This is an interesting thread - Thank you for sharing your knowledge and insights.
Polly, I understand your frustration with your almost perfect results. You've been very deligent with your diet for years now and then you actually "intentionally screw up" just a few weeks prior to your tests possibly resulting in bad results; you are blaming yourself for making this mistake - of course there is no going back
It must be frustrating but like Matthew said please just try to look at it as the glass being almost full - not half empty, OK!I don't understand what causes MC and I don't understand what MC really is - the only thing I seem to understand is how to avoid MC reactions on a permanent basis; no small accomplishment!! My diet is the key to controlling my MC reactions and you've taught me that. Thanks again.
Like Lucy I don't get MC reactions when I am under stress - I am almost always under stress but some days or weeks are clearly worse than others; no MC reactions due to stress.
Jean suggested, as far as I understood you, that the other food triggers such as dairy, corn, soy (the proteins in these) cause the same reactions that gluten does (in those of us who have reactions to those proteins); based on my personal experience this is the impression I have too; IOW, I don't rank the food triggers as gluten being any worse than my other intolerances. This may be too simplistic on my part; perhaps gluten causes a greater production of zonulin than the other proteins (casein, zein etc)?
I am not sure what to make of the referal you gave, Marsha, to Dr. Fine not ingesting orange juice and rice; there seems to be a jump in logic?!
It would really be nice if anyone out there understood the disease and could explain it in layman terms - I always question what came first the chicken or the egg? Is MC a symptom of something else or is MC the cause of something else? Where or by which means does our disease process start? IOW, what is the cause? The imbalance of good versus bad bacteria is clearly not where it all starts - something has to have allowed the bad bacteria overgrowth to develop; we know this imbalance is a sign of disease but is it the cause?
As it should be evident I am confused but otherwise very well
Love,
Karen
(At least not voluntarly, because we never know what we eat when eating in restaurants) Can you explain it? Please.
And, since not a whole lot is known yet about the long-term course for MIs, I guess I keep hoping that the time will come when I can again have that grilled cheese sandwich.
that everyone is impressed about it, even the specialist. 
But as I am feeling much better and reducing the drugs, it really doesn´t matter waiting. 
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