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My original question asked if any of you know of a possible connection between celiac & panic attacks. 

Sorry this is so late but have had a bunch of physical problems in the family. 

I received 31 replies, Suggestions were:
    1-folic acid deficiency
    3-Hypothyroidism (Hashimoto's) 
    1-Propannol PRN
    1-Good therapist and/or psychiatrist 
    1-Hormone deficiencies 
    1-exposure to chemicals & allergy to many foods 
    2- wanted a summary for others
    3-didn't think there is a connection

From Chris:
Panic attacks were my number one symptom before i was diagnosed.  I 
would wake up in the middle of the night, just gripped with anxiety, and 
fearful that I would die--palpitations, the whole bit.

My doc gave me a prescription for Paxil, and send me to a shrink.  In my 
heart of hearts, I felt this was the wrong approach, and sought 
alternative thereapies, such as acupuncture, and nutritional therapy.

My acupuncturist suggested to me that celiac disease might be something 
to consider.  I went back to my original doc, demanded tests for celiac 
disease, and sure enough, I came back positive!  I stopped eating 
gluten, and the panic stopped, just like that!  What a welcome miracle.
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Absolutely.

When my then 4 year old daughter was biopsy-diagnosed with CD, we went 
ahead and tested the whole family for CD.  Although I have no GI 
symptoms and would never had thought I had CD, I came up positive in 
the blood test.

I then was referred to a GI who, at our initial visit, asked if I had 
any symptoms - to which I replied "none".

He then reviewed my chart and asked why I took Paxil.  I told him I had 
suffered for almost 18 years with panic attacks and the Paxil cut the 
severity of the attacks.

He told me that panic attacks were absolutely a symptom of celiac 
disease.  He said that the gut and the brain were the two most related 
organs in the body and that scientists and medical professionals are 
only just beginning to understand how connected they are.

After confirming my CD diagnosis with a biopsy, he told me to go GF for 
one year (to give my body time to heal from the CD).  After such time, 
he wanted me to of course stay GF but to also wean off the Paxil and 
see what happens.

He was confident that my attacks would vanish with the GF diet.  I was 
skeptical - I had lived with them too long to believe something as 
simple as gluten could make them go away.

He was exactly right.

I am delighted to say that one year after going GF, I weaned myself off 
Paxil and have had zero re-occurrences of panic attacks since (and it 
has been 4 years now.)

I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to be rid of that burden forever. 
  I would strongly encourage your cousin to get tested for CD and even 
if the results came back negative, I would at least TRY a GF diet for 
awhile to see if it helps at all.  I hope it does.

Jessica
____________________________________________________________

when I was in the throws of undiagnosed celiac disease I started to get horrible panic attacks - to the point of not wanting to go out of the house.  Department stores were the worst.  I couldn't fly or take the metro and basically had a hard time functioning.  At the time I also was iron and B-12 deficient and very sick from the undiagnosed celiac disease.

The panic attacks and anxiety were pretty much gone a year after going on the gluten free diet.  I definitely think that there is a correlation between anxiety and panic attacks with undiagnosed celiac disease which I think stems from the metabolic imbalance that the undiagnosed form of the disease can cause - in my case it was the deficiency of B-12 and iron that caused the neurological issues.  

Hope this helps,
Joany in Maryland
_________________________________________________________________
 YES!!  Anxiety/panic attacks is just one of the many non-digestive symptoms 
that show up in our family----much more pronounced and noticeable now when 
we get contaminated because the anxiety/heart palpitations and panic attacks 
are non-existant without gluten.  My father, brother and I did not start 
having the panic/anxiety/heart palpitations until our late teens/early 
20's----but my daughter started having problems at age 5.

Can't wait to see your summary.katie
    
Best Regards,Gladys Ward

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