Gluten

Well, it's happened again. Every few years, I start wondering if I'm still gluten intolerant... Invariably, as soon as I start wondering, something happens to give me accidental gluten poisoning and remind me that, yes, it is permanent. It was Sunday at noon, when I get together with my family and we 'have family dinner' (i.e. pick a restaurant and eat together). My stomach bothered me a little bit afterwards... I had wondered if there had been some flour in the spice mix on my fish. On Monday, I did not want to wake up (admittedly I had been up late the night before) and felt like someone had been using my head as a drum set.

I did make a helpful discovery this time. I found that the fatigue recedes if I have a large, healthy, gluten free meal. Of course, I generally have to talk myself into it, because my stomach isn't happy about the dose of gluten it got. Last time this happened, it took about three days for all the symptoms to go away. Which means that tomorrow or Thursday I ought to feel like I'm actually awake again. Actually, it's not too bad right now, but I'm still more tired than I ought to be.

What the gluten does in those of us with celiac disease is cause the immune system to attack the villi in the intestine. These villi are what allows us to absorb nutrients from food. When they're damaged, well, food doesn't get processed correctly. So reduced food absorption = reduced energy = me wanting to sleep all day.