If you’ve visited before (or clicked the link on the sidebar that describes my issues), you know I started this blog because of hand pain from typing/mousing. I haven’t been posting too much lately, but it’s not because things have gotten worse. My hands are actually about 95% better (this is after more than 4 years of not being able to work at the computer for more than an hour or two a day without pain). I won’t say I’m completely cured yet (they still feel a little stiff at times), but I think I’m heading that direction. I’m even playing World of Warcraft (yes, I’m a geek) in addition to my regular computer work.
So, what miraculous thing helped me? Was it the hand braces, the drugs, the various contraptions for exercising my wrists?
Nope. (None of that stuff helped me.)
Then last summer, I was diagnosed with hidden food allergies, specifically gluten and dairy. Of course, I was eating these things every day (gluten is found in wheat which is found in… just about everything) and my body had built up a tolerance, but there were symptoms. Everything from my RSI to headaches to asthma to acne to heartburn. I had no idea these things were all related (I just remember feeling annoyed that I was already having all these troubles in my 20s–what kind of mess would I be by 50??).
So I must thank the doctor (it was an alternative medicine clinic… my regular doctor just wanted to prescribe drugs for everything) who thought to ask: have you ever been tested for food allergies.
It’s a pain to have to avoid these foods (eating out is very cumbersome), but it’s worth it to feel so much better. If you are struggling with hard to diagnose issues, I encourage you to do some research on symptoms of hidden food allergies (there are a lot of them and they can manifest differently in different people) and get tested if it sounds like a match. I read that 1 in 8 people are actually allergic to wheat and many don’t know it (and for the rest of the popular, it’s apparently not something anybody digests really well).
Check it out, and good luck with your issues!