A Personal Story of Allergies and Odd Coincidences: Is Keto Flu Actually Gluten Withdrawal?
To begin, I want to note that I am not a scientist or doctor; this is based on personal experience, one that I found interesting enough that I wanted to share, particularly since I haven’t seen or heard about this from anyone else and I would be keen to see if anyone else had a similar reaction.
In 2010, I was a healthy person. I lived on Guam at the time, where the tropical climate and plethora of outdoor activities – hiking, snorkeling, spelunking, you name it – encouraged a highly active, year-round healthy lifestyle. I occasionally had pain in my wrists and elbows, which was declared by a doctor to be the result of carpal tunnel in both wrists, but other than that, I felt healthy and good.
I moved back to the continental U.S. in December 2010, and in early 2011, my health dramatically changed. I came down with a severe kidney infection that went unnoticed until I began complaining to the man I was dating at the time that my bones were hurting. He immediately realized something was wrong and asked me a series of questions about how I felt and the current time period. When I didn’t know what year it was, or who the current president was, he rushed me to the E.R., where I was given a round of antibiotics.
I continued to feel oddly, even after taking antibiotics and healing from the infection; my legs and tendons ached constantly, and I could barely walk or climb staircases. I would stand up at my desk and fall to the ground because my legs wouldn’t hold me up. To go upstairs I had to crawl on all fours. Once someone who used to love running, I found I could barely walk or even stand for any length of time. Everything made me tired and sleeping became difficult.
As the years passed, I was sent to doctors, physical therapists, OMTs…nothing helped. I was given supplements and medication to no avail. My health continued to worsen. Unable to exercise, I also gained weight, which no amount of dieting kept off.
Fast forward to 2017. My overall health had continued its downward spiral. I had skin issues, migraines, digestion issues, constant fatigue no matter how much sleep I had, extreme stomach pains, almost debilitating wrist and elbow issues; my once almost-photographic memory was completely gone and I operated like I was in a fog; I was constantly getting sick and getting infections from the smallest things, even hang-nails. I was beginning to get anxiety, I was becoming allergic to what seemed like almost everything, and there were a myriad of other health problems that I won’t describe here due to their… “delicate” nature. I was constantly on various over the counter pain medications just to try to get through each day.
It was in November 2017 that I remember not even being able to stand up straight; I was stumbling out of the bedroom closet, where I had just tried to force my bent-over body into clothing, gave up, and started to cry. Every part of me hurt. I remember feeling helpless and remembering the person I used to be – the healthy, happy person who would go running every day in the sun of Guam and do yoga on the beach.
“I feel like my body hit its expiration date,” I said to my husband. “I’m so tired of always being in pain. Every part of me is always in pain.”
Two weeks later I went to the doctor for my yearly scheduled physical and, while there, I was tested and diagnosed with a gluten allergy. I felt as though I had been hit with a bolt of lightning. Prior to being diagnosed, I didn’t know what gluten was. I had been, I’m ashamed to say, one of those people that just assumed it was a dietary fad.
Being confronted with the fact that I had this allergy felt like I was suspended in time – being someone who is dedicated to Learning and Understanding Things (this means I’m full of random, largely useless factoids at any given moment), I immediately read books on the subject (two notables were, of course, Grain Brain by David Perlmutter, MD, and Wheat Belly by William Davis, MD), read articles, and watched videos.
Sometimes when you’re sick and look up an illness that you suspect you have, you might have one or two symptoms, but not every single one. I was astonished to realize that I had every single symptom of a gluten allergy, as well as one very strange, specific one (that is, quite frankly, gross, and so I will not discuss it) which is part of how my doctor was finally able to diagnose me. Every. Single. Symptom.
The allergy had never been caught before because I had lived such a transient lifestyle up until 2013 that I had never lived in one place for as long, so doctors – experiencing a brief time period of seeing me before I moved on – were never able to put two and two together.
Lo and behold – a full blown gluten allergy can be triggered by a bad infection. And when had all of this started? With a kidney infection in 2011 that was probably the root catalyst for the allergy to take hold and explode within my system. My body’s rapidly worsening health was a snowball effect as a result of my immune system being in a constant state of hyper-inflammation and sensitivity; it had been tearing itself apart for years.
