"seizure Like" After Eating Contaminated Foods

[Bexxa]

Prior (1 week) to arriving at college I discovered I was gluten intolerant. I had been avoiding gluten and had improved greatly when suddenly my symptoms started to re-emerge. I found xanthan gum made me immediate feel like I was going to pass out so I started avoiding that. I believe I am also rice intolerant as I have been eating a diet heavy in gluten-free foods with rice flour. I eliminated - with great difficulty - rice products from my diet and have been going great (reduction in rash, acne, nosebleeds, etc) However, I have found that Corn Chex causes major issues. I did a quick search and found that Chex seems to be interacting with others as well. That brings me to today, since I was going along fine when I had this bowl of Chex you can imagine the shock that my body went through. I had a "clean slate" so I know that I was functioning along fine and then suddenly it's as if I ran into a brick wall. An overall strange feeling, incredible fatigue, just knew something wasn't right.

It's happened only a few times but I've had these "seizure like" episodes after eating foods that were contaminated with gluten. Basically I will find myself, like now, at 9:40PM and wonder where the rest of the day went (reference: I ate the chex somewhere after 10:40AM). I call them seizure like because my past actual seizures, from many years ago, were where I would just space out, the difference is that back then I wouldn't be able to talk, I would slump in my chair or to the ground. Now, obviously, I didn't do that. I continued on my day. It was as if I was in a haze but unable to remember clearly anything that happened. I haven't had seizures in years though. Oh, and I have no idea if it's related but, today I noticed flashes of bright little purple dots in my vision.

Any advice on this?

Thank you!

[shadowicewolf]

Generally speaking, it is adised to avoid all processed foods after diagnosis, then add them back in for this reason.You sure that your siezures haven't come back?

[pricklypear1971]

Do you have a corn issue? Xanthan gum is usually corn derived, Corn Chex.....

Frequently, when gluten is removed we expose other intolerances that have been lurking under the gluten umbrella.

There is a study that's been posted on this board about a percentage of Celiacs that are also sensitive to corn.

[Pegleg84]

First of all, Welcome to the forum. Hope you can find the answers and support you need.

How long have you been gluten free? A lot of us, after doing quite well for a while, will have other problems pop up out of nowhere, like PricklyPear said, either because the reaction to gluten was masking them, or our bodies just decide they don't like that food anymore.

If you have an intolerance to rice, then its quite likely you could have a problem with corn too. I'd cut it out for a while and see how you do (I don't think I can even get Corn Chex here in Canadaland...)

Also, I know what you mean about going totally out of it all day. I get really braindead and lethargic for a few hours, and while I usually don't start seeing spots, my vision often gets fuzzy. I hope you're seizures aren't coming back, but neurological symptoms are common.

Hope you can figure out what's bothering you.

Cheers

Peg

[anti-soprano]

Prior (1 week) to arriving at college I discovered I was gluten intolerant. I had been avoiding gluten and had improved greatly when suddenly my symptoms started to re-emerge. I found xanthan gum made me immediate feel like I was going to pass out so I started avoiding that. I believe I am also rice intolerant as I have been eating a diet heavy in gluten-free foods with rice flour. I eliminated - with great difficulty - rice products from my diet and have been going great (reduction in rash, acne, nosebleeds, etc) However, I have found that Corn Chex causes major issues. I did a quick search and found that Chex seems to be interacting with others as well. That brings me to today, since I was going along fine when I had this bowl of Chex you can imagine the shock that my body went through. I had a "clean slate" so I know that I was functioning along fine and then suddenly it's as if I ran into a brick wall. An overall strange feeling, incredible fatigue, just knew something wasn't right.

It's happened only a few times but I've had these "seizure like" episodes after eating foods that were contaminated with gluten. Basically I will find myself, like now, at 9:40PM and wonder where the rest of the day went (reference: I ate the chex somewhere after 10:40AM). I call them seizure like because my past actual seizures, from many years ago, were where I would just space out, the difference is that back then I wouldn't be able to talk, I would slump in my chair or to the ground. Now, obviously, I didn't do that. I continued on my day. It was as if I was in a haze but unable to remember clearly anything that happened. I haven't had seizures in years though. Oh, and I have no idea if it's related but, today I noticed flashes of bright little purple dots in my vision.

Any advice on this?

Thank you!

I have a friend that had seizures as a child and recently had another. After many tests, the docs told her that it was due to a Vitamin B (I forgot which one) deficiency. After finding that she has another couple major Vitamin deficiencies, she is having an endoscopy this week to see if the malabsorption is being caused by celiac.

Memory loss- even if you're functioning through it- is nothing to mess around with. If you were my family member, I would make sure you saw a dr. as soon as possible to rule out things that could be unrelated to celiac.

[nvsmom]

Yikes. I would talk to a doctor about that too.

I have low blood pressure and have had problems with fainting in the past. Whe my BP gets very low I see shapes and sharks when I'm near fainting; time does odd things then. If you have low BP, an intolerance could mess with you...

The visual distortions sound like a migraine aura. Is that a possibility?

Take care!

