Since launching Celiac Disease, I continue to be surprised at the number of symptoms that can be relieved by simplying following a strict gluten free diet.  My latest discovery is the possibility that bedwetting is a symptom of Celiac Disease!  Who would have thought?

Unfortunately, I have not been able to discover any scientific evidence to support this yet.   I know a lot of our readers have children with Celiac Disease.   Out of curiosity, did your child have problems with bedwetting?   Leave us a comment with your story!

It looks like this news has already been all over the internet, but I wanted to cover it here anyway for those of you that rely on Celiac Disease to keep up to date.

It looks like doctors are now recommending patients believed to be suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome to first be screened for Celiac Disease.

IBS patients with diarrhea or a mixture of diarrhea and constipation should be screened with blood tests for celiac disease, a condition in which one cannot tolerate the gluten protein found in wheat and other grains.

Why is this so important?  I’m sure as many of our readers can confirm, Irritable Bowel Syndome (IBS) is probably the most common incorrect diagnosis people with Celiac Disease will receive prior to a correct diagnosis.   This is because the symptoms are very similar to the classic symptoms of Celiac Disease.

Unfortunately the treatments are completely different, which is why it is important doctors first confirm it is NOT Celiac Disease prior to a IBS diagnosis.   This is definitely good news for patients with undiagnosed Celiac Disease because it will help minimize the suffering by getting a quicker diagnosis!

I had heard this from someone once at a Celiac conference, but I had yet to see anyone documenting it online anywhere that I could reference…until today.   Going gluten free can save you money!  Chances are, because it often takes close to 10 years for a correct Celiac diagnosis, it is likely most Celiacs are on a number of medicines. 

It looks like yesterday over at the ADD Forums, someone has posted that after they went gluten free, in addition to their symptoms being relieved, they have managed to cut medicine costs by 75%!   That is probably a signficant monthly savings for unnecessary medicines.

In other words, if feeling better and being healthy isn’t your thing, maybe saving money is? 

If you are a reader of this website, you probably either have Celiac Disease, or have a family member or friend that has Celiac Disease.   I’m sure by now we’ve all heard the statistic that it is believed roughly 1 in 133 Americans have Celiac Disease.  However, did you know that it is believed that a significantly higher percentage of Americans actually some form of a gluten sensitivity?

If you’d like to learn more about gluten sensitivities, Whole Health Source recently took the time to explain that gluten sensitivity is much more than just Celiac Disease:

Approximately 12% of Americans can be diagnosed as gluten sensitive using blood antibody tests (anti-gliadin IgA or IgG). A subset of these have full-blown celiac disease. The vast, vast majority are undiagnosed. Gluten sensitivity associates with a dizzying array of diseases, including autoimmune disorders, cancer, and neurological problems. The problem with the blood tests is they aren’t very sensitive. The most common blood tests for celiac disease look for a class of antibody called IgA. IgA is produced by the mucosa, including the gut. Unless gut damage is already extensive, the majority of IgA stays in the gut. This may cause the assay to overlook many cases of gluten sensitivity. A negative blood antibody test does not rule out gluten sensitivity!

I recently discovered the work of Dr. Kenneth Fine of EnteroLab. He has developed an assay that detects anti-gliadin IgA in stool. Gliadin is one of the problematic proteins in gluten that is implicated in gluten sensitivity. Dr. Fine has been conducting informal research using his fecal anti-gliadin IgA test (data here). He has found that:

• 100% of untreated celiac patients are antigliadin IgA positive by fecal test, compared to only 76% by blood (n= 17).
• 76% of microscopic colitis (a type of chronic diarrhea) patients are positive by the fecal test, compared to 9% by blood (n= 57).
• 57% of symptomatic people (digestive problems?) are positive by the fecal test, compared to 12% by blood (n= 58).
• 62% of people with autoimmune disease are positive by the fecal test.
• 29% of asymptomatic (healthy) people are positive by the fecal test, compared to 11-12% by blood (n= 240).
• Baby and cow feces are 0% positive by the stool assay.

