Do you have one of the following autoimmune diseases?
anemia, pernicious anemia
asthma
chronic fatigue syndrome
crohn's disease
diabetes
fibromyalgia
gallbladder disease
IBS
liver disease
lupus
rheumatoid arthritis
sjogren's syndrome
thyroid disease
If the answer is yes, or if you have another autoimmune conditon, you may also have celiac disease. And if you have celiac disease, your autoimmune symptoms may improve on a gluten-free diet. Many doctors do not up-to-date on celiac disease, or the connection between it and other autoimmune conditions, so they don't look for it. Unfortunately, we have to be the ones to educate them. If you believe in being pro-active about your health, you can do the research and gauge whether this might be important information for you. www.celiac.com is a very useful website for information. Enter your symptoms or condition into the search bar and see what comes up.
The following article lists the incidence of some autoimmune disorders among celiacs, in a Finnish study:
http://www.celiac.com/st_prod.html?p_prodid=107&p_catid=&sid=91hH9H1kX0RL8Mc-0810706
4889.bb
From another article on www.celiac.com:
Studies in the UK and Italy have demonstrated that the prevalence of celiac disease in young children is essentially the same as in adults, meaning celiac disease begins in infancy. Infancy is the critical time period for the development of the immune system. Gluten exposure and the onset of celiac disease symptoms early in life, therefore, have a much greater and more important impact on the immune system and its development than exposure to gluten later in life. Malabsorption during infancy and early childhood can also adversely affect the crucial function of the thymus, T cell production, and T cell repertoire. So the stage is set early in life rather than later for increased risk of autoimmune disease. The timing of gluten exposure in life seems to be more critical to autoimmune disease risk rather than the overall lifetime duration of gluten exposure. It is, therefore, extremely important to diagnose celiac disease and initiate a gluten-free diet as soon as possible during infancy and young childhood to lower the risk of autoimmune disease later in life.
http://www.celiac.com/st_prod.html?p_prodid=1202&p_catid=&sid=91hH9H1kX0RL8Mc-5010751
1673.6d
Helpful books on celiac disease and how it relates to other medical conditions:
Dangerous Grains: Why Gluten Cereal Grains May Be Hazardous to Your Health, by James Braly, M.D. and Ron Hoggan, M.A.
Celiac Disease: A Hidden Epidemic, BY Peter H. R. Green, M.D.
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Comments: 35
Hopefully someone will learn something from this and will help themself or someone else. This is an overlooked and under-diagnosed disease with serious consequences yet it is easily reined in with the proper diet.
Too many people suffer needlessly. I was one.
I will look into this as I would like to get off the merry go round I am on or at least slow it down...Thank you ever so much!
Here is a link to a wonderful movie about it and the people who suffer from it and the doctors who lose their licenses because they dare to treat it properly. There are some links to clips you can watch. It's a real eye opener.
Now how would I figure out how to reduce the amount of gluten in our diet, gluten-free products (and are they affordable), recipes, etc.? Open to suggestions. Thanks.
Health food stores and coops and the Gluten-Free Mall on the web are all good sources for gluten-free foods. There are many cookbooks, flours and products. Usually a combination of flours works well for baked goods. Carol Fenster's cookbooks are favorites of many. Bette Hagman's too. Homemade will of course be cheaper (and tastier) than premade products. My kids like Ener-G Foods Lite Tapioca Bread and I like Kinnikinnick Italian Tapioca Bread. Anything by Kinnikinnick is good! It is a Canadian company. They are on the web. I get special orders from them through my coop for bread. Once in a while we get their donuts or cinnamon rolls. They are expensive, so it is a special treat occasionally. We make pizza from Carol Fenster's recipe in her book, Gluten-Free 101. We quadruple it and make two large crusts instead of one small one. We use water instead of milk in the recipe and it comes out great.
Also, check out Dr. Kenneth Fine's articles and lab tests on www.enterolab.com. He has done a lot of research on celiac and gluten intolerance and thinks that something like 30 to 40% of everybody is showing a reaction to gluten. He has some genetic and fecal antibody tests for gluten intolerance that would be useful if you or the boys come up negative on blood tests. You could also keep it confidential that you/they are celiacs, in case of necessity to change insurance. Celiac can get you rejected. I have been through this with the son who was sickest. We had to appeal Regence Blue Shield's decision twice to get him covered (prove he became healthy on GF diet).
A gluten free diet is not the hell that it appears to be at first approach. I have been doing it for about 4 years and though it requires diligence and some planning. I am fortunate that the nutritionist who assisted me in undertaking the diet when I was diagnosed with celiac also has been on a Gluten free diet for 20+ years.
Good luck, Sandy! I hope you will get even more improvements in your health.
Once you get past the initial shock of not being able to eat a darn thing, you find that you still have a lot of options. There are a lot of sites with gf recipes (glutenfreeda.com for example) and cookbooks to get ideas from. And for those of us with busy lives, the fantastic sites that sell pre-made gf goods.
Now, if I could just get it through my friends heads that 1. there is no such thing as cheating and 2. read the ingredients first! Wheat kills!
Thanks again! Let's keep each other posted!