Opiate withdrawal from discontinuing gluten and casein? Cautionary note: sounds absurd until you see it.
You might want to warn gluten sensitive, celiac and casein sensitive patients about this odd and painful clinical phenomenon: Withdrawal after stopping wheat or milk products can be painful, exhausting, and depressing, with weakness, anger, and brain fog.
I have a very interesting and refractory client in Ohio who has struggled for years with a variety of severe reactions to psych meds, suicidal depression, mercury toxicity, and became completely regressed on previous withdrawal of Prozac before I saw him in DC. With autoimmune issues in abundance and at times psychotic like feelings of loosing control we tested him for gluten/casein sensitivity, hit pay dirt with positive findings, and asked him to go on a gluten free/casein free diet [GFCF is the acronym].
He felt remarkably better at first, better than he had in years, then the withdrawal set in. Having had previous experience with addictive opiates prescribed for pain, he recognized signs of withdrawal immediately. First a note on the opiate receptors from Great Plains Laboratory:
The peptides from gluten [gliadorphin] and casein [casomorphin] are important because the react with opiate receptors in the brain, thus mimicking the effects of opiate drugs like heroin and morphine. These compounds have been shown to react with areas of the brain such as the temporal lobes, which are involved in speech and auditory integration.
Children with autism frequently seem addicted to wheat and dairy products. Presumably, people with Autism and schizophrenia incompletely digest wheat and dairy products. These incompletely digested peptides are then absorbed into the body and bind to opiate receptors, altering behavior and other physiological reactions.
And one more reference here:
Below is from the book "Dangerous Grains" by Ron Hoggan
The addictive nature of gluten is often overlooked. For some, the first
days and weeks of following a gluten-free diet are characterized by
food cravings, disorientation, irritability, sleepiness, depression,
mental fogginess, fatigue, and/or shortness of breath.If you are a
member of this group, the very fact that you are experiencing many of
these symptoms should reinforce the need to exclude gluten from your
diet. These are common symptoms of withdrawal of detoxification from
gluten-derived opioid and brain neurochemical imbalances. The evidence
suggests that about 70 percent of celiac patients will experience these
symptoms when beginning a strict gluten-free diet.
See other withdrawal comments at Celiac Forums and the Gluten Free Forum.
The take-home appears simple: if these symptoms occur, do go more slowly on the GFCF diet, respect the withdrawal process and support other nutritional and physiologic activities.
-Would welcome your experience out there with these matters so please do comment.
Thanks to my anonymous contributor from Ohio.
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Dear Dr Parker, reading all your replies to other people has given me enormous strength and encouragement to keep going and have faith in myself. I have struggled with ill health for years, I have despaired at times of ever finding recovery and finally after xmas decided to go gluten free. It has been almost a week now and I know it is the best decision I have ever made, despite of the withdrawal symptoms (as described by others on your site) even down to the tingling in hands and feet. My ear also seems to be sort of unblocking or opening, and i think i’m in severe toxic city in relation to foggy head etc. anyway just want to thank you for the work you are doing. it is very significant to a lot of people. regards marie king
Marie,
Thanks back at you… do stay tuned here as I am currently researching more info on the gluten casein withdrawal, and may have yet another level of fix for it.
Best in your recovery!
cp
Dear Dr Charles, I am having a case of insomnia. After feeling much more relaxed than usual since being on gluten. I am shocked! The only three possibilities are: a) I have eaten gluten (but i don’t think so) b) I am having some weird withdrawal side effect or c) I have a sensitivity to mushrooms . . . any ideas? Burning in stomach, indigestion, feel totally wired and very thirsty (as though I’ve been major glutened but I don’t think so . . .
Confused. Can you help? Marie
Marie,
Sorry just too little info to speculate – remember this point: Gluten is quite often associated with other antigenic responses, and most frequently does not live on it’s own. All three are possibilities, only time will tell, and don’t become disheartened if your care with gluten is disappointed by a different intruder!
cp
Dear Dr Charles, thank you for your reply. It makes sense– I realized I had a yakult and have through elimination discovered a dairy intolerance -which explains a lot. Have been dairy free for about three days. I had glandular fever (some time in the past) and I’m wondering if there is any connection. I noticed after I first gave up gluten that something happened with my ear (I often have infections in the right one) and when I later stopped the dairy it has started to dramatically open/ dry up? become infected? even more- it seems a positive thing. I keep having the kind of feeling you get when someone hits you with a hammer on your knee to test reflexes-that sort of ‘tingling’ in all of my joints knees, elbows ankles hip and base of spine. Again it feels positive- well at least its not the usual pain. My glands are up and lumpy especially under right arm. All last night had hot prickles like I have the flu? Do you think there could be some connection to glandular fever. Some people on the internet have written that they cured glandular fever by going dairy free. What do you think?
