Tex - I owe you that gluten free cookie!

[Robin.booboo]

Well, the sleepiness affects my whole body, but not the achiness (so far). It doesn't feel like flu, just a dull, deep ache.

Why would we get new symptoms we never noticed before *after* starting a GF diet? I have eaten gluten my whole life - things have been going really great on the GF diet - so why now to start in on new symptoms? Huh, so weird. I haven't changed anything else, since it is so hard to isolate unless you only change one thing at a time.

-Robin

[tex]

Robin,

This is beyond MC, but FWIW, here's what I think:

Everything has to start sometime, and there's really no good reason to assume that your postprandial reaction is directly connected with eliminating gluten from your diet, (though it's almost certainly connected with your diet, in general, and probably your exercise pattern, as well). (Postprandial is just the medical term for, "following a meal", or "after eating"). Postprandial fatigue/drowsiness is an extremely common effect, and it can vary widely in severity, on an individual basis, and by the size/type of meal, but everyone experiences it, at one time or another, especially after an unusually large meal.

The unusual symptom of a dull lower body ache being a result of a postprandial event, suggests the possibility of some type of neurological inflammation. IOW, this symptom might be due to a neurological effect, triggered by postprandial inflammation. Postprandial inflammation can have a wide-ranging effect, due to the fact that the metabolic system and the immune system are so closely integrated.

Postprandial inflammation is a common event, and it occurs, (to some extent), following virtually every meal. Most of us never even realize it, of course, because normally, it's not a big deal. In some cases, though, it can become much more significant, and for some of us, if the omega-3/omega-6 fatty acid balance gets too far out of balance, (or if we happen to be quite sensitive to that balance), the inflammatory response can be much more significant. I'm guessing that's what happened, to cause the lower body ache, that you describe, following a postprandial event.

I'm assuming that you're not a diabetic - if you are, then blood sugar excursions and insulin issues are almost surely involved in the symptoms. Here's a reference, if you're interested in learning more about postprandial inflammation:

Postprandial inflammation has recently emerged as a vital concept in human nutrition. After a meal, and depending on the quantity and quality of its ingredients, an inflammatory response ensues that peaks between 4 to 8 h postprandially (Fig. 2). The tight integration of food intake and innate immunity is an astonishing new concept. Indeed, it now appears that our organism perceives each meal as an exogenous 'threat' stressful enough to mobilize homeostatic mechanisms to adjust to the stress of the postprandial state. Such a mobilization combines neuroendocrine and immune homeostatic cascades, a well known motif in every response to stressful situations [47-49].

It is possible that the postprandial inflammatory response may result from maladjustment of the neuroimmune adaptation mechanisms to the stress of meal ingestion. The fatty acid composition of a meal tips the adaptation balance to either an appropriate, that is self-contained response to food ingestion, or towards a maladjustment ending up in a protracted inflammatory response.

Note the comments that I highlighted in red. That implies that every time we eat, the immune system sounds an "all hands on deck" alarm, and stays on full alert, until the meal has been mostly digested. Note that neuroendocrine cells are involved in conjunction with the immune system response, thus opening the door for possible adverse neurological events, (such as you described).

http://journals.lww.com/co-clinicalnutr ... ion.6.aspx

Tex

[Robin.booboo]

Wow, Tex, that's wild! Every meal brings all hands on deck? I wasn't really mentally connecting the sleepiness and achiness directly to any meals, since the little bit of nausea is what seemed to kick it off, which didn't happen to follow a meal. I just felt randomly queasy, for no particular reason.

I guess I was hoping that cutting out gluten would mean there were no new surprises, since it seemed to be working so well! I wasn't blaming the GF for new symptoms, just wondering why I would notice new symptoms after starting GF, if GF is the cure. Today, I am back to normal and feeling fine. I'll track it and see if anything else happens or any pattern develops. Maybe Mandy is on to something with the vitamin deficiencies. I am in my mid-forties, too, so peri-menopause could be starting to play a part.

Thanks,
Robin

[tex]

I wasn't really mentally connecting the sleepiness and achiness directly to any meals, since the little bit of nausea is what seemed to kick it off, which didn't happen to follow a meal. I just felt randomly queasy, for no particular reason.

Oh! In that case, never mind. It might just be a series of MC symptoms. If there turns out to be a pattern, we can try to figure out what's going on, after you see a pattern.

Tex