Obviously, I immediately ceased all gluten intake. When I stopped consuming anything with gluten, I went through what is known as gluten withdrawal, or “gluten flu”; gluten has actually been proven to be addictive, and once a person ceases to ingest it, the body has to purge. I had every gluten flu symptom, a few of which are listed below (a full list can be found at Mental Health Daily: https://mentalhealthdaily.com/2015/03/27/gluten-withdrawal-symptoms-how-long-do-they-last/):
Irritability, bloating, brain fog, cravings, dizziness, severe fatigue, headaches, flu-like symptoms, joint pain, mood swings, lightheadedness, nausea …the list goes on.
After 2-3 days of gluten withdrawal, my health began to return. I was like a new person – or, rather, the person I had once been. Every chronic health issue I had for years simply faded away. It was unbelievable to me that it was really something so simple that had done so much damage to my health and still seems surreal, especially after recalling how broken and hopeless I felt on that day back in November as I limped bent-over across the room.
I took about two months to repair my metabolism and allow my body to calm down from its prior, constantly-inflamed state, then decided to try keto in January after thoroughly researching it and verifying the science behind it. It seemed like everywhere I had turned, keto hit me in the face, and after finally looking into it, it seemed like a good way to get rid of the accumulated subcutaneous fat I had built up over the years of poor health and sickness. Mr. Hubs decided to do it along with me after looking into the health benefits on his own, and as a way to support me.
It is important to note that I didn’t stop eating or restrict my carbohydrate intake in any way after being diagnosed with a gluten allergy. I still consumed certain grains and carbs – just not ones with gluten. So it is not like I had already begun a “low carb” journey or had adopted a low carb method of eating. This attempt at keto would be the first time I would give it a try.
I knew, based on what I learned by researching keto, that I could expect the dreaded “keto flu,” which is generalized as a carb withdrawal, and contains such symptoms as:
Irritability, bloating, brain fog, cravings, dizziness, severe fatigue, headaches, flu-like symptoms, joint pain, mood swings, lightheadedness, nausea…wait….waaaaiiiiiiit….This sounded familiar. I had just been through this a few months before when I went through gluten withdrawal.
I hypothesized: What if “keto flu” is actually gluten withdrawal?
I decided to compare experiences with Mr. Hubs, since he was also going keto. He does not have a gluten allergy and had not changed his dietary habits; he regularly consumed gluten-containing foods on the daily and only had gluten-free meals when we ate together at dinner. He had, therefore, not gone through gluten withdrawal as I had.
We both started keto, restricting our net carb intake to no more than 20 grams per day.
On Day 3, Mr. Hubs came down hard with what we both realized was keto flu. For the next three (3) days, he was so tired and plagued by headaches that he couldn’t bring himself to get out of bed. He felt sick to his stomach and craved carbs; he snapped at me constantly for such deeply irritating things like me breathing and had difficulty remembering simple things. On Day 6, his body had adapted and he was more energetic than ever before. He told me he felt fantastic.
On my Day 3, I was in ketosis. I experienced absolutely no symptoms other than a slight fatigue the second day, which might be attributed to me not going to bed on time, to be honest. (I’m terrible at going to bed on time.) By Day 3 I felt amazing, and felt better on an even higher level than I had when I had first gone gluten free; my body demonstrated all of the signs of burning ketones versus glucose for fuel. This time frame appears to completely track with the standard rule that it takes the body about two (2) days to burn through its glycogen reserves.
Not only did I not get the keto flu, but the weight I have lost has dropped directly in proportion to my body fat percentage (BFP) dropping with it. Mr. Hubs, by contrast, first lost water weight prior to his BFP dropping.
I have done a few quick searches online to see if anyone else has noticed this or experienced the same event and could not find anything, so thought I would share my experience. Based solely on my own conjecture, I would assume that it’s very possible that I didn’t experience keto flu because it is actually gluten withdrawal – which I had already gone through. It would be incredibly interesting to see if this is not just me, and if there was a correlation that others have also seen or experienced.
What do you think?
