Gluten and Fibromyalgia Pain

Well, a question that gets asked a lot on my fb page is if going gluten free helps fibro symptoms. There are no rules. For some, yes absolutely it does. For others, not at all. So your best bet is to try being very strict when eliminating gluten and also anything that can be potentially cross reactive) for a period of  60 days just to see what happens. 

• Rye
• Barley
• Spelt
• Polish Wheat
• Oats (2 different cultivars)
• Buckwheat
• Sorghum
• Millet
• Amaranth
• Quinoa
• Corn
• Rice
• Potato
• Hemp
• Teff
• Soy
• Milk (Alpha-Casein, Beta-Casein, Casomorphin, Butyrophilin, Whey Protein and whole milk)
• Chocolate
• Yeast
• Coffee (instant, latte, espresso, imported)
• Sesame
• Tapioca (a.k.a. cassava or yucca)
• Eggs

While not all people with gluten sensitivities will also be sensitive to all of these foods, they should be highlighted as high risk for stimulating the immune system.

Gluten sensitivity is NOT a wheat allergy. Some people are gluten sensitive or intolerant without having Celiac disease. And they..you..may not know it because traditional gluten intolerance blood testing looks for only one of SIX polypeptides in wheat, (gliadin). There are FIVE others: wheat germ agglutinin, glteomorphin, glteuinin, prodynorphin and omega gliadin. Any one or combination of these can cause a reaction. Evidence started to show years ago that gluten can promote inflammation even without having an allergy or sensitivity.  

For those people  gluten may cause symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, and bloating, irritability and sudden, irrational mood swings. There can be issues such as abdominal cramping, painful or frequent gas, constipation and diarrhea. Also there may be neurological issues including dizziness, difficulty balancing, pain, weakness and tingling or numbness in the extremities.

If these symptoms lessen or some are even eliminated after removing gluten you may have a sensitivity. Your Fibromyalgia and pain symptoms may feel better in general simply because you have less of any or all of the above mentioned symptoms. That does not mean that going gluten free cures Fibromyalgia, but it can certainly effect the severity of your symptoms. 

For some who have given it a honest shot and truly saw no change, reduction in any severity of symptoms, well gluten free is just not the answer. But rest assured there are many other diets out there to try, all proving for some to be very beneficial. Some even say life changing. 

I myself tried gluten free and felt no difference in my pain levels, or much of anything else for that matter. But when I reintroduced it I had severe bloating, constipation and gas immediately. I felt full, heavy and uncomfortable. Without even realizing it there was a difference. And after feeling NOT bloated and crampy...then I noticed. 
So while there is still no real relief directly as far as Fibromyalgia goes, I can now say my GI/IBS issues are not a result of or just "another" symptom of the Fibromyalgia, or CFS or anything else. So I stay gluten free for that. (SSSHHH) Except when I am confronted with the BEST onion rings I have ever had, ever.  Those I will get crampy for and thank heaven what I have in NOT an allergy.

No I am not proud of it

One good thing if you have to or choose to go gluten free is that there are many more options available to you than there were years ago. I still remember when gf was new to me (seems like forever ago) there were very little items on the shelf and what products were there all tasted like "cardboard". And that was real. It all tasted like cardboard. Now years later we have websites, blogs, restaurants and food companies all realizing there is money ..ah hem..I mean to say... they are realizing there is a  NEED. They have stepped up their game and come up with better tasting products, more products, and in more locations. 

The internet, blogs and Pinterest have tons of recipes all your fingertips so you don't have to eat cardboard! 
You can even find gluten free beer! Wait. WHAT!! 

You just need to do a little research, read a lot of labels and enjoy this next step to finding new food, better health and hopefully fewer aches and pains!!

When you have a bad day...

When you have a bad day you feel weak, embarrassed, old, inferior and unequal. 

Even though I expect it, I explain it to people, and I know intellectually that it happens, I still get surprised and extremely frustrated when I get hit with a bad day. I have come to think that if I am not in a flare I am having a good day. Period. And since it is so long in between flares, I sometimes even feel I may be getting "better". Then emotionally, even after 10 years I am confused and a little shocked. I get angry. I get discouraged and I wonder if its something I ate, if I did too much house work, have too much stress or didn't take all my vitamins and my med. Head games. 

I can do a 5K. I can leg press 200 pounds. I can demolish a pantry cabinet and set up a new one. I can spend all day on my feet in the kitchen baking bread, cookies and cooking dinner.

                   Yup Yup

When I have a bad day I can barely walk to the bus stop without having to sit down after and recuperate. Just carrying the laundry basket up one flight of stairs makes me so winded that I feel like my chest might cave in on itself. I stand looking at the dishes not having the energy to actually do them. 

