Marcus Trescothick

Just heard about Marcus’s megraine problems on Radio 5. Hope he gets better quickly.

But his symptoms sound very much like mine. I used to get megraines as a child and then occassionally until after I passed fifty, when they started to get worse.

It turned out that I have been a coeliac all my life and now nearing fifty-eight, I’m fitter than I ever, with my real tennis handicap going the right way. All I have to do is avoid wheat and barley, which means I can’t eat bread or pasta and drink beer. The latter is not a problem in Suffolk as we have the admirable Aspall Cyder, which round here we believe is the best in the world. Obviously in Somerset they would disagree.

Apparently, if you are a coeliac you get lower doses of important vitamins and this can cause the headaches and other symptons like mild depression. All of these have now gone from my life and I can also spend time in the sun much easier, as my body seems to regulate it’s temperature better.

It’s also something that doctors ignore, as it is usually associated these days with children.