Wow I just read this article/blog on Being Celiac, and it really got me thinking. Some quotes from the article that I could have easily written as it applies to myself:
“I appeared a healthy, fit and energetic person”
“I experienced excessive tiredness in the afternoons, extreme hunger all of the time, but “bloated” every time I ate and experienced intense stomach cramping after every meal.”
“I quietly tried to self-diagnose and self-medicate.”
“I thought; maybe I have been eating too many vegetables, too much fiber.”
“I eventually started to get a strange pain in my chest after every meal.”
“I began loosing interest in eating because eating to me was associated with pain.”
“[people] told me it was stress”
But the happy thing since switching to mostly-Paleo…
“I miss the foods I used to eat, but after just a few days of being gluten-free, every single symptom went away. I had forgotten how good feeling “normal” could be!”
Wow. I have never been tested for Celiac (maybe I should consider it?) but I also find that I don’t always react to gluten. For example, I ate a burger (with the bun) this weekend and felt fine. But I had a whole wheat English muffin this morning and my insides are tearing up. But the point is, I am glad I read this article because it gave me the “I’m not alone” feeling. Especially the part about the chest pain. I never linked that to wheat/gluten before. I always thought it was something weird and could never figure out the cause.
Oh. My. Goodness.
Here’s from somebody who knows, not because I’m Celiac but because I came at this backwards:
If you’re wondering, get tested NOW. That’s not because it’s a matter of life and death but because you’re eating gluten now. If you go strict Paleo for 2 weeks and get tested? It’ll come back negative. You have to have “active gluten” in there for TWO WEEKS.
If you don’t want the test (it’s a blood test), it still doesn’t matter: go grain-free or not. You’ll probably feel better for the reasons why Paleo people talk about today: human bodies can digest grains and legumes and dairy but just because you *can* doesn’t mean you *should*.
People with Celiac (undiagnosed) are so sickly in there that it doesn’t matter if I ate bread one day and not for a week. When it showed up was after I’d been CLEAN of gluten for several weeks. THEN the nightmare reactions started and nobody warned me about it –******. They probably thought “she’ll see” or maybe they didn’t want to scare me off. It’s not that they forgot!
Celiac or not: no grains is a good choice. You don’t need them. And if you go grain-free, even NON-Celiac, you may notice having a piece of cake at a birthday party makes you feel like crap for 12 hours. If you do that, it’s not Celiac. It’s that your gut preferred no grain (like all human guts).
If I were YOU, though, I’d run in and get a definitive test while I’m enjoying pizza and doughnuts — cos if you’re positive, you won’t have them ever again.
Oh Lily that last statement made me laugh at loud! But so true! Do I just call my general practitioner or do I need to go to a specialist? Just wondering. I have good insurance too so really there is not excuse to not get tested.
Oh and I’m going to see a sports doctor in 2 weeks about my ankle/foot problem. Just takin’ care of all my health!
~Ang
I went to the gastro-enterologist BUT since it’s a simple blood test, I think any GP would do. My insurance IS NOT great (although after reading some articles, it’s apparently considered “normal” these days–yikes!). I’d ring the GP and say that you really want to see (and explain your issues). You easily may have to do a consult FIRST (explaining in detail when you eat ___ you have XYZ symptoms) and get the results later.
I’ll also add this: even though I’d read in more than half of the places that talk about Celiac that a lot of doctors think it’s hooey, I was SHOCKED to hear one of my own doctors say, “If people knew how little nutrition affected gastrointestinal health, they wouldn’t worry.”
WOT???!!! Having a mum with Crohns / Colitis, maybe her doctors are better coached, having a mum with type I diabetes, maybe her doctors are better coached…having a mum with a situation they couldn’t arrest or diagnose for over a month in hospital, the spec from the CDC was perhaps better coached.
Hang on…okay, I think most doctors have figured out NUTRITION HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH HEALTH but there are plenty out there who say, “Boohoo, here take a pill.” Just be forewarned cos I’d read about people being told that and thought they must’ve been very unlucky–then GOT one!
Even non Celiacs can tell you food plays a MAJOR part in health, digestive and otherwise! Just crazy-backwards thinking some have. It’s like people who say global warming (at our levels) is “normal.” Well, sure. Global warming *is* “normal.” You’re going to have illness and disease in a human body, too, BUT when you see extremes and have direct behaviors affecting “health?” Maybe think about putting the two together! 🙂
That said, I remember years ago being told my an MD that living with St. Louis as the closest city GREATLY affects the pill-popper mentality of doctors (big pharma is home here and so are the many studies that tell them how to make what).
That can be a GOOD thing: we have new procedures and meds. It can be a bad thing where the “only” answer to a lot of doctors here is RX.
my parents both have belly problems, so I defiantly can see where I should get tested. Its on my list! Its funny how better I feel when I eat natural foods