Lisa’s mom recently shared a story with us about how she had some food allergy testing done and it was determined that she was allergic to wheat and/or gluten. She had some significant improvements to her skin since she’s stopped eating gluten and is happy with the lifestyle change. This lead Lisa into doing the same and I agreed to support her and do it as well.
I did this once before for about a month. After just 48 hours on the gluten free diet, I noticed immediate improvements with my heart’s ability to recover from strenuous exercise. At the time, my daily bike commute had a steep hill on it and I would always wear a heart rate monitor when riding. If my heart rate would exceed 160 BPM, it would drop below 150 BPM much quicker than when I was eating gluten regularly. Aside from weight-loss, that was the only noticeable change I experienced. Since I’m not a pro-athlete, I went back to eating gluten as part of my regular diet.
Things have been very different this time. After just 48 hours, I noticed swelling in my throat was going away. Swelling that I didn’t know I had…
A few years ago, I saw a doctor for the first time. After examining my throat, she said my airway passage was narrow and asked if I had sleep apnea. I told her I did. She then asked if I had been diagnosed with it and I said I hadn’t. She asked why I thought I had it and I told her that I had been told that I snored really bad and been told that it sometimes sounded like I was choking in my sleep. She asked if I was tired during the days and I said that I wasn’t but I could easily fall asleep anywhere at any time should I want to. She told me that’s only possible because I was tired. I conceded that I must be and she referred me to a local sleep apnea center for further testing.
The results with my sleep apnea testing were mixed. A device I wore on my head during the night concluded that I had woken up 200-some times during the night, while I thought it was about 8, but for whatever reason, my sleep apnea results fell into a medium range where studies had shown that treatment was inconclusive and therefore, optional. One of the options that was proposed to me was to undergo surgery and have a few plastic stints placed in the soft tissue toward the back of the roof of my mouth. I really did not want to do this, nor was I excited at the notion of sleeping with a CPAP machine at night. Needless to say, I passed on all of the options presented to me since no one could tell me with any confidence that any of the available solutions would resolve my issues.
Fast forward to this week and for 5 days straight, the swelling in my esophagus decreased. As I’m writing this all of the swelling has gone away and my esophagus has returned to its now new normal state. I’m sleeping so much better than I ever had before and my medically diagnosed narrow airway passage was a thing of the past. When I look down my throat in the mirror, it looks cavernous compared to what it once was.
This isn’t the only change that I’ve noticed though. I’ve also noticed significantly less mucus production than before. My nose has way fewer boogers than before and I don’t feel like I have a bunch of phlegm that I need to dispose of.
I don’t have the same bike commute that I once did so I’m not able to determine if my athletic performance has improved this time but I assume it has.
As for Lisa, she’s lost a little weight but hasn’t noticed any other changes just yet. I however, have been so impressed with these changes that I’m going to remain gluten free for the remainder of the month. In March, I’ll try eating and drinking some different things to see if I’ll need to give up all gluten products or if I can just have some here and there. If I need to give it up entirely, I’m OK with that because my quality of life has improved so much for the better.
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