Low level gluten intolerance

[Beeherder]

  All information is well received, none is taken as advice, medical or otherwise.

I'll be seeing my doctor on Monday, pain meds are one of the topics. Folks, the good news here is that when my digestion isn't in uproar my chronic pain is subsiding because of deep tissue massage. That has been the greatest discovery in this recent process. I am working with my doctor and other health care providers and this past 9 months have seen some nice improvements, its just this past 60 days that has me in a tizzy. Gotta figure out what to eat to feel good and meet nutritional needs. And there does appear to be a correlation between mood regulators and diet. Getting out of the pain loop was the first step, now back on the healing path with new direction and additional information. More research into digestive types and careful monitoring of what i'm eating, probably even start a food journal.

As stated previously the only effective treatment i ever found for depression is Cognitive Behavior Therapy. There is a great deal of work in this area since my initial readings, if i were unable to break out of these extended sad moments and the negative self talk, then more CBT work on my part would be in order.

Hope others have gained something from reports of my follies.

[ADSmith]

Beeherder,

I don't know if you've heard of her or not, but for chronic soft tissue pain Deborah Bruce in Estes is one of the best people around.  She works out of my Chiro's office and does some amazing work.  If you're interested you can check out her website at http://www.pfrestorationmassage.com/

[Beeherder]

Thanks for your positive thoughts ADSmith. Autumn 2010 i started working with a former massage school instructor and he has done wonders helping restore some function to my drop-foot.

The most amazing things are happening since i stopped or mostly stopped eating wheat and wheat products, most of them positive. After three weeks off gluten i had two slices of toast last Sunday morning and it put me on my back for 12 hours. That experience has me convinced something serious is going on so had the physician draw blood for celiac screen but regardless of the test results the feedback is definite. Clearly my digestive tract is no longer tolerating the insults and is making me pay attention. Have not mastered the art of cooking paleo yet but that's the direction i'm going. Eat like a caveman, arrrrgh!

[ADSmith]

Don't be too surprised if the blood test comes back negative, as it isn't a reliable way to detect it.  The most accurate one that I know of is a stool test that you don't need a doctor for.  http://www.enterolab.com/Default.aspx

Sounds like you already figured out that you and wheat don't get along together though.  I'm in the same boat as you - my chronic antibiotic resistant sinus infection was gone the third day after I eliminated wheat from my diet.

[Beeherder]

You too??? I went with the chronic sinus infection for a decade in late 80s through mid 90s, even had surgery. During that time i attributed most of my digestive problems to the antibiotics and dairy. While i can not drink milk with out stomach upset cream, butter or whole milk cheese don't have that impact. Any reduced or reconstituted skim milk or cheese made from it gives me digestive problems. Thought i had if figured out, guess not.

You're right, it won't matter what the test results indicate, i'm done with wheat & gluten. But i asked for the best objective measure, so he drew blood for a "celiac screen"

The other part of the recent wheat/gluten saga for me is that my doctor and i agreed that increasing the pain meds 6 weeks ago was a good idea. So after quitting wheat for only two weeks my need for the additional meds subsided and as reported to my doc i just reduced them by the previous increase. This gives me hope that if i can figure out the rest of this puzzle perhaps i can get that neuropathy to heal. Now that would really be something.

The next step in my experiment is to stop the omeprazerole. In the past it took only a matter of hours for that signal to be clear. But first i need to figure out how to nourish this body. Whodaguest it could be so danged mysterious? Maybe without the wheat/gluten and without the omeprazerole i won't need the BP meds. Now that would be something extra special, indeed it would.

And now that i recall the BP numbers went up in the mid 90s, around the time of all those antibiotics.

Oh yeah, 15 pounds just disappeared off my body and i'm now less than 5 lbs above my ideal weight and that was in just two weeks. Course that could be because i'm finding it so difficult figure out all the foods that are zapping me.

Hey, the good news is that my homemade tomato sauces are NOT the tummy ache culprit, it was the pasta. Now my sauces are great on quinoa and rice spaghetti. Oats and corn are now on my approved list though the corn is always a GMO question for me.

wonder if anybody else can relate to these anecdotes?

[Lady Lilya]

A lot of people that have trouble with wheat gluten also have trouble with the protein in oats.

Yes, a lot of people can relate.  Most of my friends are gluten-free.  I, on the other hand, found gluten itself to not be a problem, but I am much healthier on a low-starch diet.