TMS or gluten intolerance.

so every time i eat something i get runny nose and i also have dry hands. i wanted to try to eliminate gluten for almost two weeks and the runny nose is ALMOST gone. I however do not remember having runny nose everytime i ate bread until a few months ago. i suffer from extreme depression, ocd, stress and anxiety. i was actually planning to eat bread again because i love it but what if the runny nose comes back? could this be tms?

 

I have had all sorts of pain - back, shoulder etc (attribute to TMS) that led to an obsession with what I eat.

I grew up in a vegetarian family where I have seen 90 year olds thriving on a simple starch based diet eating copious amounts of dairy. I cut out gluten, dairy, sugar etc. I even saw an abatement of symptoms as I continued on this diet. I tried all sorts of diets feeling better on some than the others. I checked my B12, calcium, magnesium levels obsessively. I took a magnesium supplement. Then fretted that it might cause calcium deficiency. The chain continued. The breaking point came when I (the supposedly fit diet conscious individual) went on a trip with my 80 year old uncle. At the end of the long walks and bumpy car rides we reached out destination. My uncle asked me if I needed anything for my back pain. He was fine of course and would buy me the meds while I rested. My cousin (his son) was right next to me moaning about his IBS and how his shoulder pain was acting up since he had left his theraband at home (I kid you not). He declared that without his daily external rotations his life would be hell. Then we got into a rant about the spring beds in both our rooms that for sure would have shellshocked my uncle. Needless to say, he drove the entire way back. Of course, my cousin and I reclined in varying postures on the back seat complaining about bad roads and the car's suspension.

My personal theory is that this is TMS. We have too much information on all these in the media and the brain probably uses that to create the symptoms. I suspect this to be the issue (at least in my case) since I have virtually never had those symptoms growing up. I feel that the brain needs an excuse to distract. When we are obsessed with our diet we are distracted from the feelings of repressed rage. Obsession with the diet is distraction enough.

I started looking at the people I came across. I began to see those friends and family who did not care for their diet, who were not the sensitive type (for lack of a better word) tended to thrive on any diet. Across the board, fat or thin, muscular or obese they were immune to chronic pain. These were the people who did not give much thought to how the world perceived them. They were usually pain free. Irrespective of whether they were vegetarians or meat eaters. The important thing was that they were comfortable in their own skin. Again, I am not commenting on whether they had other diseases later on but just the fact that they were usually happy and pain free. The way I think now - getting sixty to seventy years of pain free living eating whatever you want to is a blessing in itself . Look around you and let me know if your observations match mine.

I don't eat junk food anymore but I am trying not to obsess over the food I eat. I have got gluten back into my diet. This might have caused some of the pain symptoms to come back but I will handle that as TMS as well. I understand these observations do not qualify as scientific evidence but so is looking at a youtube video of a few fit individuals and coming to conclusions based on that. There might be huge scientific literature backing up each diet but as we know the TMS brain is a beast capable of giving us anything as a symptom. I hope this helps you in some small way. Peace.

 

thanks!

 

I 100 percent agree with your observations. I never had any issues with food, I ate whatever I wanted and felt fit healthy and strong, but when my health and pain worry started I visited a naturopath who convinced me to cut out all of the things you mentioned.. needless to say I got much worse, the stress of not knowing what to eat aplified my hyperstimulation nervous system, and built in negative pathways towards the food. I'm struggling to try and release all of this now

 

I avoided gluten for many year because abdominal pain. It "worked." But when I had success with another type of chronic pain using the info here I started to think the gluten intolerance might be TMS. Yep! I now have a much less restricted diet and have started baking bread as a hobby!

 

This is a very astute observation. I hope too Gusto that you don't let "nerve pathways" terminology scare you. You could also call it "habits of mind." These are repetitive, conditioned patterns, which are not physical so much as they are mental.

 

Yes Andy I have been much worse since I spoke to a pain therapist and she kept using the terminology nerve pathway it was so confusing and also seemed so much more grave then oh you have the just stressed your nevrous system with a lot of worry and stress and obsession with finding cute. My neuropathic pain symptoms have amplified so much since then and now I’m stuck thinking I do have neuropathy which makes me not belive in TMS sometimes. Gusto’s answers are so spot on and such amazing tension delivers I try to read em when I’m feeling disaheartened due to a flare up always. I wish I would start having more symptoms free days so my belief in TMS would be up/ but I can’t let go of forums

 

Hi Drew,
This statement you make might be turned into a "reassuring statement" for yourself:

Say to yourself: "You have just stressed your nervous system with a lot of worry and stress and obsession. There is nothing wrong physically, and you're getting through this."