All in Your Head
Untreated gluten sensitivity can affect your gut, your skin... and your brain

There is one Sunday morning that Mike Howell will never forget. It was January 7, 2001. For Howell, the day began like any other Sunday. He woke early and dressed to attend worship service at the church across the street from the house he shares with Linda, his wife of 27 years. But this morning would be different. Howell walked into the church and lost his sight.

"Linda went on into the sanctuary but I wanted to check out the church bulletin board. As I approached it, I saw flashes of pink and blue lightning - and then I couldn't see at all," Howell says.

"He stood in front of the bulletin board without moving, forcing his eyes open because he thought they were closed. Standing silently and alone, he broke into a cold sweat. The sensation in his eyes lasted two to three minutes, followed by a blasting ache in the back of his skull. Then his sight returned "like a small curtain rising."
He proceeded quietly into the sanctuary, sat down next to his wife and whispered to her what had just occurred.

After church, as the congregation filed out, Linda corralled a nurse friend and told her about Howell's episode. At the nurse's advice, the Howells drove to the local hospital where doctors ran a CAT scan, did some blood work and tests, suspecting a stroke. "But they couldn't find anything," Linda says. Howell was discharged with a headache and a follow-up referral with his primary care physician.