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Dear friends,
This is my first posting.  I am an American living in Warsaw, Poland so
feel a bit isolated and cut off from information, but by doing a search of
the list's files was able to locate another member in Poland who helped me
out with some good information.

I have been on a GF diet for about 2 1/2 months.  My Polish doctor thought
that I had an ulcer because an endoscopy (this may not be the right word.
They put a tube down my throat) showed some damage to the duodenum.  When I
was in the US in April an American gastroenterogolist  decided that it was
gluten intolerance.  I went on a GF diet and felt much better for a few
months, as long as I stuck to the diet.  I have never had any tests run,
but I'm seeing a doctor this week as I haven't been feeling too well
lately.

What scares me is that I've been having bad reactions to food which is GF,
like gluten-free bread and corn pasta.  Symptons re the GF corn pasta,
which was mixed with GF rice pasta, oregano and olive oil.  This happened 3
days ago:  extreme pain in stomach area, the worst that's ever happened to
me since problems started about half a year ago, headache, swelling in face
and head, itching/burning sensation on skin on head and neck,
dizziness/lightheadedness, severe gas, swollen hands and fingers,
especially the finger joints.  This pain/itching/tingling starts from about
the forearms on down.  It also can happen to a lesser degree in my feet.

The above are basically the worst examples of what seems to happen when I
accidentally or otherwise have some gluten, but why would this happen with
GF corn pasta?  I had some corn pancakes a couple days before, which didn't
seem to cause any problem.  I want to add that my diet had gotten lousy
shortly before this.  Too much corn chips and ice cream that might not be
GF and probably weren't and eating out with possibly questionable food.
Also, according to Gary Null eating any food too often can cause an
allergic reaction and I had been eating corn flakes with soy milk for
breakfast pretty regularly.  Maybe that's part of it.  Of course I have
lactose intolerance as well.

Last night I had GF rice spaghetti and a very mild version of the above
symptoms.    As a result of all this about all I've been eating for the
last few days has been boiled rice, rice cakes and some vegetables and
hoping my stomach and associated stuff will calm down.  The swelled hands
and painful finger joints persists for several days before it goes away.

Also, my girlfriend and I just realized yesterday that we're both getting a
reaction of itching/burning from our dishwashing liquid, which may have
something to do with my hands, but I don't see how that could make my
joints swell.

Can gluten intolerance/sprue/celiac condition be made worse by stress?
I've been really busting my butt for the last few weeks working full-time
and trying to finish a full-time master's degree as well and my health took
a turn for the worse.

Of course since I've never had any tests confirming gluten intolerance,
maybe the entire set of problems is caused by something else.  Being GF in
Poland is tough since the amount of products available is small and there
are other problems.  For example, some imported food products have the
ingredients list in half a dozen languages and I've noticed discrepancies
between the Polish and English versions.  Once I get a proper diagnosis I
expect to be mail-ordering a lot of stuff.

In any case, at least I've found the right specialist and have an
appointment on Wednesday.  Sorry if I rambled on a bit.  If anyone has any
feedback about getting gluten-type symptoms from GF food or the effects of
stress re gluten problems please let me know.

Thanks,

Daniel Winters