Regards Marie
Marie-
For readers the term ‘glandular fever’ refers to mono. My take on any auto immune: Immune dysregulation will make the body vulnerable to a variety of new additional intruders, e.g. infectious, viral, or systemic, – as the repair that should be taking place daily in the body, is markedly deteriorated with the challenge of warding off the initial intruders e.g. gluten or casein. Yes, immune dysregulation often makes individuals prone to infections of many kinds.
Readers: A yakult is a Japanese probiotic milk-like product.
cp
Hallo Dr Parker,
I came across this website by accident – I keep on searching for as much information as possible about Coeliac disease. I can relate to some of the things that people have been saying. I am 61 years old and was diagnosed as coeliac in October 2006. Like others I felt quite good for a couple of weeks when excluding gluten from my diet but then came all sorts of weird feelings.
I have been VERY careful about what I eat and have only been ‘glutened’ a few times since going gluten free. However, even though it is a 3 years since the diagnosis I still have many problems.
Prior to the coeliac diagnosis, a diagnosis of Lupus (SLE), Sjogrens Disease, B12 deficiency, severe anaemia, panniculitis, mild pulmonary hypertension and then in May 2008, diabetes Type II (controlled with diet and exercise).
I have B12 injections every 3 or 4 weeks and if by chance I go a week or two over that time, things really go wrong – tingling in hands and feet, numbness in my thighs, brain fog, shocking anxiety and irritability.
I am starting to believe that some coeliacs never get better – could it be because a diagnosis has been made too late in life and too much damage has already been done. When we look at my family history, my maternal grandmother died from pernicious anaemia in 1941, my mother had similar problems to me but there was never any formal diagnosis for her.
Even after 3 years of been ‘gluten free’ I still have huge cravings for ‘proper’ bread. I had always eaten large amounts of bread and have said for years that I was ‘addicted’ to it.
Thank you
Dorne-
Two big problems apply to this conundrum:
1. Coeliac is easy, and apparently successful from your report, as you apparently had some withdrawal coming off = the ‘weird feelings?’ The problem: so many have more than one allergy, as the leaky gut symptoms frequently tune up the immune system to overreact to other substances. E.g. you may have beat gluten, but could very well still have a problem with brewer’s yeast, or milk/casein, or, as I found in one interesting presentation, garlic!
2. Even if gluten was the only problem many continue problems because they have not sufficiently healed the gut. This one, from your comments, is much more speculative as you appear to have progressed with nutritional support.
Never give up! Many more very excellent tests are available. I do think you are working with a #1 problem – and don’t forget the problem that can occur with baker’s yeast found in the ‘correct’ bread. All of these issues can be specifically measured by evolved testing, and we have this available in the office using Metametrix.
Also if interested in more learning about these issues I will be contributing to a Virtual Holistic Health teleconference coming in January, with many nationally known luminaries – you may want to check that out as well.
Do ask your doc to chase those answers down, you simply aren’t finished yet!
cp
Hi,
I have been Gluten free for a 1 and a half weeks now and think I’m having withdrawal symptoms. A year and a half ago I had glandular fever, since when I haven’t fully recovered, suffering from, insomnia, anxiety, extreme fatigue after lunch (normally bread based) and digestive disturbances (bloating, flatulence, loose stools, etc…). So last week I started taking a Betaine HCL supplement and went gluten free. Initially I felt much better but after a couple of days I started to get really tired and depressed and anxious! I then had a better day then a worse one and then a better one again. Today I’ve got really tired and was a bit anxious but generally better than yesterday. My flatulence and loose stools have completely gone since going gluten free though I still see a large amount of undigested bits in the stools. What I would like to know is your thoughts on my self diagnosis and whether these symptoms sound ‘normal’. I’m hopeful that they will continue to clear up in the week to come. I’ve been taking many vitamins too and also am eating in excess of 8 fruit/veggies per day to speed it up.
