Well, knock on wood….but I haven’t had any brain fog since I recovered from the gluten incident with the pizza at the end of our vacation in September. And that includes with my period starting again too, which I typically never make it through without brain fog!
About the same time we got home from vacation, I also ran out of my probiotic. I’d been taking it consistently since my Lyme treatment started and it’s been three months since I finished up my antibiotics for good. So I figured I was safe to stop it.
Well, my stomach has been a bit of a mess. It’s just been very uneasy and “gurgly” for lack of a better term. I’ll spare you the details. I knew I wasn’t eating any gluten since I was eating almost exclusively at home. And I wasn’t getting any of the other gluten type symptoms (brain fog, extreme fatigue, etc). So I thought it may just be that having my gallbladder out was catching up with me. It seemed to bother me the most if I ate fiber type foods (veggies or my coconut ice cream – it has 10 grams of fiber!).
So I finally broke down and went back to the vitamin shop to shell out another $60 for probiotics. I figured maybe they were helping more than I originally thought since my stomach stuff started after I quit taking them.
After standing there for a good half an hour reading every bottle in the place, I ended up getting the same one I’ve always bought because it says on the front that it’s gluten and dairy free. It’s not all that difficult to find one that’s gluten free, but finding a dairy free probiotic is dang near impossible.
When I got back to work, I pulled it out to see if it said anything about taking it with food (I always took it before I went to bed so it didn’t matter before). As I’m reading the box, I notice a statement that says it is produced in a facility that also processes wheat and if you’re sensitive to wheat, you should check with your doctor before taking it.
I WAS FURIOUS!
Why do you have a big gluten free label on your product and then have this in small print on the side? It’s not gluten free if that’s the case! UGH!
Not to mention, this is the probiotic I’ve been taking for MONTHS…..at least nine months, if not longer. So this entire time when I’ve been SO careful with my diet, I’ve been getting glutened with my probiotic!
That could also explain why I haven’t had any brain fog since I quit taking it! Needless to say, I took it back for a refund. As pissed as I was, I’m so glad I read the box before I started taking it again. This may just be the final puzzle piece in trying to go completely gluten free.
Hopefully that’s the case and the brain fog stays far, far away!