Is anyone else on a gluten-free diet?

 

     I went gluten free about 2 1/2 yrs. ago because: 1) celiac disease is in my family  2) I've had lifelong IBS symptoms, worse as I get older 3) when my IBS started getting worse about 3 yrs ago I also developed sacroiliitis with major pain in my hips and low back.  After 2 yrs. of gluten-free (the last 6 months with no cheating on the diet) my sacroiliitis symptoms became much more manageable and the pain level was minimal.  Then I decided to do a 'gluten challange' about 3 1/2 months ago to see if I actually had celiac disease.  In a nutshell I don't, but a endoscopy after 5 weeks on gluten showed inflammation.  I kept going and after 3 months my sacroiliitis was much worse and my worst IBS symptoms are back.  And I think I may have mild ataxia now.  No one can tell me it's not related to a gluten sensitivity which, I've read, can cause significant digestive, neurological, skeletal, and autoimmune disorders.  I'm having a gluten sensitivity test in the next week and I should have the results in about 3-4 weeks.  I'm really hoping to go gluten-free in less than a week and start healing again.  I love my gluten-free buttermilk bread and plan to collect the best gf recipes for pie crust, cakes, etc.  Gluten-free is not that bad; I thought I would miss certain wheat foods like donuts, etc. but when I had them again it was a disappointment.  This might sound funny but everything seemed kind of 'doughy'.  (Ok except toaster strudels.)  To anybody who wants to check it out I say do gluten free for a year or two.  It does take longer for adults to heal so you have to give it some time.  And don't cheat - do it right and be strict - to give the diet a chance.  When you actually list the things you can still eat, it's a long one! 

Hi Christina,

After my own research over the past year and a half, I'm now convinced that the human body is not designed to process grains of any kind...period.

I won't try to convince you of that now , but just wanted to say that going at least gluten free may help any autoimmune condition to some degree. I have SEVERAL AI diseases and have seen improvement in a number of my symptoms since I began the gluten free diet a year ago. My husband and I are now trying to go grain free (sort of a Paleo Diet) because of the number of people who say that is helpful for RA and other conditions like fibro, Crohn's disease, etc.

I am not symptom free yet by any means (hence the Paleo diet); unfortunately celiac disease is a very complicated disorder and it causes your body to produce a number of different types of autoantibodies against various organs. The autoantibodies that damage your intestines will go away on a gluten free diet, but the autoantibodies that damage bone (causing osteopenia/osteoporosis) and the central nervous system (causing ataxia, blurry vision, headaches, vertigo, etc) do NOT go away on the gluten free diet, according to various medical articles I've read recently. But I have to say that since I went gluten free, I have noticed a distinct improvement in all of my gastric symptoms, plus my frequent migraine headaches. My ataxia has improved as well.

Of course, I have lupus and fibro and other conditions that can cause neuro symptoms too, and I've just found out that my Lyme ELISA test is positive! Lyme disease can attack any system in the body and trigger autoimmune diseases....which may explain a lot in my particular case!

If you want to read a good primer on how to go gluten free, please see the post at the following link:
glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2006/01/morning-after-diagnosis-that-is.html

Good luck! Please keep us posted!
JoAnn

Hang in there Christina!

JoAnn, I'll look in to that link. YOu mentioned some very interesting things I'd like to learn more about.