Are you hypersensitive to gluten, wheat starch and cross-contamination? Welcome to us! You are not alone in this.

My experiences with gluten sensitivity symptoms

Sudden fatigue and muscle weakness are the very first symptoms experienced. From one second to the next there is a fatigue that hits me so hard I just want to lie down and sleep. The picture illustrates how I feel inside.

I almost brace myself because I know what’s coming. For the next week, up to ten days my body just isn’t my own. My blood pressure drops and I feel it immediately. I get short of breath, like I can’t quite fill my lungs. My heart starts racing or fluttering in a way that makes me uneasy. The exhaustion settles in quickly, not normal tiredness, but something deeper, heavier, especially muscle fatigue. It’s like all my energy has been drained out of me, leaving me weak and hollow. The cold is one of the strangest parts. I can be wrapped in blankets and still feel like I’m freezing from the inside. At the same time, my body aches like I’m coming down with the flu. That heavy, inflamed feeling but theres no remedy. It often sits in my lower back, radiating outward. I can see the gluten reaction in my face too as it gets puffy. My whole body feels swollen, bloated, especially my stomach typically swelling up like a balloon, which feels tight and uncomfortable when wearing clothes. Everything becomes too much: sounds feel sharp, light feels harsh. I move through it all feeling overstimulated and fragile. There’s this constant low-grade nausea and a dull headache that lingers in the background. My skin starts itching, especially my forearms, and then come the strange nerve sensations, the tinglings, pins and needles. Sudden, sharp, shooting pains that seem to move around unpredictably. Nights are the hardest. The pains can keep me awake, and when I don’t sleep, the next day feels almost unbearable. My body clock gets completely thrown off and I feel so stuck in this fog of exhaustion. I notice how clumsy I become when being “glutened”. I bump into things, hit my hands and feet without meaning to, and I bruise so easily. It’s like I’ve lost control over my own body. Mentally, it’s just as heavy. I lose motivation, I feel low, and there’s this strange, quiet sense of doom that creeps in. A deep, creepy unsettling feeling that something isn’t right. I also pull away from people. Being around others feels like too much when my whole system is already overloaded, trying to process everything that’s happening inside me after a gluten reaction. Let me know what you think?

Otherwise, I am physically and mentally well. Born in 1957, female, no illnesses, do not take medications, do not smoke, do not drink alcohol. Normal weight, good fitness, good mobility. I eat and sleep well, travel a lot, I have many different interests. I got a positive outlook on life and believe in a better and brighter future.

See the post on Pinterest