Nausea

[SallyB60]

I've been feeling very nauseous for about a week; was sick once and have had excessive bloating and stomach pain. In the past couple of days it has improved slightly and the nausea seems to ease after eating. I have been eating a gluten free diet for about 3 days and the bloating has improved somewhat but still getting bouts of queasiness. Is this likely to be connected to hypothyroidism / Hashimoto's?

[Hennerton]

My daughter had all those symptoms and has just been diagnosed with a cyst on her ovaries. Maybe get it checked out?

[SallyB60 in reply to Hennerton]

Thank you - I will. I hope your daughter is ok.

[Hennerton in reply to SallyB60]

Not yet, I am afraid, so do have it checked if you are still having symptoms, especially if you are in pain.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Some people do get reactions when first going gluten free. It could be that. If so it should settle in few days.

[HLAB35]

See your doctor if symptoms persist. Bear in mind though that low stomach acid (common in hypos) makes us more susceptible to pathogens that can make us ill. Strong stomach acid kills bugs.

Dietary changes can cause fluctuations in acid levels, so I advise taking digestive enzymes to include Betaine HCl with protein / fatty meals while you adjust to your new diet. If it turns out to be something unrelated (gynae issues) taking digestive enzymes isn't going to cause any worrying side effects.

When I went gluten free I took enzymes and gave up lactose for a bit; butter was fine, but straight milk continued to aggravate my stomach. This seemed to help. I also supplemented with a teaspoon of glutamine powder (in the morning, as it keeps you awake) in some water to ease my raw oesophagus - very soothing.

After a fortnight I started weaning myself back onto cheese, then yoghurt and eventually milk. Probiotics are also worth considering.. I tried kefir and that was quite a fun project.*

*Edit April 2020: Since this time I have removed dairy (apart from butter) as genetic test showed dairy allergy and I was still getting inflammation issues, heavy colds and fatigue. The kefir did quite a bit to help, but it stopped working during the winter months and I had a few infections that suggested to me that my stomach (asymptomatic) was not killing bugs that well.

[SallyB60 in reply to HLAB35]

Thanks for the advice. Do you know if there is an easy way to determine low or high stomach acid? Most treatments seem to be for reducing acid. I want to be sure I'm treating the right condition but I guess digestive enzymes are ok in either case.

[HLAB35 in reply to SallyB60]

healthesolutions.com/health...

From my experience definitely more likely to be low acid. Here's a list of symptoms from Dr Myhill's website - a really good place to look for information. N.B. Many sufferers of M.E /CFS/Fibromyalgia have low thyroid and low stomach acid too.

drmyhill.co.uk/wiki/Hypochl...

[SallyB60 in reply to HLAB35]

This is a really interesting article and has convinced me that I have low stomach acid - in particular the fact that it can exacerbate allergies because my asthma and eczema have also flared up recently and are not responding to usual treatments. I will investigate further. Thank you 😊

[HLAB35 in reply to SallyB60]

When the problem's been at its worse I've had IBS, lactose intolerance, GRD, candida, eczema and chronic sinusitis.

I can also recommend Mastic Gum as it kills helicobactor without having the side effects of strong antibiotics. (Very expensive though, but good for a bit of relief from the worst symptoms which I put down to an overgrowth of 'bad' bacteria and yeast.)

[HLAB35 in reply to SallyB60]

Bicarbonate of Soda test.. see other reply for link....

[Doodeet]

Low stomach acid is just part and parcel of being hypothyroid.