 I feel weak like a person of less value. Why? I am not insecure. I am not less than. I know none of that is true. But I have always felt my strength helps define me. I have always done the handy work and yard work, painting the house, and hanging with the guys. I have built things, used the table saw, lifted weights and just generally felt very independent.  Part of me feels special that way, and that I should hold myself to a higher standard. That's not true . We are all human and we cannot be perfect. Thats why they say "we are our own worst enemy". No one is harder on us than we are on ourselves and we need to just stop!! 

But I think secretly we all want to be perfect, and just can't admit it. So way down, where we never look, there's a place that still gets devastated when we have reality remind we are NOT.

When we have a bad day and cannot do what we want or once could, its like being punched in the gut with  a Mjolnir.

We miss out on events and feel like an unavailable spouse or parent. There's guilt and shame. Disappointment and anger.

When you have a bad day there's a lot more to it than just staying bed, and it all can make you feel worse. So I still, after 10 years, take all my own advice I give to others and try to accept more often than not, that some of this out out of my control. It cannot ALL be controlled with diet and exercise, sleep and meds. 

Breath, rest, save your emotional and mental energy. Think positive and plan for a better day.

Rhode Island ComicCon Controversy 2014

I am NOT going into the various things that happened at Rhode Island ComicCon on Saturday (11/1/2014)
There are endless posts and tweets, blogs and journals who have write ups and you can find them anywhere.
#RICC #ricomiccon and the best one #ricomicconfail2014
 For us it was partly a disaster, but mostly a good experience. We got off lucky compared to the thousands that had MAJOR issues. We did wait in the cold and rain for about an hour. I did almost miss one photo op. The kids did get frustrated being herded like cattle through the exhibition hall. The crowd was overwhelming and at times seemed unsafe, suffocating and things could easily be missed.  (over capacity). But there were Supernaturals I wanted to see and a Supernatural panel I wanted to attend so I sucked it up.

But

 the kids got to meet and get an autograph from Mick Foley.

 I got Jim Beaver

 And Mark Sheppard

I did NOT know J. August Richards was going to be there. I was pleasantly surprised. He was So nice I almost got giddy.

OMG how cute?!?!

So here is the most interesting part of the entire experience. On the way out of the parking garage I saw a Groot costume in the trunk of a car and I screamed "Groot,..Groot". My husband stopped the car and I said "Oh my Gawd that's so good it's ridiculous!! A woman walked over and said it was hers. She said she was a makeup artist and they were supposed to be in the costume contest at the ComicCon and then couldn't get in. (Again, more issues I won't get into here) Turns out her name was Hillary and she had all the Guardian costumes!!

 I was heartbroken for them and couldn't stop thinking about them all night into the next morning. I decided to vent my frustration on twitter along with the rest of the disgruntled con goers. She is grateful for bringing attention to it, and I am a little excited that my pictures got posted in some articles on the con!

My original Groot picture

My original Rocket picture

Bleeding Cool article

                  

From We The Nerdy

So needless to say being part of such a big event both good and bad was a little exciting for a couple days.

Groot was Wronged! Robbed. Shut out and displaced! 

Yet Hillary stayed composed, after 600 hours of work and additional prep, she thanked everyone, never said a bad word about the RI ComiCon and she's just a nice person. Oh and awesome at her job to boot!  Need a make up and fx person get in touch with her and her team. 

I mean look at these!!! WHAAAAT!! 

                     





















Best article yet on The Gahlik!! 
Anime Herald
Providence Journal 
MYSA
Convention Center says refunds??...hhhmmm..we'll see


On the fibro side of the event, it was total torture. Standing for hours, inching along up against strangers, the noise and smells were just too much most of the time. My head was pounding, that made my neck hurt, and I had to pretend it wasn't that bad so my kids and hubby had a good time without listening to me complain. At one point I almost fell over from back pain and really wished I had crutches or a wheel chair. I wanted to cry. (I was on the inside ) I had to wiggle stretch and fidget, take aleve and hope it would be over soon. Ha, that turned out to be wishful thinking. I dont think Ill do that again unless its somewhat small. Its just too much. 

Quick Gluten Free Swaps for Some Pinterest Recipes.

First let me say, I try cooking a lot of things I have found on Pinterest. Most work out and a few have not. If I try something and it's very bad I delete it off my board. No sense in keeping what I know I will never make again. So anything you see I have not tried yet or I have and its good. Here a few of my favorite Pinterest foods that I swapped out ingredients to make them gluten free. Some of them my family didn't even notice at all. They are not against gluten free since I have gone above and beyond to make sure their experience with it has been positive. It helps we have come a long way in creating market foods and recipes that actually taste good. I remember when everything DID taste like cardboard!
Hubby says he prefers the GF pasta over traditional. He feels full longer and not "gross and heavy" (his words) afterwards. Go figure?
 The kids prefer the brown rice over corn. I only get corn if thats thats available and its organic/gmo free because..well..you know...its corn. We all like the quinoa pasta best.
Anyway onto the food!
I make on a regular basis S&S meatballs. Sometimes in a gf sub roll, over black rice, risotto or quinoa.

Yum!!

