After Thanksgiving (I swore I wouldn't do it, but I did have some dairy) I am now positive that I am casein intolerant and that my body confuses casein with gluten. Maybe pregnancy triggered it into full swing, but I've always gotten moody after having dairy, even goat. Now, my Dermatitis Herpetiformis (celiac disease of the skin) gets itchy and inflamed if I have dairy, and of course, I have to run to the bathroom a few times. I suspect it is dairy that started my DH and similar new celiac symptoms, although it could have also been the restaurant roulette I played for a while...what can I say, maybe I'm a compulsive gambler but no more.

Soy also does more to me digestively, so I could be soy intolerant as well. I've eaten at PF Chang's a few times, because in all the years they've never accidentally glutened me. Although I did have some items with soy and ugh!

So here we are...gluten, casein, soy and corn. Corn doesn't give me digestive upset yet, but more than makes up for it with the other add-ins.

I'm researching how food intolerances and Vitamin D deficiency may be related, and found this link: http://www.dogtorj.net/id26.html and I'm looking for more like it. His assertion is that all four foods are glue-like, and coat the intestine, and can all induce damage to the villi and malabsorption and then some! Interesting facts from a veteranarian standpoint, that some breeds of dog have had severe health problems since they started putting wheat and milk in dog foods.

If I were to look at everything from a simply celiac view, I would say it's a major bummer to not be able to eat the other three...they sure help in baking... but knowing what we know with BTD, it's no surprise. Why I use myself as a guinea pig to find out all these details, I don't know, I'd be better off if I just maintained compliance. At least I've reached a point where compliance is rather second-nature, without undue tempation and stress, so that's good. There's some sources that say once my vitamin D deficiency is cleared up I won't have so much trouble with food cravings...I look forward to finding out that there is truth in that!

Oh, and here's an informative link for info on hypocalcemia: http://www.clevelandclinicmeded.com/diseasemanagement/endocrinology/hypocal/hypocal.htm* This could explain so many things for me...I hope it's one of those health-changing answers. So far so good; I'm able to withstand stress better, numbness sensations are maybe weekly at most, rather than many times a day, and things are just looking up in general.

*Ok, that link is a little scary, in my case the cause of hypocalcemia is known, simple vitamin D deficiency (if a vitamin D deficiency can be simple! ), and the doctor did draw quite a few vials of blood to rule out other problems, which turned up no surprises. I found the description of symptoms and what can cause them to manifest to be of the most interest, since I'd been trying to figure out the cause-and-effects for a long time.

P.S. Have I mentioned that if you get your vitamin D level checked, they need to check both forms, (25 and 1,25), and preferably see an endocrinologist, especially if either of those is off. It's all a complex web, and it can take a specialist to descipher it. I had a blood test showing a slight magnesium deficience years ago, which could very well be part of the web...but the usual response I get from usual doctors is "don't worry about it, just eat a little more of this or that" I say why do they run the darn test if they aren't going to look into any anomaly it turns up? Same goes for the anti-gliadin IGG test, if doctors are going to dismiss the results, then why do they run it? If it's high, but all the IgA tests are negative, then maybe IgA deficiency is something to look into before dismissing celiac possibilities...yeah, sure is.