Severe Nausea / Sleep

[aquaholical]

Hey gang. I was officially diagnosed back in April, but I had started to go 100% gluten-free mid-February after doing an elimination diet and realizing that it was gluten that was causing all my severe tummy trubs and rashes. Like most here, healing has been a roller coaster. It doesn't help that I also have Lyme Disease and all this stomach hooey feels like it's stirring old Lyme symptoms up and complicating things even further. But now that I'm around the 5 month mark of being gluten-free and still experiencing a few severe symptoms I thought I'd reach out to the experts.

I'm still getting this terribly intense nausea every day. And some days headaches. Is that typical to still be experiencing these daily after 5 months gluten-free? Or do you think it could be another sensitivity I'm not aware of? I had a lot of nausea associated with the Lyme, but usually ginger would knock it out of the park. Lately no amount of ginger will come close to putting a dent in it, though.

I'm mostly eating whole foods..but un-wisely depending on some gluten-free packaged stuff. :/

Breakfast: Green shake (kale, spinach, apples, pears, ginger) and two hard boiled eggs

Snacks: nuts, seeds, homemade hummus, carrots, bananas, avocados, pineapple

Lunch/dinners lately: spaghetti squash w tomato sauce, steamed broccoli

BBQ tofu, mashed potatoes, pinto beans (pre-made, packaged BBQ sauce--I know, I know.)

black bean chalupas w onion, avocado, nut cheese (lactose intolerant) (also a packaged product)

omelets with gluten-free toast

Thai Kitchen garlic & lemon noodles (packaged) with edamame

black bean & rice bowl with tomatoes, avocados, onions

I know I need to cut down the gluten-free processed stuff. I also know I need to get back on keeping a food journal.

As far as supplements go, I take a daily probiotic (Culterelle) but jury is still out on enzymes. I've read a lot here and am still not sure if I should be taking them with meals. I've been trying to have pineapple with at least 1 meal a day, though.

Another strange thing over the last 3 months has been need for an absurd amount of sleep. If I get less than 9-10 hours of sleep I am in incredible pain (nausea, muscle aches, headaches) the next day. Is that common?

Any advice/input would be greatly appreciated!

[Bubba's Mom]

  On 6/25/2012 at 9:45 PM, aquaholical said:

Hey gang. I was officially diagnosed back in April, but I had started to go 100% gluten-free mid-February after doing an elimination diet and realizing that it was gluten that was causing all my severe tummy trubs and rashes. Like most here, healing has been a roller coaster. It doesn't help that I also have Lyme Disease and all this stomach hooey feels like it's stirring old Lyme symptoms up and complicating things even further. But now that I'm around the 5 month mark of being gluten-free and still experiencing a few severe symptoms I thought I'd reach out to the experts.

I'm still getting this terribly intense nausea every day. And some days headaches. Is that typical to still be experiencing these daily after 5 months gluten-free? Or do you think it could be another sensitivity I'm not aware of? I had a lot of nausea associated with the Lyme, but usually ginger would knock it out of the park. Lately no amount of ginger will come close to putting a dent in it, though.

I'm mostly eating whole foods..but un-wisely depending on some gluten-free packaged stuff. :/

Breakfast: Green shake (kale, spinach, apples, pears, ginger) and two hard boiled eggs

Snacks: nuts, seeds, homemade hummus, carrots, bananas, avocados, pineapple

Lunch/dinners lately: spaghetti squash w tomato sauce, steamed broccoli

BBQ tofu, mashed potatoes, pinto beans (pre-made, packaged BBQ sauce--I know, I know.)

black bean chalupas w onion, avocado, nut cheese (lactose intolerant) (also a packaged product)

omelets with gluten-free toast

Thai Kitchen garlic & lemon noodles (packaged) with edamame

black bean & rice bowl with tomatoes, avocados, onions

I know I need to cut down the gluten-free processed stuff. I also know I need to get back on keeping a food journal.

As far as supplements go, I take a daily probiotic (Culterelle) but jury is still out on enzymes. I've read a lot here and am still not sure if I should be taking them with meals. I've been trying to have pineapple with at least 1 meal a day, though.

Another strange thing over the last 3 months has been need for an absurd amount of sleep. If I get less than 9-10 hours of sleep I am in incredible pain (nausea, muscle aches, headaches) the next day. Is that common?

Any advice/input would be greatly appreciated!

Have you had your B vitamins, iron, D3 tested lately? If you are low on any of those it *could* cause the symptoms you are having. It's also possible that the processed foods aren't agreeing with you?

Your body does it's best healing while you are sleeping, so I wouldn't be concerned about how much sleep you are needing. Not getting quite that much sleep shouldn't cause nausea, pain, and headaches though. It might be time to get some blood tests and "tighten up" the diet a little and see if it helps?

