Gluten-free

Who would of ever thought that I would of had a Gluten intolerance? Not me, that is for sure! I have had a personal relationship with all things bread...I love bread, chewy, yeasty artisan bread. I could eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner...a quick meal? Of course a piece of bread and a slather of peanut butter and you are good to go!  You have a stomach ache, a piece of dry  toast...a comforting snack , a piece of cinnamon toast...heck, when we were children we often had broken bread in a bowl with sugar and milk on top..

I came about finding out about this on my own and I actually stumbled onto it quite accidentally.  I will try to make this story short. In 2004 I had shingles...not a very fun illness..I thought shingles was something like scabies..I was shocked as could be, so was the Doctor...usually shingles is reserved for old people and people with aids or cancer...or people who's immune system is down for various reasons....He deduced mine was brought on by stress and I became the poster girl for shingles..I certainly have compassion for anyone going through that horrific pain...about 2 years after that I started having terrible pain in my head and neck, it would start in my neck and shoot straight up through my head like an electric shock...the doctor said it was the shingles that had come back and were now on the nerves in my neck...He called it Postherpetic Neuralgia ..he gave me an antiviral prescription and said there is not much you can do for it....

this pain would come and go...and was stress related, if I was highly stressed at work I would surely have a painful episode..I tried every relaxing technique I could find...that is actually how cheers to happy came about...I concentrated on all things that made me happy...still, I would have this violent pain...recently I was doing research on PHN and found that alot of the problem is caused by a weakened immune system and you can boost your immune system in several ways...to quit eating all grains, coconut, chocolate and nuts...and take vitamin B complex, vitamin C and D3 pills.... I was game and gave it a whirl....after only a few days I felt great! Energetic, pain free....after a week or so I had something with wheat in it,( gravy at work) and I immediately got sick and my head was in a huge fog...I couldn't think, it was like being terribly drugged on huge pain pills...it took a day for it to wear off...then it happened again, when I had something with barley in it....I had a feeling I was allergic to some kind of grain...

I made an appointment with a Naturopathic Doctor and he confirmed what I had known...he said there was only one way to actually test for Celiac's disease and that was to go back on the wheat, and I told him there was no reason to do that...I didn't have to know that bad...oh and one more thing...he asked me who told me I had PHN..I said my doctor diagnosed it...he said that shingles doesn't do that..it doesn't go away and then come back on your neck...he asked if I had been to a chiropractor and that I probably had a pinched vertebrae and the vertebrae was pinching a nerve...then he cracked my neck and the rest is history....

Having a food allergy takes your immune system down, it has to do with the small intestine and it gets real scientific, it is an inherited disease, and runs in families, most people are undiagnosed...they say one in one hundred people are Celiac,....you can contract all kinds of diseases and sickness and many can be traced back to your allergy that weakens your immune system....

I have been voraciously studying all things gluten...it is amazing how much information is on the Internet..I can't believe some of the symptoms that people with Gluten allergies experience...I have had so many bonus side effects that have gone away since going gluten-free...no more rosacea on my cheeks, no more swollen fingers...no more swollen cheeks, (I hated the swollen chipmunk look)  no more swollen tongue...no more hip pain...no more head pain....no more feelings of doom...clarity in my head like I have never felt....and I feel great!....I feel like running in a room and screeching to a halt and screaming  "I'm Back!"

I have no desire to cheat and eat gluten...it is bad enough when I accidentally eat something with gluten in it...I have become very careful.......I do not want to become one of those people who make a big deal out of gluten and talk about it all the time and make everyone accommodate them...I was actually not going to even mention it on my blog...but I know that would be dishonest. I will continue the blog exactly as I have... I will do my best to mention when and how you can substitute for gluten free....lucky for all of us that the most wonderful, healthy foods do not even contain gluten...I hope telling my story helps someone...I do, want to say again I had NO gluten intolerance symptoms...I stumbled on this...and I have not felt this good in years...I am not sure how many of you are out there...but I hope all of you find health...without our health we have nothing...

Cheers to Happy  !!