He also later mentions:

Not everyone who is genetically susceptible will end up developing health problems due to gluten, but it’s impossible to estimate how many of the problems we attribute to other causes are in fact caused or exacerbated by gluten.

If you think you have Celiac Disease, you may actually simply have a gluten sensitivity of some sort, which is why it is so important to go through the proper channels and to get an official diagnosis.

Is anemia a common symptom of Celiac Disease?   Back in the mid 1980’s, it wasn’t considered to be, but more recently, we’ve learned through extensive studies that Celiac Disease extends well beyond many of the symptoms typically associated with the disease.

So, how common is Anemia in people with Celiac Disease?   According to Haematologica.org:

Prevalence of Anemia in Celiac Disease

Because of the improvement in diagnostic methods for identifying celiac disease, there has been a marked increase in the proportion of subjects identified as celiac patients, who do not have the classical manifestations of disease such as diarrhea, gross symptoms of malabsorption including steatorrhea and abdominal complaints. Anemia without other clinical clues of intestinal malabsorption is one of the most common extraintestinal manifestations of celiac disease. Although folate and cobalamin deficiency are known complications of celiac disease, the most common nutritional anemia associated with celic disease is iron deficiency. Iron deficiency anemia was reported in up to 46% of patients with subclinical celiac disease in one study, and its prevalence was higher in adults than in children. Similarly, among patients identified by population screening, consisting mostly of young or middle-aged adults, 50% were anemic. In an additional study consisting predominantly of young females, anemia was encountered in 28% of celiac patients and was the most common extraintestinal finding. A characteristic feature of iron deficiency anemia (IDA) associated with celiac disease is its refractoriness to oral iron treatment.

Prevalence of Celiac Disease in Anemia

If anemia is a common presenting feature of celiac disase, what is the chance of encountering celiac disease in patients presenting with iron deficiency anemia? This question is of particular importance for hematologists who are often the first experts consulted for unexplained iron deficiency anemia. The population of patients studied was heterogeneous as some groups consisted only of patients with iron deficiency whereas others included both folate and iron deficient patients. Most groups consisted of a majority of premenopausal females. In 4 studies small bowel biopsy was only performed in patients with positive serology for celiac disease whereas in 3 other studies9,10,12 biopsies were performed upfront without being preceded by serological screening. Nevertheless the results were remarkably uniform with de novo diagnosis of celiac disease in 5–6% of patients presenting with iron deficiency anemia. Our prospective study of IDA published in 200513 has now been extended from 150 to 325 patients. The prevalence of celiac disease remained unchanged at 5.2%. The 17 celiac patients in this series were indistinguishable from the rest of the anemic patients by their age, severity of iron deficiency anemia, or serum albumin. Serum cholesterol 151±36 was significantly lower in celiac disease than in the other IDA patients (180±41, p=0.007). Only one patient had diarrhea, one had stunted growth and 2 had constipation. The most consistent clinical feature was complete refractoriness to oral iron treatment. and the complete absence of an increment in serum iron two hours after oral iron loading with 100 mg ferrous sulphate.

These study results make Anemia sound pretty common (close to 50%!) in patients with Celiac Disease.

Wondering if your child has Celiac Disease?   Recently US News & World Report published a quick health tip which included signs your child has Celiac Disease.

Not sure that there is much new here, but for what it is worth, here is the symptoms they recommend you look for:

• Among babies, symptoms may include pain in the abdomen or diarrhea that may be bloody.
• Babies may also stop growing and fail to gain weight.
• Among young children, symptoms may include nausea, loss of appetite, sores in the mouth, anemia and skin rash.
• Children who become malnourished from celiac disease may have thin thighs, a small bottom, and a large, swollen belly.
• Among teens, symptoms may include stunted growth, delayed puberty, and hair loss.
• Lactose intolerance.
• An itchy, blistering skin problem.