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Question:

My daughter plays an outdoor sport and suffers from heat distress when the
temperature (and/or humidity) moves the thermometer into the 90's. Just
curious if this is a problem of other celiacs?

 

Answers:

Back in my teens, many years before I was diagnosed, I was a fainter.  It
mostly happened in church during the summer.  I've also fainted at
Disneyland (waiting in long lines in the sun).  My mother could never stay
in the sun as she is one time almost got heatstroke.  My kids and I, now all
diagnosed, are shade lovers, even here in Portland, OR.  I wouldn't be
surprised if there was a connection.

 

I am a 54-year-old celiac and have always been very sensitive to heat and
humidity -- quickly suffering from heat exhaustion. I also have very cold
feet. I have never tied it to celiac disease, however -- perhaps because
both the heat exhaustion and cold feet started in my childhood and I didn't
get celiac symptoms until my pregnancies in my early 30s. My heat exhaustion
comes on very quickly, and is often noticed by others before I notice it.  I
also have very dry skin and I am always thirsty -- especially here in the
west! I am a fair skinned Irish girl, so I have always avoided the sun
somewhat -- never a sun worshipper for sunbathing, etc. I always seek out
the shade at the pool. My oldest son also has cold feet, but he took the
olive complexion of his father. He can withstand lots of heat and has no
symptoms of celiac. I was also anemic as a child on one occasion.  Perhaps
that was due to celiac disease, if so, that was the only symptom I had as a
child.

 

I am heat and cold intolerant.

 

I have an awful problem with heat- or if a place is stuffy and there is no
air movement.  I carry fans with batteries (from Brookstone) on airplanes so
that I don't get really sick.

 

I have the same problem and it could be an adrenal problem.  I have
developed adrenal insufficiency because of CD.  I cannot keep salt in my
body.  I just had a heart attack and the doctors tried to put me on a low
salt diet.  My other doctors and cardiologist stepped in and put on my
chart, HIGH SALT DIET.  When my salt gets low, I start to get faint, shaky
and weak.  I need to drink salt water at least twice a day to keep my salt
high enough.  With the GF diet, most of the foods I eat are natural without
the high salt content that most Americans eat.  When I was a kid and it was
hot, the coaches gave the kids salt/potassium pills.  That was back when
everyone ate natural foods.  Perhaps your daughter might do better in the
heat getting more salt.

 

YES!!!! I had so much heat trouble one summer that my doctor checked me for
MS. I was still eating at PF Chang's that year, and don't know how much
gluten I was ingesting because of it, but I still have to be careful of
getting overheated. I think some of us are just like that. My daughter, 15,
also celiac, gets weak from overheating in the summer also. She's OK at the
pool, but I'm not.

 

Have her thyroid checked (x2). (Message from Mom, the email originator - I
am hypothyroid and keep thinking it is her thyroid too but she is a-ok at
every blood test.)

 

As a child, I seemed sensitive to heat and heat rash. I had symptoms of
celiac at age 3 and 4 - but it went away. Came back at age 18 for a little
while, and then subsided again. Came back in full force after the birth of
my third child at age 37. I have two celiac children and they have not
seemed particularly sensitive to heat. California has dry heat and that is a
little easier to take than humidity. I grew up in New Hampshire and the
summers are humid there.

 

I can't stand being in the heat, but I have never attributed it to the
celiac.  I get angry and tired and sweat profusely and feel like I am going
to pass out. 

 

It is a real problem with my brother-in-law who has MS---no diagnosis of
celiac.

 

I do not know if Celiac has anything to do with it or not but I hate hot
weather and hate having to exercise in hot weather. I just thought it was an
individual thing.  Luckily I live where it seldom gets up to 90.

 

I have always been very intolerant to heat and humidity.  If the heat is
dry, I can stand it up to the low eighties.  I find heat with humidity, esp
in the 90's to be unbearable.  When I played softball, I would bring a small
spray bottle with water and spritz my face and neck when I was on the bench.
When I camp and hike, I often wear a wet bandana around my neck for relief.
I wish there were a way to learn to better stand summer weather, short of
buying lakefront property.

 

I am 75 and I have had trouble with heat ever since I was 51. At that time I
had what was thought to be an exacerbation of multiple sclerosis. Much later
I was diagnosed with celiac disease, and as long as I stick to the
gluten-free diet, I don't have a whole lot of trouble with ms, but I still
have trouble with heat. I would be so weak in summer afternoons that I
didn't see how I could cook supper, but after an hour's dip in my neighbor's
swimming pool, I was good to go until bedtime. About the only advice I have
is to combat heat symptoms with something to cool off with. I don't leave
home without an ice bag, which I fill with ordinary cold water from the
faucet whenever I have hot feet during the night. It has often given me the
only relief that will allow me to get to sleep. I will use it for the rare
times when I have "belly cramps", and usually get relief. The nice thing is,
this is a therapy that will do no harm.

 

I don't know that it is heat per se, rather, that it is a stress on the body
that probably is already stressed out.  You might try to find out what her
adrenal function is.

 


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