[Gemini]

Prior (1 week) to arriving at college I discovered I was gluten intolerant. I had been avoiding gluten and had improved greatly when suddenly my symptoms started to re-emerge. I found xanthan gum made me immediate feel like I was going to pass out so I started avoiding that. I believe I am also rice intolerant as I have been eating a diet heavy in gluten-free foods with rice flour. I eliminated - with great difficulty - rice products from my diet and have been going great (reduction in rash, acne, nosebleeds, etc) However, I have found that Corn Chex causes major issues. I did a quick search and found that Chex seems to be interacting with others as well. That brings me to today, since I was going along fine when I had this bowl of Chex you can imagine the shock that my body went through. I had a "clean slate" so I know that I was functioning along fine and then suddenly it's as if I ran into a brick wall. An overall strange feeling, incredible fatigue, just knew something wasn't right.

It's happened only a few times but I've had these "seizure like" episodes after eating foods that were contaminated with gluten. Basically I will find myself, like now, at 9:40PM and wonder where the rest of the day went (reference: I ate the chex somewhere after 10:40AM). I call them seizure like because my past actual seizures, from many years ago, were where I would just space out, the difference is that back then I wouldn't be able to talk, I would slump in my chair or to the ground. Now, obviously, I didn't do that. I continued on my day. It was as if I was in a haze but unable to remember clearly anything that happened. I haven't had seizures in years though. Oh, and I have no idea if it's related but, today I noticed flashes of bright little purple dots in my vision.

Any advice on this?

Thank you!

I'm gonna go out on a limb here.....I think if you have had seizures in the past and you are having such extreme "seizure-like" episodes, it might be prudent to go to a doctor and have yourself looked at. You may not be reacting to this food at all and have a really serious underlying condition.

I believe Chex cereals are manufactured in a dedicated facility so the odds of it being contaminated are pretty low. You may have an allergy to another ingredient but these are symptoms you should see a doctor for....pronto! Not everything is connected to gluten exposure.

[Bexxa]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I'm still trying to navigate being gluten free (and whatever other intolerances may be lurking...). I think I will take your advice and cut out the corn, I've been dragging around lately in general (taking 3 alarms to get me out of bed, barely making it to class) but assumed it was a flu. I have also been consuming alot of corn pasta. However, I don't understand why these Chex would have caused such a strong reaction. Although, examining the overall eating structure, I ate the Chex in the morning versus normally eating the corn pasta at night - then obviously I might have slept the effects off. Interesting possibility.

I see a neurologist already because I have a history of traumatic brain injury and am being treated for migraines. I have never had a migraine aura that involved seeing dots, the only aura that I get is when I feel like I'm going to pass out. Soon after I'll have a migraine. And I've been on a medication that decreased the frequency of the migraines to such a degree that they are almost non-existant. I went from having them 5-6 days a week to having 10 within the past 3 months. I have a follow up appointment with my neurologist on the 28th which I was planning on mentioning this to him already. The seizures that I had in the past were, the doctors thought, a reaction to a medication. Now I'm on a literally a handful of meds to control mood and then the above mentioned migraine med - two are anticonvulsants so, this shouldn't even be happening (although I have been on one of the same anticonvulsants for years now so it might be the dreaded "pooping out"). Definitely will be addressing my concern with my neurologist.

I don't know if it's low BP. It's actually a possibility that I never thought of. When I was really ill and before I was diagnosed gluten intolerant, I went to the doctor and had low BP, I believe it was 94/68 or the diastolic around there. It definately was not the best BP to be walking around with. I don't feel dizzy but, if I'm reacting to the food my BP could be dropping. Although, according to the ER doc, I was dehydrated which was causing the low BP. So many possible avenues. This is confusing sometimes!

Anyways, thanks again for the replies everyone!

[shadowicewolf]

Is it possible your meds aren't gluten free?

[Bexxa]

Oh my gosh, that is so obvious I can't believe I didn't think of that.

The only problem is that I can't find any information about gluten-containing drugs. Invega has absolutly no information on it. And then I take generics for all the rest, the brand names are safe but there's no information on the generics. I'm going to change multivitamins as I found that it's not guaranteed gluten-free.

Wow. So obvious can't believe I didn't think of this!

[frieze]

Seizures are not unknown in celiac disease. Maybe what is happening is that you are OVER medicated now, being gluten free.

[pricklypear1971]

Seizures are not unknown in celiac disease. Maybe what is happening is that you are OVER medicated now, being gluten free.

Excellent point!

Have you checked this list? Open Original Shared Link

[gleegan]

Hi,

I haven't experienced anything like a seizure when exposed to gluten. However, I do sometimes have this very weird thing where I feel like my brain is tingling. It's hard to describe in any other way. It's a disturbing feeling and it doesn't go on for too long. It took me a while to connect to gluten, but now it's one way that I know if I've been cross contaminated. Good luck with feeling better. It's a hard road sometimes and I know it can be frustrating.

Take care,

Kirstin

[mushroom]

My story is anecdotal only, about my brother. I come from a family of gluten intolerants; it wasn't clear at the time we were all living together, but in retrospect it all fits together. My brother had major symptoms after drinking beer with the boys. He also developed a seizure disorder in his 40's. It was really neither petit mal nor grand mal; He most often would either be sitting or at the table and suddenly this blank look would come into his eyes and he would cease interacting and just sit with no animation in his face. After a few seconds his face would reanimate and he would carry on like nothing had happened. No medication made any difference to this condition. It is sad. really, because a more violent seizure which was not witnessed caused him to hit his head in a doorway and led to complications from which he died. I remain convinced that it was a gluten response.