Both Fibromyalgia and gluten allergies have similar symptoms. One of them include digestive issues, which causes abdominal pain. So which one is giving you so many digestive issues?
In this article I’ll discuss the similarities and differences between fibromyalgia and gluten allergies.
What is Fibromyalgia?
Fibromyalgia is a disease that creates pain in the body’s muscles and underlining tissue. The cause for this disease remains unknown, although some believe that it might be an autoimmune disorder.
Others think that genes, PTSD, depleted hormone levels and infection play a part in this disease.
It’s difficult to determine its true origin because FMS mimics diseases, some of them include IBS, irritable bladder, hormone deficiencies, UTI, anxiety, depression colon and autoimmune disease.
A person suffering with FMS will have fatigue, pain, general malaise. This constant pain increases fatigue and often cause insomnia. The lack of sleep exasperates these symptoms, which could cause stress and depression.
In addition, fibromyalgia patients experience digestive issues. This is due to their body’s inability to digest specific foods efficiently.
Foods that cause these issues vary, but there’re a few common ones, they include; corn, soy, eggs, dairy, sugar and citrus fruits. Products containing gluten causes a lot of issues.
Aspartame and the additive MSG increase your brain’s neuron activity, which increases your pain level. So it’s suggested to avoid diet drinks, sugar free candy and processed foods.
Caffeine and alcohol are two drink choices that seem to cause trouble with fibromyalgia patients.
Nigh shade vegetables might cause digestion. They include potatoes, tomatoes and eggplant
Trans fat, saturated fat and junk food increases inflammation which will elaborate the pain. Doctors suggest to limit your intake of foods that contain them.
Some of them include; prepackaged foods, store bought bakery items, cookies, crackers and regular cooking oil
Some People have difficulty with pasteurized dairy products, but are able to consume dairy if the animal’s grass fed and isn’t pasteurized.
To determine your specific digestive triggers, doctors suggest keeping a food diary. List everything you eat in your journal.
Be sure to include how you felt that day as well. Once you’ve collected enough information, decide which foods are creating you the most problems and eliminate them from your diet.
If you are unsure on a specific food, don’t eat that food for a week, then slowly reintroduce it to see how your body reacts.
A person with Fibromyalgia, can eat fruits, vegetables. Not only are these foods good for you they give your body vitamins.
They also help your immune system because their antioxidants. It’s suggest to eat as many of these foods as you can raw, since cooking depletes vitamins.
It’s also suggested you take a multivitamin, and omega 3 to give your body the essential vitamins and help reduce pain.
What is Gluten?
Studies have shown that 60% of people suffer with this disease. That’s approximately 1 in 7. In further review, nutritionals found that 118 symptoms, is exacerbated by food allergy gluten being one of them.
Gluten is a protein often found in foods that contain wheat, barley, rye and some types of oats. When you have an allergy to this, your body attempts to digest it, but cannot. This depletes your energy level and cause you to experience digestive issues.
The symptoms of gluten allergies is very similar to fibromyalgia. A person will have a headache, feel sluggish and experience fatigue. They will have pain in and around the abnormal area.
There are two ways you can determine if you have a food allergy. You can either take a blood test, or eliminate gluten from your diet.
The blood test used, will check the level of IgG in your blood. If your IgG is elevated when eating foods containing gluten you are allergic.
Where Can I find Gluten?
Almost all grain have some type of gluten, many people that has a gluten intolerance can handle some grains. It’s the Pooideae subfamily that causes the most trouble. You can find this type of gluten in wheat, barley, rice and some oats.
These food products have two proteins that combined and baked they form a sticky like substance. It’s this substance that gives bread its shape, texture and helps it rise by stopping the yeast from fermenting.
So in order for a product says it’s gluten free, it can’t contain any wheat barley, or rice.
Wheat is readily used in so many foods, including; bakery items, processed foods, anything containing wheat, durum, farina, einkorn, emmer, faro, Fu, graham flour, matzo, spelt, gliadin, kamut.
Bulgur, seitan, veggie burgers, salad dressings, soy sauce, chicken broth, malt vinegar, barley malt. You can also find gluten in a lot of seasonings and spices as well. This makes a gluten free diet very difficult.
How Should I start on My Gluten Free Diet?
You should first throw out any product in your house that contains gluten. Now that your cupboards are partially bare, you should replace these items with things you can eat.
Some of my suggestions include; Gluten free pasta, breads, crackers, cereal. You can use things like buckwheat, corn, millet, rice, sorghum and quinoa instead of flour. You will need to include xanthan gum or guar gum to replace the gluten.
Of course you can eat any of the unprocessed fruit and vegetables. By eating these healthy foods, you will also heal any damages that were caused by this allergic reaction.
The Culprit is
Fibromyalgia and Gluten Allergies have a lot of common symptoms. There are still ways you can tell the difference. One way is pain location.
With fibromyalgia a person will experience pain throughout their body. Where the pain with gluten allergies stays in the abdominal area, around the digestive track.
Another difference is with FMS will have frequent urination, and will have an urgency to urinate, where the other doesn’t.
Lastly, Fibromyalgia suffers will have an increase in stress levels, fatigue, depression and there white blood cell count will be elevated.
