Not eating gluten saved me from a life of pain
 

Hi everyone ,
I was diagnosed with severe small fiber sensory Polyneuropathy
A couple of years ago after severe burning in every part of my body but my head.

I have been sick my whole life. But almost 4 years ago , I developed very strange problems. My bladder would never stop I had pain , urgency, pressure , and burning sensations. Much like a uti - but a negative test.
This continued and became so severe that doctors guessed that I had interstitial cystitis. A devastating disease of the bladder that has no cure.
However , when I ha a cystoscopy - I did not have signs of it.

They had me on medication for overactive bladder. It didn't work.
I learned to live with it , and unfortunately- it was only the beginning of y health problems. THE WORST was yet to come.

soon after , I developed burning down my thighs , in my lower back , and tingling in my hands and feet.
It only got worse. To make a veeeeryy long story short , I have been living in severe pain and agony with fatigue , hypoglycaemia , depression, mood swings , muscle and joint pain , stabbing sensations all over , numbness in my hands and feet , and the list goes on

I had been to countless doctors and specialists, pain doctors , neurologists , osteopaths , acupuncturists - everyone !

I was suicidal - completely devastated , highly medicated , and barely able to walk in the morning.
My life could not get any worse. I had no money , lost my friends , boyfriend , job , dropped out of college , and became an opiate addict.

My last shot at solving the mystery was trying a gluten free diet.

Within a week - my bladder returned to normal.
My brain fog went away and energy returned. I was elated.
Just days after that , my pain nearly vanished.
It has only been 13 days , and I feel better than I have in my entire life.

So please , PLEASE - if you haven't tried already , and have all of these health problems with no cause - try cutting out wheat , barley oats and rye.

It just might save your life.

Thank you :))

Welcome New_life. :welcome_sign:

also helped by gluten-free
 

My symptoms were similar to New Life's. I was relieved of 80% of my small fiber neuropathy by going gluten free. However, it took me nearly a year to get to this point. I had to ban gluten from my house, get rid of all of my teflon and wooden cutting boards/utensils, clean out my oven and toaster oven, and stop eating at other people's houses and most restaurants (cross-contamination). I learned how to recognize all the forms of gluten in packaged food and which companies I could trust to accurately disclose all gluten. I eat not one speck of it. The tiniest exposure can bring back a pain flare.

I am over 50 and have had odd neurological symptoms off and on for decades. When the neuropathy began, I began to see that I had some kind of auto-immune thing going on. I went to many doctors, even a gastroenterologist. Not one mentioned gluten. I suffered horribly until I searched and searched and found the answer thanks to helpful people online. If I had found the answer when I was younger, I am sure I would not still have so many residual problems. I am just starting a no-dairy diet, also, to see if that is also contributing to my problems.

Thank you so much for sharing this! I've been gluten-free (well perhaps gluten-free lite, since I haven't yet found the companies I trust), now for 5 months and was wondering how long it would take to notice a difference.

I've seen many improvements in my health, fog lift, headaches gone, etc. My nerve pain is roughly the same though, so I guess time will tell. If this works, and in about 6 months more I'm pain free, I'll be singing the praises so loud on these boards that everyone will try gluten-free just to stop me nagging them! LOL

So glad to hear a great story, your story of success and getting past this horrible affliction. Good on you! I truly hope you continue healing and life the rest of your life in peace. :)

I've been gluten free for 16 months. My digestive problems straightened out in less than a week, but I am still dealing with burning in my feet, especially at night. In listening to the doctors participating in the recent gluten summit, I learned that it takes at least a year for your entire body to recover from gluten while some things resolve immediately. I'm still waiting for the burning to stop.

I find it hard to be 100% gluten free since I love bread (the gf stuff just isn't the same) but I certainly feel much better when I go without it. I also have several other food intolerance's. I feel much better when I avoid common foods that people have intolerance's to like milk, eggs, soy and peanuts. It does make grocery shopping more of a pain.

One trick that works for me with this. I place the bread in the toaster on very low for a bit, just enough to warm the bread. Turns it a much nicer texture, and really tends to bring out the nutty flavour, very nice. Since doing this, I've stopped hating gluten-free bread. :)

There are gluten free waffles at our Kroger's... but every brand I tried was disappointing.

And rice cakes get "old" pretty fast! sigh.

Still there are Tinkyada noodles....they are pretty good.

We don't get processed gluten free foods. If you use almond flour to make muffins, pancakes etc. it is amazing, so light. SO much better than reg. ones. Healthful also!

There are fantastic recipes and you can use good ingredients.