I am 24 years old, born and raised in Colorado. I suffered from pretty severe health problems my entire life. I was raised on goats milk because I could not do cows milk. I had severe eczema my entire childhood, to the point of staying up every night crying because it hurt so bad.I was also anemic and hypoglycemic. But nothing compared to the stomach issues I suffered my entire life. By highschool my digestive issues were so bad that I missed more than half of my junior year.
The doctors that I did see wrote it off to stress of being a teenager and told my I had IBS. The diagnosis was great and all, but I still had severe digestive problems, so I started trying alternative things. I started going to a chiropractor, acupuncturist and homeopath. These things worked better, but I was still suffering.
After highschool graduation I pulled myself together and got ready to go to college. I was pretty excited but also apprehensive. My first year of college ended up being a complete nightmare. I was sicker than I had ever been, and the fact that I got mono did not help matters. By the end of my first year at college my worst symptom set in, the anxiety. I all of a sudden was housebound and could not understand why. I was feeling things I had never experienced. I could not breath, I couldn’t go anywhere, it was horrible.
After going to therapy for about 6 months I got to the point where I could move out of my parents house into my own apartment. I then finally found the one person who helped turn everything around. After 4 failed attempts at therapists, I found one who I clicked with. I went through my entire history with her and she mentioned that she had a great naturopath that she wanted me to see.
I set up an appointment with him. He ran a few tests and at my first appointment told me to stop eating gluten and refined sugar, and to come back in two weeks. I did and I could not believe the change. Yes the detox sucked, but miraculously I felt a million times better than I ever had, and the anxiety was slowly going away.
It has been almost 2 years now since I have been completely off gluten. I could not be happier. I wanted to start this blog to share recipes, product reviews and my journey as a celiac.
Hi there,
Interesting blot. I notice that you were hypoglycemic as well. Now that you are off gluten has that changed? I have been hypo for 4 years, tried everything and every test. I have been off gluten for 2 days now. Wondering if my problem is gluten as well.
thanks.
Hi, I noticed a huge change in my hypoglycemia after I went off gluten. My sugar used to crash really bad in the afternoon and I could never recover and with the gluten free diet and the help of B vitamins I have gotten it under control. My only advice is that if you are going gluten free check in with a doctor every once in a while about your vitamin levels because you want to make sure you take care of those. Thanks for reading.
~Chelsea
I think you’re amazing and your blog is extremely insightful. Keep up with your 2010 resolution and continue to develop educating those who are interested and those who are smart enough to want to learn more on GF food education… Let’s get together soon and talk more about our GF worlds.