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Stress is mentioned as part of the cause of gluten intolerance on the
celiac web page.  Valerie Wells mentioned "adrenal fatigue" as a result of
stress, and as a cause for "hypoglycemia".  i am sure that stress has
many, many effects on the body -- are adrenal problems a main way that it
affects people?

So to what extent is there a general syndrome of immune problems and
metabolic problems that maybe has a common cause?  i have many food
intolerances including all grains, i'm gluten intolerant, i have inhalant
allergies all over the place which make me sick often, and a small hit of
glucose, like an orange, makes me feel like i've just run a car race and
narrowly escaped exploding.  How are these things connected?

i put adrenal fatigue and hypoglycemia in quotes because they aren't
mainstream medicine and maybe something else is actually going on in the
body.  Mainstream doctors don't recognize an adrenal fatigue illness
unless the adrenals totally shut down, then they call it Addison's.  And
low blood sugar is probably not why i feel that way after a piece of
sugary fruit -- from what i've heard it is more likely excess insulin.

i am wary of adrenal extract to treat "hypoglycemia", or glucose
intolerance.  Adrenal problems are just one cause of glucose intolerance.
Various causes are listed at http://www.newtreatments.org/hypo.php

But even if one has adrenal problems -- the idea of messing with one's
hormones ...  Adrenal extracts can make your adrenals shut down even more,
i've heard.  And so one is likely to become dependent on them.  Hormone
replacement therapy was found to have problems, and that is mainstream
medicine, that's better researched than alternative medicine.  Also i read
something about raising adrenal hormone levels tending to cause diabetes,
or something like that.

Licorice tea is supposed to help with adrenal problems, it causes the
hormones to be retained in the body so the levels of cortisol go up.
Maybe licorice is gentler than taking the hormones.

For me, i found an instant fix to my glucose intolerance when i was 20.  I
stopped eating regular sugar, and used fructose instead.  i wasn't glucose
intolerant when i was a child, i got that way maybe because of a binge
eating problem i had as a teenager, maybe because of stress.  But maybe
the fructose just perpetuated the problem.  I've heard fructose can cause
glucose intolerance, but how well based that is i don't know.  It
certainly has seemed like it does for me.

Now, since i found out i have all these food intolerances, and likely i
have been gluten intolerant all my life -- i am wondering, maybe i can get
over this "special need" i have for fructose?  i have been sloooooowly
tapering off the fructose, hoping my body can start reacting to sugars
more normally over a time of months.  And i am having a hard time, i feel
like eating when i'm not hungry and i've gained some weight, which is
pretty unpleasant.

i guess what i'm looking for is advice, reactions.  If anyone found that
their "hypoglycemia" went away after they stopped eating foods they were
intolerant to -- what was the time scale, how long did it take for the
"hypoglycemia" to go away?  Any scientific background on the relation of
glucose intolerance, immune problems like allergies and food intolerance,
etc. etc.?  There used to be a hypoglycemia mailing list but it seems to
have died or something.

Laura

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