Many Thanks,
Peter
Peter,
Sounds like you are doing well all around, and does sound like you might be experiencing gluten/opiate withdrawal. Also, well done on recognizing that you must ‘replace’ as much as ‘remove.’ Healing is a two step process with immune challenges.
The opiate sites will set the neurotransmitters off, as the immune system dysregulates a number of the neurotransmitters, both acutely with the discontinuation and over time with the overt depletion of amino acid precursors. If you don’t have neurotransmitters you will feel the pain.
Your recovery journey would be significantly supported and accelerated by precise measurement of exactly what you have on board, both excess and deficiency are possible – as stress over the years could have pushed up norepinephrine or epinephrine or your cortisol, DHEA levels. On the other hand you may have simply bottomed out on serotonin and the opiates would have kept you blissful, and somewhat up. Over time with adrenal fatigue the neurotransmitters uniformly bottom out as does the cortisol. Listen to this Adrenal Fatigue podcast over at CorePsych Podcast for any easy review. We have many in-the-dirt, refractory folks who come in, almost in wheelchairs, with cortisol levels thru the day completely flat across all levels. They simply can’t get out of bed and everyone is mad at them for being lazy.
And guess what, many suffer from gluten sensitivity.
Taking out the offending antigen has neurotransmitter, hormonal and direct cytokine consequences. The removal will help with the healing but very well may reveal the covered underlying imbalances.
I am including all the links in this note for you to see the multiple possible consequences, not forming a conclusion. A simple interview would direct the informed practitioner to the correct testing and then would guide your team to the easiest intervention strategy with the fastest turn around.
Easy supplements for the inflammation would be to add Omega 3 Fatty acids, and Probiotics may be helpful in restoring bowel integrity – they are available as a Missouri Turkey Shoot – scattershot intervention without precise parameters.
This note will give you some good reading – If I can help further just let me know.
cp
PS just turned this into a posting this AM as I thought it would be useful for our entire readership:
http://www.corepsychblog.com/2009/11/neurotransmitters-psychiatric-medications-the-turkey-shoot-revisited/
Hi
I am a 28 year old female who suffered from a serious dairy allergy as a baby. On intake, I would go into shock and my heart would stop. My parents, however, weened me back onto milk a few years later when they realised it (seemingly) didn’t affect me any more. My problem is as follows;
For most of my life I suffered from frequent colds and flu which would always affect me worse than anyone else. Last year I became increasingly frustrated as they were interfering more and more with my work and personal life. Not only would they affect me for longer, but I would also have a very embarrassing, dry hacking cough for weeks afterwards which would stop me from leaving the house. I also suffered from dark circles under my eyes which would always be there, but some days would look better than others. At my wits end, and after recovering from a flu like illness only to get a cold straight afterwards, I decided to eliminate dairy from my diet. Two days later friends of mine were remarking on how much better my eyes looked- I also felt much better. Something told me to go a step further and try eliminating wheat which was extremely difficult as i have always been totally dependant (and addicted) on foods such as bread etc. By day three I was having horrible symptoms such as shakes, lack of concentration, feelings of dread, fatigue and so on. I was pretty sure they were withdrawal symptoms as I had been researching gluten intolerance on the net. About a week into the diet, I started to feel amazing. My eyes looked completely normal, and all of a sudden I felt like, what I perceived to be, a normal person feels; I could think straight, felt confident, could speak clearly and articulately etc etc. I was ecstatic- I realised that all my life I had felt like something wasn’t right but had found the answer. Then I was angry that for 28 years I hadn’t been able to function at full capacity. Anyway, my joy was short lived as a couple of weeks later my feeling of wellbeing ceased only to be replaced with brain fog, fatigue, mood swings, food cravings, ibs, heart palpitations, insomnia and mostly a horrible feeling of depression and anxiety. That was around three months ago, and I am still feeling pretty bad, although I must admit some days are better than others. Another strange thing is that my periods seem to have stopped without explanations (I have visited the doctor and everything pretty much is ruled out including my thyroid, and I must add – pregnancy). The GP’s I have spoken to have completely dismissed my change of diet as a potential cause of this, but I do know that they are often reluctant to consider what they deem as wack medicine. The question I must ask is, is it possible that I am still withdrawing from the wheat and would this explain my lack of periods? Also, is there any light at the end of the tunnel? I am so dissapointed that the feeling of good health I had was so short lived. Can I expect to feel like that again? JJH
Julie-
Interesting how the unexplainable seems so whacky, and then when the explanation becomes apparent the quick response: “I knew that.”
