Trust your Instincts

by Andrea
(Palmerston North)

I went Gluten Free nearly 2 years ago, after several years of chronic sinus infections and swollen glands. When a sinus infection had me collapsing 3 times in a week, my doctor decided to send me to an ENT specialist.

He gave me nasal sprays which cause severe nose bleeds and sent me for an MRI scan of the sinus passages... the result? "I can't find anything wrong that can be surgically corrected so you must be having an allergic reaction to something. If you won't use the sprays you'll just have to put up with it."

I was so MAD!!!

Anyway, I remembered that as a child I was diagnosed as gluten sensitive after the biopsy showed I didn't have coeliac disease. I thought I had outgrown it, assuming my symptoms were gastrointestinal like my brother. My mother confirmed for me that my symptoms back then (age 7) were upper respiratory and sinus... but I also had an intolerance to milk protein. I decided that perhaps I needed the GF diet. My brother has coeliac disease, so the concept wasn't foreign to me even though his symptoms were completely different!

Since then, I've not had a sinus infection, and ironically, my tolerance for dairy (I never eliminated dairy from my diet, but it has always been restricted) has improved considerably. Unfortunately, like many people, I found that gluten in my diet now has catastrophic ramifications, in that the last response I had (about 18 months ago) led me almost to anaphilaxis, the glands in my throat swelling so much I struggled to breathe. That's not fun, but a major wake-up call! Going gluten free has changed my life.