Gluten and panic

[maya]

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone else has seen a link between eating gluten and their panic attacks.

I was off it for a year and had very few attacks, then went back on it in December and now as I mentioned in my other thread - am having a lot of PA's again. Am wondering if it is a coincidence or not.

I have a lot of food intolerances and always assumed they were linked to anxiety but I recently read an article that mentioned that any derangement that stresses the GI tract has the potential to derange the parasympathetic nervous system. So in otherwords, the digestive stuff could cause anxiety.

Any thoughts?

[Meltdown]

I'm no expert, but I wouldn't have thought that gluten would have anything to do with Panic.

Don't get me wrong, I am fairly intolerant to gluten myself, and avoid it most of the time, but I don't think there is any link with my panic symptoms.

It's easy to make connections with panic, and avoid doing certain things, and eating certain foods etc. I was convinced that eating chocloate caused my panics at one point (and in a sense it did, but only because I was expecting it too!), but I 've got over that now, and can eat it with no problem.

The only things food and drink-wize which I have found to definately cause a problem, are coffee and alcohol.

[Kroko]

It's most likely not a coincidence. I'm not a doctor but personally if I were in your situation I'd stop eating gluten altogether, intolerance to gluten may very well be the cause behind all your symptoms. In 2004 I went to a doctor here in Finland who lectures to other doctors and he thought everyone with a mental disorder should be tested for celiac disease in case, and that it's much more common than people now think.