8 Months Gluten Free... Now What?

[josh052980]

While I'm overall feeling better, I'm still having a lot of off days. My primary symptoms have always been stomach/digestive related (bloating, nausea, that kind of thing). For a good little while over the summer, I had my diet perfectly figured out. I was grilling a lot of fresh meats and fish, and eating a lot of fresh veg and I felt pretty damned good. Now though, it's starting to get worse again.

I live in Michigan, so the cold weather doesn't come all at once, it comes in bi-polar spurts, where it's 60 degrees and sunny one day and 30 degrees, cloudy and threatening to snow the next. Ever since this weather pattern has set in, I've had to modify my diet a little bit, and while I'm still gluten free, I was still feeling off. I went from all digestive symptoms, to digestive symptoms with body aches, feeling constantly ran down and just overall wore out. I thought at first I was just getting sick, but after 5 days of feeling the same, and nothing else, I figured it was diet related.

I kept a food diary, and traced it down to lack of iron, which I know is a huge problem for people like us. I just started adding more iron back this week, in form of more meats, nuts and leafy greens. I'm a guy so a supplement just didn't seem like a good idea. I woke up this morning, and the body aches were next to nothing, but my digestive symptoms were horrible. They subsided, but are still there, just minor enough to where I can function.

Has anyone else went through this, or anything similar? Any suggestions or encouragements? I really need something at this point. With Thanksgiving next week, the last thing I need to is feel like I do now...

[captaincrab55]

josh, If you haven't already get your VITAMIN levels checked and remove the guesswork... I had many GI issues that were resolved by being treated for H PYLORI, removing dairy from my diet and correcting my very low VITAMIN D level(14. something).. I'm not sure that the VITAMIN D helped the GI issues, but my aches & pains faded away.. I did lose 50lb over the last 8 months and just need to lose 11 more to reach the top end of my BMI..

[Metoo]

I agree, you should get your vitamin levels checked. I live in Michigan also, I found in April I had low vitamin D (17) and by July I had it corrected to 55...but she said because we are in Michigan the sun starts to die down in September, so July is one of the peak months for Vitamin D levels, so inorder to maintain my level I was going to have to continue to supplement at the high level year round...

So my point being, your lack of energy...etc coincides with the lower amount of sunlight to make Vitamin D in Michigan. You should definitly go get checked out.

I feel extremely exhausted and have difficulty losing weight when my vitamin D is low.

[navigator]

I had debillitating fatigue with joint ache three years ago - prior to coeliac diagnosis. I eventually went to G.P. when it got to the point I just wasn't functioning. My ferritin (iron) levels were done to four! I started to feel the same way last November but decided, foolishly, to wait until after Christmas holidays in case I just needed to rest. You can tell that fatigue makes me completely irrational! My iron was okay this time and GP was less than helpful. To cut a long story short, eventually went to another GP who run tests for iron, thyroid, B12, folates, diabetes, Vits A & D and coeliac. As well as being coeliac, I was also deficient in Vit D.

I would strongly advise you to get your levels checked.

And what's this about supplements not being a good idea because your a guy - I think bodybuilders take more supplements than most folk so nothing unmanly about it.

[samie]

You should get your vitamins checked. When i got diagnose with celiac i had to get iron iv at hemotligist because my intestents are so damaged that the pills did not absorb like they are supposed to. I will be going back soon to see about more.

[lucky28]

I'm only going on 4 months gluten-free but I have been feeling the same as you for about the last 2 weeks or so; stomach, big D, tired muscle aches and feel like I'm just not functioning at 100%. I thought it was due to getting the flu shot but it has just lasted too long. I'm thinking that either I'm getting cc somehow, or maybe like everyone else is mentioning it's my vitamin d level. I had most everything else checked by my gastro at the end of september and it didn't look too bad. I'm gonna try taking vitamin d again and see how that goes...

keep us updated

[GFinDC]

Hi Josh,

well, here's some encouragment, you aren't dead yet!

Vitamins are good things to check. I am taking some extra Vit D now myself. Another thing to consider is possible additional food intolerances. Sometimes we collect them as we go along. Thyroid is another possibility.

Too much iron for men is a thing to watch out for I suppose. We don't need as much as women do. After all, if you are made of iron why take more of it every day? LOL.

I figure you are on the right track, it is most likely something you are consuming. There are a lot of possibilities there though, besides gluten. And other food intolerances can cause substantial symptoms themselves.

It seem to me like reactions get worse over time, as if they build up. So if you are eating a food that causes a small problem but it accumulates more every day you eat it. it could get to be majorly annoying after awhile. So seemingly small things can add up. Just some random thots in case they help. An elimination diet is a good way to find additional food intolerances.

[CR5442]

If you are taking extra iron that will slow transit time in the bowel, which for a healing gut is not such a great thing. Ideally you want the transit time to be about 12-24 hours max. Perhaps you could take something like ACV to keep things moving, just a tablespoon a day should do if you're not sensitive. Totally identify with the difficulty in balancing things. As another poster suggested it would be a good idea to get a full blood/vit/mineral panel done to be sure

[Skylark]

I live in Michigan, so the cold weather doesn't come all at once, it comes in bi-polar spurts, where it's 60 degrees and sunny one day and 30 degrees, cloudy and threatening to snow the next. Ever since this weather pattern has set in, I've had to modify my diet a little bit, and while I'm still gluten free, I was still feeling off. I went from all digestive symptoms, to digestive symptoms with body aches, feeling constantly ran down and just overall wore out. I thought at first I was just getting sick, but after 5 days of feeling the same, and nothing else, I figured it was diet related.

How did you modify your diet? Did you start eating more dairy, soy, or corn? More processed foods? A lot of us are sensitive to dairy. Soy is probably the next most common intolerance and some folks are sensitive to corn. Processed foods are always a CC risk so those can be a problem too.

[Korwyn]

I'll echo the others as far as getting your vitamin levels checked, but I'd also suggest you find either an ND or an MD who is nutrition focused and get all your trace minerals checked as well.

As far as foods, if you can eat it, organic,grass-fed beef liver or organic,free-range chicken liver are two of the most nutritionally dense foods on the planet. The only thing that isn't in them that we need as far as vitamins and minerals is vitamin C. The Open Original Shared Link tools can be extremely helpful. It will give you the exact breakdown of the composition of many thousands of foods.