Hi Sarah,

I hope you're feeling a little better now. I have to say this reaction sounds extreme but since gluten and casein metabolites can act as opiates its certainly possible you are going through withdrawal. The symptoms certainly match.

To help you through it all I can offer is support and a few suggestions. There are a few supplements that act as natural tranquilisers and may well reduce the severity of your symptoms. Off the top of my head I would suggest niacinamide (a form of vitamin 3) at doses of 500-1000mg/day, inositol, l-theanine, l-ornithine, l-arginine, valerian, and adrenal support nutrients such as vitamin B5 and vitamin C.

Hang in there and keep us updated!

Hi Sarah, Ultratrace is a trace mineral supplement which supplies minerals the body requires in trace (very small quantities). Although these are important for good health they are not likely to help you with your current symptoms.

Some of this sounds promising Sarah. I've never heard anyone else mention this kind of thing but it fits closely some stuff I experienced. One of the things (besides chemical avoidance) that's given me the most dramatic improvements in my MCS in the short term (and is possibly at least partly responsible for my long term improvement) is 24 to 36 hour fasts which *sometimes* gave me a shakey/feverish/head ache/sweating reaction followed by wild dreams (and stuff like sleep paralysis) and not being able to or needing to sleep anywhere near as long as usual. After recovering from the fast itself I 'felt' much better in the following days/week, plus my skin was visibly way clearer/healthier so it wasn't just a psychological effect. However when I didn't get that whole reaction I didn't feel any better afterwards, and usually attributed that to not avoiding chemicals enough during the fast or exposing myself to too many the day before (having a shower the evening before helped).

I also got similar (stronger) reaction when doing Liver Flushes, the kind described in the Detoxx program. (Though I don't immediately recommend these since I got some bad effects as well that were possibly triggered by them.) And rarely I get a weaker version of the same just by having a hot shower, possibly if I've excersised a lot or not eaten certain things, I don't really know.

My guess is it's something to do with mobilising toxins and should be a good thing as long as you feel better afterwards. Sensitivity wise (referring to your next blog) I found my symptoms became different, more acute and shorter-lived, which is also what happens when I avoid a particular chemical for a long time. It can be very tricky to figure out if you're improving or not when your reactions are just 'different' but I think after a while you learn to spot certain signs that the change is a good one. Definetely don't assume that you're worse off cos you have symptom x now and you didn't before.

In addition to the mini-fasts I was also doing the Detoxx diet at the same time, which is basically near-zero carbohydrates, so maybe relevant to your gluten free diet. I should really find some time to write about the Detoxx diet here sometime since it also helped me a lot.