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Hi,

its been awhile since I posted to this list but this is the first time in
ages that I've seen someone asking about "Brian Fog", although I could
have missed a few. I can attempt to answer your question through personal
experience, please forgive me if I ramble a little...

On Wed, 26 Feb 1997, Darla E Straka  wrote:

...

> Brain fog questions???  I had a follow-up appt. with my GI Dr. yesterday.
> I asked him if the mental confusion/short-term memory loss would improve
> once the regeneration of the damaged villi is improved.  He wanted to
> know where I had heard about mental symptoms being related to celiac
> sprue.  He denied any kind of relationship between the two.  I told
> him I had sought help from my Dr. because I thought I had Adult Attention
> Deficit Disorder or Alzheimers long before the severe physical symptoms
> of CD manifested themselves.  He refused to acknowledge that there was
> any connection.  I told him I had read a lot of information about the
> connection between the two.  Does anyone out there know if the brain
> fog will improve once you are GF or is this a permanent state?

First of all, I find it quite common for most doctors to be ignorant of
the possible repercussions of CD, in fact most of them are totally unaware
of the incredible variety or symptoms and secondary effects of CD. What
further exacerbates the problem is that they are totally unwilling to
accept that a patient can know more about a disease then they. This is a
very large generalisation I know but, like I said, this is based on
personal experience.

I have probably had CD since I was a baby. I say probably because I had
all the symptoms of a mild CD case for as long as I and my mother can
remember. The doctors "treatment"? Yet another dose of iron supplements...
After a rather unsettled childhood where my condition apparently
deteriorated over the years, I left school (this was high school to
you yanks ;)) without a qualification to my name. To be honest, by this
time I wasn't capable of getting any  qualifications even if I'd wanted
to. I was pretty dense to say the least. I was also a bit of a wild one.
I wont go into the details  but lets say I wasn't the sort of guy you'd want
your daughter to bring home :).

By the time I was 18 things were extreme. I suffered from intense
depression for about a year and almost went as far as kicking the big one.
I almost sorted myself out after this and got myself a menial job in a
supermarket which was relatively physically demanding but required little
brain strain :). How I survived this I don't know. I was so tired after
work all I could do was eat then sleep. I spent all my free time sleeping as
well and I had absolutely no social life. Gawd, I was tired! I also
suffered from a permanent "cold". I call it a cold but I've no idea if it
really was a cold but it had exactly the same symptoms.

To paint a more explicit picture on my mental health at this point I was
continuously tired, my memory was appallingly bad, I had very bad spells
of depression, I couldn't think clearly (I look back to that time and
just say I was stupid!), and I continually drifted off into day dreams.

At the age of 20 I developed strange swellings around my ankles. I went
to the doctor and he said it was caused by standing all day and it was
similar to the problems pregnant women have :). After a few months of
this the swollen ankles turned into lumps all over my lower legs which
gradually became larger and more painful.

I went back to the doctor. He prodded me a little and called in 3 other
colleagues to have a look. They all looked a little confused and admitted
they had no idea what it was. They then told me to go immediately to a
skin specialist at a local hospital. He immediately booked me into
hospital.

It turned out I had a fairly rare condition called Errethema Nodosa
(sorry but I've no idea how to spell it!) which as far as I know is a
virus which you only get when the bodies immune system is very low.
It continued to get worse until my legs were so bloated I could hardly
stand and shoes or socks wouldn't fit any more.

By this time I was sleeping about 20 hours a day. I was tested in hospital
continuously and I heard whispers that sounded remarkably like
"Lukemia" which I must admit worried me a little. I was there for 6 weeks
and the E.N. virus cleared up but I still was no better and I could get no
answer as to what was really wrong with me.

As luck would have it the original specialist had some contact with CD and
ordered a biopsy. And what do you know...

3 months later I was enrolled in college on a computing course. 2 years
later I got the highest marks ever for the course I followed and was
awarded the Student of the year Award. 2 years after I went on a GF diet
I was in university studying computing and I was getting grades high
enough to put me in the top 1% or so of the class. It looked as if I was
on for a 1st class honors degree but I had an "incident" with 2 burgers
in my final year which ruined that hope :(. I now have to live with a
2.1 honors but I still think this is pretty good especially when you
consider that I left high school without any hope of qualifications...

I now work at CERN in Switzerland as a Unix systems administrator,
something I couldn't have even dreamed of 10 years ago. Unfortunately,
after all the years of neglect my coeliac condition is hyper sensitive
and even a small breadcrumb can have severe effects that last a few
months. The effects of a biscuit last about a year. I know - British Airways
provided a nice GF meal with an added extra a wholemeal biscuit :(. 18Kg
(40 lbs) later I'm a little wiser.

Anyway, sorry about the waffling but once I start its a little difficult
to stop (and a little difficult not to be bitter - imagine what would my
life would have been like if I were diagnosed as a baby...). To answer
your original question, no as far as I know and in my experience "brain
fog" is a temporary condition :)

Have fun.

Adrian

         \\ //
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 Adrian Mills         | [log in to unmask]     |
 Sys Admin,           |                         |
 AS/SU CERN,          | "If only..."            |
 Geneva, Switzerland  |                         |
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