Everyone who realizes or is told they are gluten-intolerant has their own unique story about what led to this realization. This is my story.
I came from a sedentary family. I was never physically active until my 20s. It was when I sprained my ankle in my late 30s that I first started to experience inexplicable symptoms.
During a run in the woods I experienced what felt like a collapse of my ankle. I wrapped it tightly, but it never recovered to the point where I was able to do vigorous exercise again. That winter it felt very unstable. I ended up wrapping it daily in a piece of non-stretch belting.
As years passed I regularly experienced more little spontaneous sprains. My feet would swell up so they barely fit in the widest shoes and were painful to walk on much of the time.
At one point I went to an orthopedic surgeon who told me I had bone spurs in my right foot, no doubt from a high school gymnastics injury. He said they probably wouldn't want to operate, since there was no guarantee the operation would not cause more problems than it solved. He told me to get used to increasing immobility, and gave me Celebrex, which he said should get me back to my previous activity level.
Celebrex worked for everything but the foot problems. It had no effect on the pain and inflammation. Nor did aspirin or ibuprofen, for that matter.
I worked at a job where they would give us daytime hours at times. I had to park about a mile away from the office. That was a long, painful walk for me. My feet would hurt so much I would call my boss in the next room when I needed to discuss something with her.
I loved to bake. I prepared almost everything myself, including bread and pasta. I also bought lots of artisan bread.
It was after a rather uncomfortable 3 week language immersion course in Spain, when I experienced increasing fatigue to the point where I had to bail on some activities that were in process, that things came to a head.
I had the feeling my problem was that I was eating too many carbs, and it had reached the point where I needed a break from them. So I decided to completely cut out grains for a few days.
By the end of the second day my feet were no longer swollen. I was amazed. I guessed it was wheat. I eliminated gluten from my diet and have never intentionally eaten it since.
The inflammation in my feet was what caused them to feel loose and get spontaneous sprains and bruising. That went away completely and I was able to resume normal activities with a minimum of pain. Inflammation in my gums went away as well.
Of course when I say "normal activities" I have never been able to resume any sort of exercise with any regularity.
In fact, I recently realized I no longer seem to have the insomnia I have had my entire life. Since I was a small child I remember laying awake in bed for hours waiting to sleep. It doesn't happen anymore, and it hasn't happened for years, but I don't remember exactly when it stopped. I think gluten probably played a role.
So what's your story?