I am so sorry it’s taken me so long to get back to you! It is a bit hard at first to go gluten free. The good thing is that if you are diligent, you begin to eat more healthy and you feel much better. It is probably up to the individual how sensitive they are to gluten after going gluten free. Once your body is rid of the gluten (which can take from weeks to months!), you tend to be more sensitive to it…. not necessarily more of an allergy/sensitivity but rather your body now can send out the troops with more “gusto” and you will really feel the difference if you accidentally get gluten from somewhere. I am terribly sensitive – gluten you cannot even see with your eyes can really make me sick! Most of my friends who are gluten intolerant have similar stories. You tend to feel that just avoiding obvious gluten will do it when you first start out only to find out that hidden cross-contamination can be a real problem. Unfortunately, cutting back on gluten will not help. Complete and total avoidance is the only way to be on a gluten free diet. See some of my other posts for podcasts that would help you confirm this decision to go gluten free. Hope this helped. Take care, Mo

I have some symptoms that I think can be related to Hashimoto’s. Namely I feel strong brain fog after eating, I feel much better when I fast, and I get sluggish for a long time after I eat. Is it anyhow related to Hashimoto’s? how have you been diagnosed? My blood was checked for T3, T4 and TSH two years ago while my brain fog was worse than now, and results came back normal. Do you think it could be Hashimoto’s?

I can only give you symptoms of this problem. I have been exposed to low doses of gluten (unintentionally as I have had guests who have used my kitchen for gluten containing foods and I believe that I am getting it even through washing the dishes together). So, I begin the job of getting all that out of my kitchen again. I had been so much better for many months after being truly gluten free. Now I am suffering from symptoms again. Along with symptoms of stomach bloating, palpitations and dizziness, I get an unmistakable feeling of pressure in my head leading to feeling of “passing out”. I understand this could be a much more serious reaction to gluten (if not other allergic substances) and yet, just eliminating gluten almost completely eliminated these symptoms. So, I am assuming I have had low doses of gluten. I am also concerned about cross-reactive grains as I was traveling and eating much more pre-made gluten free food which is always high in grains. So, going without grains for a while is what I intend to do. The head symptoms always comes on worse while laying down and most times I need to sit up to get relief. Could it be a weak blood/brain barrier? Most likely. But I am not interested yet in getting all kinds of brain testing, etc. when I know that taking gluten out resulted in such healing. For now, I know what I need to do. I am also looking to see what other food allergies I can test for in order to see which foods are safe for me to eat. I hope that answers your question. As for the “head inflammation and Hashimotos”, I think it’s more about gluten at this point. See this link: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/undergroundwellness/2012/02/10/change-your-brain-change-your-body-with-dr-amen