Gluten is a sticky protein that exists in all grains. This protein is usually added to already prepared foods for consistency because it’s more economical than other methods. It’s what gives all delicious baked products their soft puffy consistency. Have you ever been to a French bakery and drool over a croissant and suffer because you are not able to enjoy… that is my life. Often people have a misconception about gluten sensitivity and they wrongly miss the wide-reaching effect of its consequences. Any food intolerance such as gluten sensitivity has a accumulative effect in our bodies that creates chronic inflammation in all the organ systems in the body. “This inflammation can occur if your digestive system is constantly weakened by gluten sensitivity so that it does not eliminate undigested proteins. The undigested proteins then gloat through the bloodstream instead, which creates an autoimmune reaction” Paleo for Beginners. The New England Journal located 55 diseases and conditions that can be caused by gluten sensitivity. Below, a brief history of my life without gluten…
I never use this blog for personal stories especially illness-related matters, but I hope that if there is anyone going through what I went most of my life and I can help that person then this is more than worthy. A year ago, due to severe stomach pain and frequent heartburn, I had my fourth endoscopy done in a span of ten years. I had suffered from severe stomach pain and heartburn most of my life. While the results of the endoscopy hinted at gastritis, this time they discovered a Peptic ulcer in the duodenum so I was sent for more tests to find out what caused it.
The most common cause is stomach bacteria, abuse of pain killers such as aspirin and ibuprofen and a gluten allergy. Since I came negative in the biopsy to all of the above the only cause left was a rare condition called Zollinger-Ellison syndrome people with this disease have a tumor in the pancreas mostly malign. This tumor releases high levels of a hormone that increases stomach acid. I have to say that my father died of Pancreatic cancer more than ten years ago so when the Doctor vaguely mentioned this I cried for days so hard that my voice changed and people thought I had a cold.
Some of the symptoms associated to gluten intolerance are chronic fatigue, bone or joint pain, abdominal pain, mood changes and others. I also suffered from severe migraine throughout my life that would last for at least three days, from back pain, brain fog, tiredness, lethargy and was always physically weak. The only position I would feel comfortable in was being reclined with pillows under my back. I couldn’t even sit or lay down on the floor because basically every position was difficult and painful for me. It was as if I had small needles inside my mid-section. It was a very uncomfortable feeling. Reading more about gluten-allergy we learned that it is not only genetic and there are various levels of it where even the mildest one has an accumulative effect.
So as my husband suggested I started a gluten-free diet “trial” for a bit exactly two weeks before the second endoscopy. By the first week my heartburn and pain were gone, my back pain got better, I didn’t have any headaches and for first time in my life my body felt comfortable inside me. The endoscopy only lasted about 15 minutes and the doctor did not see anything abnormal. No ulcer whatsoever! It’s been almost a year since I’ve been living on a strictly Gluten-fren diet and it’s the first time in my life that I feel at ease within myself.
If by any chance I eat something with Gluten by mistake the headache of the following day would let me know. If you suffer from two or more of the symptoms I mentioned above try to take gluten out of your life for a period of time and you’ll see the big difference. Get to know your body and feel good in it. image, my owned.