I have known my husband for 36 years. And if you don't think it's possible, well, think again, it was love at first sight for the both of us. We met at college in the magical mountains of North Carolina.
He was an amazing athlete. He boxed, fenced, practiced karate, wrestled, did gymnastics, and played LaCrosse. We had lots of friends and incredibly good times. Academics were a breeze... there seemed to be nothing he could not excel at or master.
But, now we come to the "fly in the ointment". Frequently, he would suffer from severe headaches, digestive distress, and depression. Garnering the energy of youth, he would not allow these aliments to stop him - after all, he had lived with these afflictions most of his life and had grown used to the pain and discomfort.
As a small child he suffered almost nightly with stomach cramps and worst of all, asthma. He was a "picky eater". Some foods he just would not touch. He hated milk, beans, and most green vegetables, but loved meat and fruit.
By the time he became adolescent his parents gave up on force feeding, allowing him to eat only what he wanted. So he would have canned pineapple and french toast (no syrup or jam) for breakfast. Supper was usually BBQ Pork Chops, homemade french fries, and biscuits. He usually skipped lunch. The asthma stopped, but the digestive problems continued.
In college we practically lived on pizza and lots of hamburgers. Food was just a necessity, not something we thought about very much or paid much attention to.
The years passed and amid the rush of jobs and careers, we began to wonder what in the world was causing his aliments? Perhaps it was caused by poor nutrition? So in our late 20s, we developed an interest in health food. We started taking supplements and juicing the vegetables that were missing from our diet. We both just held our noses and drank the disgusting stuff.
In spite of our efforts the headaches, depression, and stomach pain grew more frequent. He also began to feel extremely tired all the time, not just after a hard workout, but for no reason at all. No matter how many whole grains we ate, how much juice we drank or vitamins we took, still the pattern continued. A new problem cropped up when he began to experience acid reflux on a regular basis.
About 2 years ago the skin on the top of his feet and in the joints of his fingers erupted in an awful rash. It was an angry red, scaley, and before long cracked and bled. We remembered an old college friend of ours who had a similar rash on his arms. Our friend had told us that he was allergic to wheat, and that it was this allergy that caused his rash and discolored teeth.
Then, while visiting with his parents one day, my husband found out that his grandmother had been allergic to wheat.
This sparked an investigation into the possibility that his problems were related to an allergic reaction to wheat. We learned that it was gluten, a protein found not only in wheat, but also in barley and rye, that creates an allergic reaction. We found out all we could about celiac disease - that it ran in families and was often inherited - and so my husband stopped eating anything containing gluten.
Wonder of wonders! It appears now that we have found the answer! It has been about a year now and the constant fatigue has diminished, he rarely has stomach cramps, and the rash has disappeared! He is feeling better everyday and it has been months since he fell into a depression or had acid reflux.
We are still struggling with the elimination of gluten from our lives. But I can't tell you what a relief it is to finally know the cause after all these years of misery. And best of all, that we can do something about it and that he can heal!
I would not encourage anyone to figure it out the way we did. If you can afford it, go to a Doctor! The awareness of the prevalence of this allergy is quickly increasing among the medical profession. And if you or a loved one has any or all of the symptoms, we hope you will consider a gluten-free life.