrenal glands feel the strain of the constant inflammation on top of the stresses of a normal lifestyle and begin to weaken reducing the amount of cortisol available to your body. You can google symptoms of adrenal fatigue and you will likely note a lot of similarities/overlaps to your own symptoms. This is because your body in a low cortisol environment will prioritise and inflammation is likely to be near the top, if not the top, of the list. This leaves less cortisol for other bodily needs such as your thyroid (or more specifically the thyroid hormone itself which needs cortisone to get into your cells). Therefore you operate at a decreased metabolism and you only need to google that to see the symptoms that tag along but unsurprisingly weight gain and cold hands/feet/extremities I might add are two examples. Exacerbating this whole thing further is the fact that cortisol is used to keep your blood sugar stable between periods of not eating, using up liver glycogen stores first and thereafter fat stores to keep your body's energy needs constant. Reduced cortisol will leave you feeling weak and tired because of this but because your body is constantly on alert fighting the inflammation but paradoxically not having enough cortisol, it's likely you will have periods of high and low cortisol (still low in aggregate over the whole day) and it's during the periods of high cortisol that your body will use the cortisol to convert any excess dietary energy into fat and likes to deposit this predominantly around your abdomen (i.e. increased abdominal fat so you start to look like you have a donut around your waist).

The only way to reverse this is to of course release the pressure from the constant inflammation and allow your adrenals to begin to repair (i.e. avoid gluten for two weeks) - note: taking (hydro)cortisone as I've seen some idiots do on other forums is amongst other things both counter-productive, in that your body reacts and produces proportionately less, and potentially fatal (due to adrenal atrophy). It also does not, fundamentally, reduce the body's cortisone needs which is the key issue, not that the adrenals are struggling - there's a reason why doctors only treat/recognise addison's disease and not adrenal fatigue and for once I wholly agree with them.

[NateJ]

Believe it or not, doctors are not GODS, they do not know everything (same goes for lawyers) and you CAN trust your own body and instincts to tell you what's wrong. A lot of the time you MUST.

I am not religious, but philosophical, and believe we were given these trials for a reason. Having figured out what is wrong with us, we have to figure out why we were made to learn these lessons the hard way I am still trying to remember the evils I committed in a former life that I am paying for now Sure hope I enjoyed them!!!

So true all of that. Healthcare in the US is complete garbage. Dr. office's are assembly lines,and ERs are clinics for people w/o insurance.

I say the very same thing all the time. I must have been Hitler or something in a past life

[Denise121]

I still have some issues, and the diet is difficult because I am the only one in the house that is gluten-free (out of a household of 6), but it gives me a lot of hope to see things improving so quickly. It helps me to stay motivated to stick with it, especially with the holidays coming up.

That is an impressive theory on adrenal fatigue. It really makes a lot of sense. I was always thin, too. I started gaining weight about the time I began having problems with the GERD and IBS. I was 25 when I tried explaining to a doctor that no matter what I did I couldn't lose weight. She said it was because I was "getting older." Really? At 25? What does that make me now at almost 28? Interestingly enough, most of the weight gain was abdominal, as you said. That is also where I am noticing the weight loss now. Not a whole lot, but considering how difficult it was before, I find any loss cause for celebration.

I agree about medical care. I am sick of waiting for 30-40 minutes *past my appointment time* for the doctor to breeze in and spend five minutes talking to me and leave. Then they try to write me a prescription for something that I plainly can't take due to other conditions/allergies. Its so annoying because had they bothered to at least pretend to look at my chart, the might have seen this.

I am so glad I found this forum! You guys have been so wonderful. I was so afraid to post on here because some members in other forums I read were openly hostile to anyone without an official celiac diagnosis.