[aquaholical]

Yes, just had more follow-up blood tests done. Somehow I'm too high in B12 (weird because I'm a vegetarian..but I do take a B complex), iron is rising/supplementing that, and D is very deficient. I've been having severe muscle aches and since adding more D (5,000 IU/day) the muscle aches are all but disappeared (thank baby jeebus). I thought maybe the nausea was tied in with that as well but it seems strange that one symptom would resolve but not another, you know? Maybe it just needs more time.

[Bubba's Mom]

  On 6/25/2012 at 10:39 PM, aquaholical said:

Yes, just had more follow-up blood tests done. Somehow I'm too high in B12 (weird because I'm a vegetarian..but I do take a B complex), iron is rising/supplementing that, and D is very deficient. I've been having severe muscle aches and since adding more D (5,000 IU/day) the muscle aches are all but disappeared (thank baby jeebus). I thought maybe the nausea was tied in with that as well but it seems strange that one symptom would resolve but not another, you know? Maybe it just needs more time.

As you go through the healing process it's common to have all sorts of symptoms. Your need for sleep can be very much caused by low D and anemia.

The nausea can be low iron, or low magnesium, along with maybe something you're eating isn't "sitting well"?

Does soy bother you? It's a common irritator for many of us.

[aquaholical]

Soy is my next suspect to investigate, I think. Don't think it's magnesium because I supplement lots of that for the Lyme Disease.

[jerseyangel]

Two things occur to me-- soy, possibly and the Culturelle. Did the worsening nausea coincide with starting it? Probiotics can cause nausea for some-- I can't tolerate them.

All that said, it all sounds like additional intolerance(s). The best way to figure out the problem foods is to do an elimination diet.

My additional intolerances became a problem after I'd been gluten free about 4-5 months.

[aquaholical]

Yeah, nausea may have started around the time I started probiotics.. Do you take something else in place of probiotics?

[jerseyangel]

  On 6/26/2012 at 2:03 AM, aquaholical said:

Yeah, nausea may have started around the time I started probiotics.. Do you take something else in place of probiotics?

No, I don't tolerate supplements well generally. I do take a multivitamin by Kirkman that is gluten-free and hypoallergenic.

It might be time for you to go back to basics--simple whole foods, only necessary meds/supplements, etc--and go from there. Introduce one new food at a time, for instance soy, legumes, dairy, whatever else. Sometimes after we are gluten-free for a time, other intolerances can pop up.

[aquaholical]

  On 6/26/2012 at 5:38 PM, jerseyangel said:

No, I don't tolerate supplements well generally. I do take a multivitamin by Kirkman that is gluten-free and hypoallergenic.

It might be time for you to go back to basics--simple whole foods, only necessary meds/supplements, etc--and go from there. Introduce one new food at a time, for instance soy, legumes, dairy, whatever else. Sometimes after we are gluten-free for a time, other intolerances can pop up.

Yeah, that's definitely what I'm geared up to do now. This morning I went and stocked up on all the ingredients for my green shakes to begin an elimination diet with a fast of those. The difficult part of doing an elimination diet is my supplements. I'm following an herbal protocol for Lyme Disease so I have to take a bazillion herbs/vitamins. I learned the hard way during the last elimination diet I did that I can't cut the herbs entirely out for even a few days. Lyme begins attacking. After doing that elim diet I combed through and made sure all my supplements gluten free now.

I think what I may try this time is to just take the main core protocol herbs instead of trying to go without all. I've already checked on those and they are all the Vitamin Shoppe brand, free of gluten/corn/soy/milk/citrus/etc. Hopefully that won't affect the elim diet or let the Lyme gain control of my body again. It took 3 months or so to get that back under control.

[jerseyangel]

  On 6/26/2012 at 7:25 PM, aquaholical said:

Yeah, that's definitely what I'm geared up to do now. This morning I went and stocked up on all the ingredients for my green shakes to begin an elimination diet with a fast of those. The difficult part of doing an elimination diet is my supplements. I'm following an herbal protocol for Lyme Disease so I have to take a bazillion herbs/vitamins. I learned the hard way during the last elimination diet I did that I can't cut the herbs entirely out for even a few days. Lyme begins attacking. After doing that elim diet I combed through and made sure all my supplements gluten free now.

I think what I may try this time is to just take the main core protocol herbs instead of trying to go without all. I've already checked on those and they are all the Vitamin Shoppe brand, free of gluten/corn/soy/milk/citrus/etc. Hopefully that won't affect the elim diet or let the Lyme gain control of my body again. It took 3 months or so to get that back under control.

With everything you have to deal with, I think that is an excellent plan. Hopefully cutting out the probiotic will ease the nausea.

Keep me posted on how you're doing

[aquaholical]

  On 6/26/2012 at 8:00 PM, jerseyangel said:

With everything you have to deal with, I think that is an excellent plan. Hopefully cutting out the probiotic will ease the nausea.

Keep me posted on how you're doing

Will do! Thanks!