It does sound to me very much like you are having a rebound of immune dysfunction, and sounds like you may have some contribution on the estrogenic side of matters as well. Higher estrogen actually increases stickiness of immune receptors – many believe this is a reason why women have so many more autoimmune issues. If you have a doc there in the UK that can look at your hormone levels, someone familiar with bioidentical hormones, I would encourage you to look for correctable evidence there as part of your next inquiries.
Regarding your brain function: I have seen what you are reporting in one other person who had a similar reaction. They too had difficulties from childhood, and took months to completely recover. Please see the other comments on this post regarding additional easy intervention strategies that might prove supportive physiologically.
Remember: If you are healing from an immune dysfunction there are two steps:
1. Remove the antigen or antigens
2. Healing of the reactive tissues involved.
At our office on complex cases such as yours we suggest ELISA testing as found on the Useful References page – under Immune Testing there. The reason for going for that big one: multiple other antigenic reactions can coexist behind the obvious ones, and removing those antigens can prove effective. Search ELISA here at CorePsych Blog for other posts on some interesting outcomes.
Finally, as mentioned in comments on this post, is the ‘detox’ situation. Some of the issues appear to include detox as well as withdrawal, and anything you can do to support gut health will help the toxins on their way out down south. When bad bugs die [because they no longer get fed the high carbs] they create downstream toxic loads. Bad bugs like Candida often live in the swill of bad carbs and unhealthy gut flora.
Bottom line: Yes, you could still be withdrawing, but you might also suffer from some other complicating downstream effects of the initial/primary immune dysfunction.
Hope this helps,
cp
Hi there. I need some advice.
For years and years I’ve suffered from anxiety and depression, and it has gotten quite severe over the past few years. In addition, I started having other severe problems like rashes, was diagnosed with IBS (constipation), and have had other aches/pains that, at times, were pretty bad. I’ve seen a number of doctors, and it seems they all just either slapped the diagnosis of IBS on me, and chalked everything else up to my anxiety issues — oh, it’s all in her head. (On a side note, I had experienced something similar to this for years as I complained of major pain in my abdomen….again, the docs would run a few blood tests and tell me it was in my head. I finally went to a doc that was doubtful of me, thinking it PROBABLY was just in my head, but thought to put my mind at rest, he’d order a CT scan and MRI. Thank God for this man. Lo and behold, I had a ten pound mass the size of a football in me. Talk about being angry! Yep, that was just all in my head.)
Somewhat recently my aunt contacted me and told me that my cousins on my dad’s side were tested positive for celiacs. Finding out it was 95% genetic and with all my food sensitivities and allergies, I thought this could be a very viable answer to SO many of my problems. After losing so much patience and distrust in doctors, I decided to just start on a gluten-free diet on my own. I know many will scold me saying that you shouldn’t do this without the advisement of a doctor, but, like I said, I feel really stuck. The doctors I have seen, have blown me off, and also, because of my anxiety getting so severe, in many ways I’m housebound. Travelling farther to see a doctor or specialist who may actually listen to me is not much of an option for me, at least not right now.
Okay, so now that I’ve told you my background…..I’ve been gluten free now for just over a week, and I think I’m having some withdrawal symptoms. At first I just thought it could be my natural anxiety, but after about five good days in a row (really good!), I have had two HORRIFIC panic attacks, and today I woke up aching from head to toe, with occasional shooting pains in my joints and muscles. I feel so tired and have been sleeping a lot. Prior to this, I could barely sleep at all! Insomnia was an issue, and if I got maybe 2-3 hours of sleep a night, that was about it. So all this sleep is atypical of what I had been experiencing. I now realize that eliminating the gluten is part of the issue, and the other part is getting your vitamins (iron, etc.), and correcting/healing after the malabsorption. My question is, if I were to make an appointment with my doctor (I do think I could get my regular doctor to listen to me about this), for blood tests, would he be able to tell exactly what my body is lacking in the way of nutrients, etc? Can he tell from urine and stool samples? Should I just assume I need to add certain vitamins to my diet? Right now I take a one-a-day supplement, and I know that is NOT enough. It just can’t be. I guess after reading that those who are just eliminating gluten, but not doing enough to correct their deficiencies have prolonged “withdrawal,” and I want to do whatever I can to get on the right track.
