What Do You Think?

[kirkmc]

Hi, I'm new here. I've had a number of odd symptoms in recent years, and only recently have I pinned them down; at least I think. I'd appreciate any comments on these symptoms from people with confirmed gluten intolerance.

For a long time, I've had odd dizziness after eating; not all the time, not every meal, but frequently. This would start from 30 to 60 minutes after I eat, and sometimes a couple of hours after. The dizziness would last an hour or two. More recently, this was occurring sooner after meals - again, not after every meal - and was accompanied by headaches. Three weeks ago, I made some scones, and ate one on an empty stomach; 5 minutes later, I was dizzy, had a headache, was nauseous and bloated and had to lie down for an hour. I immediately suspected that I was allergic to something. Since I had made the scones, I knew the only possibility was the wheat, because the other ingredients - eggs, butter, salt, raisins - had never been a problem.

The next morning, I had similar symptoms, though much less strong and sudden. I eat (well, I used to eat) musli every morning. I looked at the ingredients, and saw that there was wheat in the musli I ate. Following that, I looked around on the internet and found some info about gluten intolerance. I stopped eating anything with gluten - for the most part; I have discovered that many things still have some gluten in them. I had a blood test a few days later for transglutaminase antibody which turned out negative; 0.8 U/ml, according to the results. (Could three days of no gluten lead to a negative result?)

Nevertheless, I have been doing my best to avoid gluten oven these past few weeks. Yesterday, I happened to eat three things which had "traces of gluten" on their labels, and I had a fairly strong reaction, including some paresthesia on one side. (I've had a few brain hemorrhages, and have a nerve that sometimes acts up.) I also had cold feet much of the afternoon yesterday after that meal. One thing that seems to fit with what other people say is a sort of "brain fog" that I've had off and on for years. I never linked this to anything I ate, but now it seems to make sense.

So, my question is this: do these symptoms seem to fit with the gluten intolerance? My GP doesn't know much about this, but I'm going to see a gastroenterologist soon to find out more. While I have some allergies, I had never had anything that seemed related to food, and none of the tests for food allergies are positive.

This is all very frustrating, and the possibility of finally realizing that symptoms I've had off and on for years have a real cause is, in some ways, reassuring (even though the result would be a very limited diet...)

Thanks for any comments you might have.

[Jestgar]

There are so many different responses to gluten, it's hard to say 'yes' or 'no'. The biggest clue is that you had a reaction after eating gluten...