I Feel Incredible, Whats Going On? Advice

[houdini]

I just joined today so I could quickly tell my story and get your advice. (and THANK YOU for your advice, I need it) I am a 27 year old male. When I was 19-21 I lived in Mexico as a missionary and was sick nearly half the time. (most of us american boys were!) that coupled with stress, home sickness, stress, and stress, made life very different when I got back. At first I was fine, but I think about a year later or two later I started noticing I got sick anytime I ate what I later learned was "gluten." I also became lactose intolerant. When I ate gluten I would essentially feel like hell for 24 hours, until I woke up the next day. As long as I didn't do that again I was fine. Life as been a little stressful over the years because I never had the discipline to kick the gluten habit. So once or so a week I would feel like crap because I would eat the forbidden food. I should also mention that when I got tested a few years back the doctors said I was fine and really seemed to brush me off. It was very stressful because I felt my family and doctors simply didn't believe me.

I am reaching out to this forum because something strange (but amazing) has happened in these past few months. I can eat whatever the heck I want and nothing bad happens! Heck, I seem to have a stronger stomach the the average person for anything. Don't get me wrong, I don't feel as healthy when I'm eating all these breads as my diet before, but I feel great. WHAT HAPPENED? What in the world is going on. Is this some type of temporary trick of the body to get me all excited and then BAM! back to my old life? Have you ever heard of people getting over their intolerance to gluten. Again keep in mind I was never officially diagnosed with anything, but there is no question for the past 5-7 years I have had a gluten intolerance, and now for the past 4 months I seem to be perfectly fine. Bad news is I have gained about 15 pounds for all my pizza runs in the past months, making up for lost time!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. thank you for your help

sincerely, Cameron

[Adalaide]

You could use this time to find a celiac savvy doctor and truly get tested for celiac, just in case. Since you have never been able to completely kick the habit it would be better to get a diagnosis if it is in fact celiac since that may give you the push you need to truly give it up for good. If it isn't celiac, there really isn't enough research done to be able to know what you may or may not be risking by continuing to eat gluten so I really doubt any of us could make a real recommendation about it in the long run. I will say though that imo if you aren't feeling as well as you could be, it is still a pretty clear indicator that they are doing something to you, even if it is just a little bit now. Like I said though, my thoughts are enjoy your pizza and find a doctor who won't brush you off and get tested. People here with more experience in the testing department than me can recommend specific blood tests and more info about a biopsy.

[kareng]

Were you tested for parasites, etc? Maybe you just finally got everything back to normal - the good bacteria vs. the bad.

Have fun! Eat what you like. If you start feeling bad, get tested for Celiac when you have been eating a regular gluten filled diet for a few months. I realize this is a Celiac forum, but not everyone has Celiac.

[Adalaide]

Were you tested for parasites, etc? Maybe you just finally got everything back to normal - the good bacteria vs. the bad.

Have fun! Eat what you like. If you start feeling bad, get tested for Celiac when you have been eating a regular gluten filled diet for a few months. I realize this is a Celiac forum, but not everyone has Celiac.

I guess I just assumed that a doctor would have tested for whatever he was at risk for from Mexico. I suppose that is a pretty big leap considering all of our backgrounds. Hah!

[nvsmom]

I agree with the others, get tested while you are eating gluten. It's a good time to do it.

I'll be the doom and gloom... I am pretty sure that I have had celiac my entire life but I did not feel sick my entire life. I had years where I was lifting heavy weights and had energy (minimal gut issues), and there was another year where I was in marathon training and running close to 100km per week... BUT there were years that my joints hurt, and I had a lot of stomach aches, fatigue and migraines. I know that most autoimmune diseases do not stay in a steady state, some times are better or worse than others. For you, after Mexico was a bad time and this might be a good time... I say this to stress that the problem (some sort of gluten intolerance or celiac) could still be there but for whatever reason, the symptoms are not; if I was you, I would get tested to make sure you don't have "silent" celiac and aren't doing damage to your body... besides a few extra pizza pounds. LOL

[gatita]

Cameron, I used to live in Mexico and came back home with severe parasite problems that took a few YEARS to heal. And U.S. doctors are not aware of many of those bugs (they don't usually test for the two that got me bad).

So it's possible it took all this time for your own body to fight them all off, and while it was doing so, you were extremely sensitive.

But I agree with the others, now is a good time to get yourself tested for celiac! Just to be sure. While you are waiting, enjoy your pizzas.

[AZGirl]

I just posted my story which also has a "recovery" from stomach issues, but I still get powerful Brain Fog from eating gluten, but am not throwing up, etc... I am very interested in what the "Celiac Elders" have to say about this. Good luck to you!