Any advice you can give me would be much appreciated.
P.S. Even through the aches, fatigue, and panic attacks, I feel better and overall healthier since going gluten free, as cmpared to how I consistently felt for years. I just feel it, and even thru the withdrawals, have spurts of times when I feel more normal than I have in years and years. Whether I would be officially diagnosed as a celiac or having a severe gluten intolerance, I want to keep this up. I am determined.
Scout77 -
Sounds like you are right on track with your insights, as one often does begin to feel better in spite of the detox problem. Sounds like you are having a relative Herxheimer Reaction which could be associated with the death of bacteria, or as some have observed simply the passing of toxins from their storage in fat with the shift in metabolism.
I regret that I don’t have a specific recipe for you, but have worked with others based upon the specific symptoms and situation. Several companies including Perque.com have excellent bowel rehab supplements, probiotics can be helpful, B Vitamins and Omega 3 supplements can all be helpful, as can simple magnesium [chelated]. Perque also has a very comprehensive multivitamin which, if taken two per day, can rebuild and restore.
I do strongly advocate correcting the neurotransmitter issues that will be present, and using the biomarkers for neurotransmitter testing will be helpful, and can be reviewed at Useful References – Neurotransmitter Testing here.
Hope these are helpful-
cp
Jen I really do feel we have so much in common. I struggled with laxative abuse and anorexia for years… and I find it very diffucult to relate to people. I wonder if maybe the gluten and other food intolerances could be why I have struggled with food or “eating disorder” Wouldn’t it make sense? I mean, if you have problems with a bunch of foods and they cause you bad symptoms, wouldn’t that make you want to avoid them? Or purge them? I don’t know. Anyway, I would like to hear from you more, but I really don’t like talking in a forum. Would you email me? Maybemec@yahoo.com.
MaybeC and Jen
Thanks for weighing in on this tough subject with Jen in so much pain. Laxative abuse, anorexia, IBS often associated food intolerances always carry a significant associated ‘Mind Problem’ [from depression and ADHD symptoms to paranoia, -to staring, epileptiform spells, and delusional thinking] with relative malnutrition and deficiency of Neurotransmitter precursors. Specific, targeted amino acid measurements from urine can significantly demarcate the exact deficiency, and will likely improve the psychotic feelings if the urine shows positive findings. Check out these references under Neurotransmitter Testing [Especially: 1. Is an excellent slide show with audio, and 4. On the biomarker concept and measurement of neurotransmitters.]
cp
I have no attention span right now. i can’t watch TV or read; strangely my attention span is better on coke. Maybe not so strange it is a painkiller. I think I learned to imitate human behaviour; I mean I really had problems interacting with people I guess I still do but the thing was I started watching TV and imitating what they wore and their expressions but that makes sense as to why my human relationships felt a little fake like I cared about people but I didn’t love them until I tried thinking about them in terms of being animals because I was very very obsessed with animals as a child; I essentially wanted to be an animal actually I did think I was an animal. Uh but having to think in metaphors all the time is tiring sometimes I have no idea what people are trying to say they seem to put a lot of words together to convey a very basic concept or sometimes nothing at all. I never understood humour. We do a lot of pointless things that don’t seem to result in a quality of life and I guess if you take everything literally it gets confusing especially if you think in terms of good and evil and black and white good and the devil; umm I guess the lack of love I felt for humans resulted in me thinking it was a moral flaw rather than an odd quirk. I read a lot of fiction as a child, also took acting classes which made me so confused I started to think I was other people I could get lost in someone else so easily because I never felt quite entirelt human. So I decided to think of myself as an animal so I could love myself to outthink an eating disorder that I didn’t think I had because dogs eat grass to make themselves sick to feel better and if i was eating foods that made me feel sick then vomiting is not a moral flaw.
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