Chapter 2 – Help Me, I’m losing my Mind!
One of the most important reasons to take care of your Gluten Intolerance or Celiac Disease is the toll it takes on your memory, focus, and your emotions. During the holidays and whenever there was a special event that came along with “party food”, I recall several occasions when Nathan ingested gluten and afterwards, no more than 24 to 48 hours later, Nathan was not only in the bathroom with a severe stomach ache and broken out in a rash, but he could not think normally, which resulted in his inability to do his Math homework. Okay, I have to brag a little here, My son is highly intelligent and amazing at Math and Science, so whenever this happened, I knew what had happened. His concentration was nill and the brain fog he experienced was terrible. As well, he would break into tears about any little thing. It became kind of a check point with me as a parent to ask him his multiplication facts when I suspected gluten issues. If he could answer quickly, I knew he was fine, but if he hesitated and gave me that funny look, I knew the eating plan had gone awry.
Needless to say, many times people are classified with numerous mental illnesses and struggle with certain mental conditions while dealing with Gluten Intolerance or Celiac. There have been numerous books written about it. One of my favorites is Grain Brain, written by Dr. David Perlmutter. Some of the mental conditions that you may have ongoing are ADHD, anxiety, depression, bi-polar, and even dementia. These can be much improved after going on a gluten free diet. Although some brain issues will continue, to some degree, because of genetics and your bodies lack of certain chemicals, you will feel much improved after eliminating gluten from your life. After removal, you can be tested to see exactly what chemicals, minerals, and vitamins are lacking and then begin to take certain supplements and medications to fill in the gaps.
On a personal note, since eliminately gluten from my diet, my thinking is also much clearer. This is especially helpful because, as you know, after the age of 50, one begins to forget things anyway! I have tested it time and time again, and without a doubt, I function much better mentally when I remain gluten free. If you are actually gluten intolerant or Celiac, you wouldn’t think it would be tempting to go off of your diet after it makes you feel so much better mentally and physically, but it does happen. When it does, you may very well experience a crash, like Nathan did, that takes you into a tail spin of emotional distress, lasting three to five days. When this happened, it was in his best interest to take enzymes, and an antihistamine to prevent major fall out. This did not and does not however, extinguish all of the physical damage done to the body by going off of the eating plan so it is imperative that you stay diligent to the cause and stay off of all gluten!
