As a child I was short and fairly thin. (I'm still short!)
Always, for as long as I can remember, I suffered from constipation. Sometimes it was worse than others, but to me it was normal.
Suffered with mouth ulcers for most of my life. Again, some times they were worse than others. And I had very soft, paper thin fingernails which would not grow .
Suffered from bad headaches most of my adult life.
20 years ago abdominal pain started. Barium enema tests were carried out and I was told by gastroenterologist that it was an "irritable bowel type of thing". He told me to stay off spicy food and eat plain food for a while and it should go away. I did and it didn't really fix the problem.
1989. Started having chronic indigestion and bowel pain problems. An endoscopy was performed as the doctor thought I had an ulcer. No ulcer. A colonoscopy was performed. No large bowel problems.
1990. Tired, windy, mouth ulcers, indigestion, migraine type headaches, generally just not feeling right. Started to gain weight. Doctors couldn't find anything wrong. Naturopath said it was candida and an intolerance to wheat. He took me off wheat, dairy products and sugar and caffeine. I started on sour dough rye and restricted diet. Felt good on the diet for 2-3 years. Lost weight and had energy to burn. My fingernails even grew.
No symptoms and feeling great, so I slowly went back to normal diet assuming that everything was OK. I still felt OK and remained that way until 1995 when I started to crave sugar and starchy food. Then the wind started ! The constipation got worse and I generally started to "not feel well" but it was nothing specific, nothing that I could put my finger on, just a general malaise.
By 1997 I was feeling positively dreadful. I was gaining weight (put on 10kg in 6 months) and it didn't matter what I did, I couldn't get the weight to go down.
Over the next 2 years I presented to the doctor with varying symptoms including, chronic constipation, flatulence, headaches, swollen hands and ankles, more weight gain (another 10kg), depression, mouth ulcers, erratic heart beats, high blood pressure and was found to have a slowly increasing cholesterol level. I also had abdominal pain, abdominal distention, feeling tired all the time, lethargic, aching joints, bouts of depression, constant bad headaches, constant mouth ulcers (several at a time), night blindness, feeling as if my brain was "fogged", couldn't concentrate, forgetting things and feeling at times as if I was losing my mind.
Doctor treated me for the above problems individually as they manifested. Tonics for the energy, tests for rheumatoid arthritis, medication for the headaches, treatment for the mouth ulcers etc. At one stage he wondered if I had Chronic Fatigue syndrome. All tests he did came back within "normal" ranges.
1999. I was getting desperate. Medicos didn't appear to be able to help me, so I went to a naturopath. He ran tests and said to permanently stay off dairy products, wheat, oats, rye, barley and gluten and that would fix my problems!
Decided to investigate further - went off the cereals except the rye. Symptoms were a bit better for a little while and then got worse again. A cousin (nurse) visiting from the UK asked whether or not I was a Coeliac. I don't think so, said I - I didn't even know what it was!
Started looking up information and guess what - found that most of my symptoms seemed to fit a pattern.
Presented what I'd found to my local doctor who admitted he didn't know much about Coeliac Disease and referred me to a gastroenterologist -
The rest, as they say, is history .....
Started a gluten free diet and within 3 months the bloating was down, energy levels higher, headaches had stopped, mouth ulcers had gone, aching joints had stopped, started to lose weight and my fingernails, which had previously broken and split, had started growing again for the first time in 10 years.
Went back to the doctor for a 3 monthly check up and he said he'd never seen me looking so good! He was amazed when I listed all the complaints which had rectified with the gluten free diet and wanted more information as, in his words, "You've really given me something to think about!" So now, when I find an interesting article, I make a second copy for him!
Had a lot of dental problems from an early age, I can remember having fillings in my teeth before I was 8 years old. By the time I was a teenager, I had a mouth full of fillings.
Over the years I have had several teeth break and have to be rebuilt and on occasions I have undergone extensive bouts of dental work.
1999. Another tooth broke and had to be rebuilt. Again investigations showed that many others had problems and had to be re-built (due to thin enamel).
I've since worked it out that other than these two occasions the only time I had decent finger nails was each time I was pregnant in the 60's and 70's and within 2-3 weeks of giving birth the nails had gone back to their broken, weak, split state. (It makes sense NOW! - I was taking a calcium supplement during the pregnancies).
March 2000 - symptoms were back and had been getting worse for 2 weeks. We turned out the cupboards in the kitchen and could not find anything I was eating which contained gluten. So we backtracked about 2 weeks and checked what had changed in the diet. The answer? The brown rice flour! (Investigations with the mill found that there was a strong chance of contamination !). Changed the flour and everything settled down again.
The best bit? I've lost about 12kg. since changing my diet. It's come off on its own, just the way it went on!
Oh yes! and I've got fingernails at last!