Wheat/carb results

[gphx]

Lacking a dx for my dry mouth and eyes, chronically high inflammatory markers, cog fog, pain, and other neuro symptoms I'd been feeling a little helpless. Three weeks ago I made a decision to cut wheat and carbs out of my diet to see what would happen as it was the only thing left I could think of within my power.

Three weeks later my energy and pain levels are much improved. The last of my neuro sx disappeared. My cog fog is much better. I don't feel like there's ten pounds of concrete between my ears anymore at least when I'm fresh and not fatigued. We bought a bathroom scale today and I lost sixteen pounds of belly fat without even knowing it. Dry mouth and dry eyes aren't as bad as they were either.

More progress cutting wheat and carbs so far than with everything else combined. Maybe celiac caused digestive absorption issues sparking my neuro issues. Hard to say. All I know is things are going in a good direction for a change.

I ate like a pig and still lost sixteen pounds. Nothing to lose but belly and pain. If you've been considering cutting wheat and/or carbs why not give it a shot and see if anything good happens?

Just wanted to report my results thus far as someone else reporting good results here sparked me to try it in the first place.

[irish]

Just a reminder that if you cut out the wheat and carbs---maybe all gluten---you might want to investigate vitamin supplements. You will not be getting as many of the B complex vitamins and probably other ones. You might want to investigate this angle also. Irish

[mews]

This is so interesting to me, my GI thinks I have Celiac disease, even though my blood work has come back normal he says he has patients that they have come back positive with a biopsy of the colon, of which I am about to have on Thursday....can't wait to find out!

Mary

[gphx]

Hi irish,

You're right about the B vitamins. I was actually deficient in them before but my levels are fine now. Could be because I'm not taking handfuls of antacids anymore (they inhibit B absorption), I could have a more healthy gut, it could be all the beans I've been eating, or all of the above. Bs are high in beans and people have always said I'm full of them.

Some research implicates an unhealthy gut as triggering AI disease much in the same way disruption of the brain/blood barrier does. Gut problems and related inflammation have even been implicated as a cause of depression:

http://ediver.be/ediver/latest%20news/Maes%20M,%20cytokine%20hypothesis.pdf

Here's info on intestinal permeability problems linked to increases in AI diseases:

http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07853890802378817?select23=Choose

Like I said I have no definitive proof but many of the people I've read about here who have actually felt better have made dietary changes.

[Sooki]

So glad you found some relief from that.  I stopped gluten and dairy a while back and notice the difference greatly.  I love having some control over my condition.  I read a study this morning that found 10x higher incidence of celiac in SJS patients than general population.  I've wondered if not having the starch digestive enzymes that are in saliva has something to do with it.  And celiac is only one kind of gluten intolerance - you were right to just try eliminating them and not depend on tests.

[Linda196]

I have a question; when you say you cut out carbs, do you mean only those cards in grains? Some varieties of beans are high in carbs, and almost all beans and many vegetables and fruit have higher carb contents than white bread.

[newhorizons]

Thanks gphx and others for this info.

Had blood work for celiac and it came back negative. GI doc assured me the blood test was reliable and he did not see any evidence of celiac damage when doing endo and colon scopes.

Had and still am having gut issues all the time... Certainly will follow this post as it develops.

Joy

[sage]

Thanks gpxh for starting this discussion.  I am convinced there is a connection between celiac/gluten sensitivity and sjogren's syndrome.

Here is a statement on testing from the American Celiac Disease Alliance:

What are the appropriate screening tests for celiac disease?
What are the different antibody tests available? Can there be errors in testing?
http://americanceliac.org/celiac-disease/diagnosis/

I am seriously starting to cut out gluten all together.  Years ago the rheumatologist I saw said that I tested mildly for anti gliadin antibodies but that this was fairly common in sjogren's syndrome so I didn't take it any further at the time.
All the best to everyone 

[BonusMom]

Interesting indeed. My rheumy suggested I eliminate wheat from my diet as it known to cause inflammation in some with AI disease.
 
Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us. I often wondered if there was any truth to the wheat-AI connection and you've now solved the mystery.

Was it all gluten products or just wheat that you eliminated?


 

[gphx]

Sooki, I've known I'm lactose intolerant for many years. I didn't mention the dairy because I gave it up for good previously. To my surprise there were still issues going on leading to the addition of the others to the restricted list. Glad to hear you're ahead of me on this one.

Bonusmom, I eliminated all wheat and gluten products. All sugar and other caloric sweeteners. Carb carrying beans, potatos, sweet potatos and such I allow as long as they are part of a larger meal so the carb count overall is still minimal. Those are my carb treats now instead of Captain Crunch and Mountain Dew.

I'm basically avoiding gluten products and otherwise eating as if I were a full blown diabetic though I'm not. Some estimates show as many as 25% of Americans will first get metabolic syndrome then diabetes, both extremely inflammatory conditions. My thought was no wheat or other carbs no inflammation.

My feet no longer swell nor feel like they've been pounded with a mallet at the end of a walk. On the contrary, sometimes I turn around and go back out for more. For the past year I'd pretty much given up on myself because no matter what I did I kept spiraling down. Now I'm spiraling up. Almost like I was a zombie for a long time and I'm coming to life again. I have hope for the future again and I there's no greater gift than that.

I'm not following a formal or medically approved diet, just doing what seems to be working well for me but there are diets out there with similar concepts and people happy to sell foods and related products.

Zero guarantees anyone will get the same results as me but if you're out of answers there's nothing to lose.

[gurs]

Even if you test negative for celiac, some can still have a sensitivity to gluten...dont let all those tests fool you..try
the elimination diet and see if it helps. I dont believe alot of our testing is accurate on anything anymore.

Gursie

[LizPetillo]

Check it out ...
https://sjogrensworld.org/index.php?topic=12998.0

I tell sjogrens and RA folks about this all the time.
Some listen .. others ignore me ...
but it DOES make a big difference for me!

[Carebear]

I guess I'll wade into this conversation, as someone who has both Celiac and Sjogren's, and has eaten gluten-free for over a decade.

I've read a bit about gluten and it's relationship with Sjogren's, however in my own experience the two are not related. Without consuming gluten for all these years I still have the inflammation associated with Sjogren's.  So, as someone stated earlier, we are all different.  I do believe that there is a connection in that both are autoimmune.  I have been diagnosed with three other autoimmune diseases so I think they band together in groups if all the conditions are right.

But this is only my personal experience...

[Eileen]

I have a friend diagnosed with Celiac. Her blood work was negative so she had a biopsy of her intestines
and it was positive. She's beginning to have some symptoms related SJS so in doing some research for her
I came across this info.

What other health problems do people with celiac disease have?
People with celiac disease tend to have other diseases in which the immune system attacks the body?s healthy cells and tissues. The connection between celiac disease and these diseases may be genetic. They include

?type 1 diabetes
?autoimmune thyroid disease
?autoimmune liver disease
?rheumatoid arthritis
?Addison?s disease, a condition in which the glands that produce critical hormones are damaged
?Sj?gren?s syndrome, a condition in which the glands that produce tears and saliva are destroyed
This is from a government website on celiac.