I just use

I recently started making this with blackberry jelly/jam instead and we think it tastes EVEN better. We really wanted meatballs and it was the only jelly we had in the house at the time. Win. It may not necessarily be "sweet & sour" anymore but its very good anyway.

I make this lasagna and it is delish. I've also made it with kale and spinach together and the entire family  likes it.

I just swap out the pasts with this

THIS is my FAV pizza at this moment. My gf pizza crust comes in a package with 2 crust so I always have the pizza again the next day for lunch alone while the kids are in school. Also I usually double the amount of kale. One time I roasted the sweet potatoes first, cut into small chunks in the oven. The  smell of sweet potatoes in the oven is amazing! One of my favorite smells. I put them in the Ninja after they cooled a bit. I do this every time now. It is twice as flavorful so that's the way to go if you don't mind the extra time and step. And trust me I was hesitant on this pizza, with these ingredients. It could have been very bad...but it works!! Its on my top 5 list for sure. Yummo!

recipe

Easy swap (any gf crust will do obviously)

Mine

Goldfish!! We used hearts and other cutters.

Recipe

Swapped with 

 

Follow the directions for correct flour to xanthan gum ratios.

MY (fish)  CRACKERS! These I didn't bother to tell anyone they were gf, and no one knew. They loved them and the first time they were gone in 3 days. Next time...double batch!

Mine

Okay now this was already gluten free: Green Bean Casserole, BUT I put in here because of the crunchy onion recipe. Although they are gf, you can absolutely substitute this for onion rings anytime you want them. They are hat good. So omgosh, you can just make onions and eat them as is. And she was not kidding about the addition of just a little sugar. Make sure you do not skip that step!! These were the best "homemade" onion rings I have ever made. And I have tried a lot of onion rings over the years!! A LOT! 

Hers

Mine

Oh me oh my..dare I say this again? Yummeeee! Pull Apart "Bread"

The recipe 

Make your own gf biscuit mix (whatever you normally use), I swapped for this and follow all directions the same. Well, not "exactly". I actually doubled the bacon and it worked for us. We are a "no such thing as too much bacon" family! 

Mine

Now this here has no swapping involved, again, it's already gluten free. But I had to include it because it is the very best Banana Bread I have tried to date and everyone should know about it! This is no joke. Its moist, delicious and easily made dairy free if you need that too. I have tried about 15-20 (lost track!) recipes for banana bread and we finally hit the jackpot.

Hers

Mine

We have resorted to making a double batch because everyone swipes a piece every time they pass through the kitchen. They have it wih or for breakfast, and bring it to school. Even my parents who try to never eat anything healthy if they can possibly help it, gave it 2 thumbs up! That's saying a lot!

Chocolate chip cookies!!! Another favorite of mine! The reason I am doing workout dvds in the living room! The reason I have to have a late night snack even when I'm not hungry. Oh chocolate chip cookies, why oh why do I love thee so???

No Pinterest recipe here. This may be a no brainer to some, but I spent quite a bit if time looking for gf choc chip recipes and after a few failed attempts...

DUUUUUUUU OH EM GEEEEEEEEEE!?!?!?!

I decided to just use the original recipe off the back of Nestle Tollhouse bag, just swap the flour. ~BIG SIGH~  I only feel half bad I didn't think of it sooner because I am always on the search for "new" recipes,  not thinking about what to do to tweek the old ones. Also, any one who suffers from chronic illness or pain knows that the memory is not always the most reliable weapon we have in our arsenal any given moment...So..now I am just going to blame the "fibro-fog" for that one!!

I was in my 30 day AIP when making these according to the Nestle bag the first time, so I went for the allergy free chips (we of course will ignore that fact that there's still chocolate in there!), Now we have made them again and again with Nestle chips when only GF. Again, just swap out the flour. 

ATTN: I do have ONE small caveat! When using the Xanthum gum, according to the directions for cookies its 1/4 tsp per cup of flour. I have done that 2 times and the dough tastes a tad bit metallic. I recently started doing 1/4 tsp per cup and a half..much better taste wise and I saw no difference in results as far as texture, or baking. They just lost the metallic taste. You do not need to try this obviously, and results may be different using a different flour. Remember I am using Bobs Red Mill. Feel free to come back and tell me how it worked out!!

 Again with the double batches! I never thought a year ago my fam would be devouring gf cookies to the point where I had to make enough to feed an entire army! A friend who has had Celiac for 7 years now, said she's had trouble making gf cookies so I sent my daughter to school with some for her daughter to take home to her...and she loved them. Wish I could take all the credit, but it goes to Nestle company :)

I will be adding to this list as I try more things. There have been many already but I did not take pictures or keep track up until this point, but there will be more to come!

Enjoy!

You can follow me on Pinterest if you like!!

Gluten and Fibromyalgia Information

Will eliminating gluten help your fibromyalgia?

Is it Fibromyalgia, CFS or Gluten sensitivity?