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New Study Recommends Celiac Children Get Bones Checked

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

As more and more children continue to be diagnosed with Celiac Disease at a very young age, there seems to be more studies regarding how the disease affects these children’s health.

It looks like over the last few days the results of a new study was published which compared children with untreated Celiac Disease to children without the disease. Their findings showed that the children with Celiac are at a much greater risk of developing Osteopenia (a mild form of Osteoporosis) and that fruits and vegetables are good way to counteract these potential problems.

For your reference, here is some information regarding the study:

Background: The aim of this study was to determine whether children with celiac disease (CD) have deficits in spine (SP) and whole body (WB) bone mineral content (BMC) at time of diagnosis, and whether the deficits are related to altered growth and body composition. The secondary aim was to examine the effect of histological grade on BMC.

Patients and Methods: A retrospective study of children who had undergone a dual energy x-ray absorptiometry scan at the time of diagnosis with CD between October 1, 2003, and June 15, 2006, were compared with a healthy reference sample of similar age and race from the same geographic region in the United States. SP and WB BMC were expressed as sex-specific z scores relative to age and relative to height to assess differences in the CD group versus controls. Pearson correlation, t tests, and analysis of variance were performed to determine predictors of BMC.

Results: Forty-four children (mean age 10.6 ± 3.4 years; 77% female, 96% white) with CD were evaluated and compared with 338 healthy children. Children with CD were shorter than children of similar age and sex. SP and WB BMC for age z scores were significantly lower in the CD group compared with controls. When adjusted for height, significant deficits in WB BMC persisted in patients with CD. Low SP and WB BMC correlated with advanced histological grade in CD. Low body mass index correlated with low WB BMC in CD.

Conclusions: Newly diagnosed children with CD may benefit from screening for low bone mineral content. Patients with low body mass index and those with advanced histological damage (Marsh grade IIIc) particularly may be at risk for osteopenia.

Does Celiac Disease Cause Canker Sores?

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 1 Comment

Have you ever found that you have trouble with canker sores? Over the years I’ve talked to a number of people that mentioned having a problem with canker sores prior to their celiac diagnosis. Though not all the time, I’ve heard some mention that the problem cleared up significantly while following a strict gluten-free diet.

While doing a little bit of research on this topic for this post, I can across the following blog post with some information.   According to the Expert Doctor’s Health Tips Blog:

It’s well known that canker sores can run in families. One of the reasons for this is because whatever is causing this ulcer may have some genetic cause or reason. I’ve found that people who have gluten intolerance and/or have celiac disease have canker sores until they stop eating gluten. This could be one genetic connection, since celiac disease is genetic and passed on in the genes although the genes still need to be triggered by something unknown. One can carry the gene but not have full-blown celiac disease yet or ever.

It appears that some experts believe it is associated with the body’s immune system. Here again, it could also relate back to Celiac Disease because gluten flattens the villi in the small intestine and nutrients can’t be absorbed so the immune system suffers and its defenses are broken down.  This leads me to believe that nutritional deficiencies could also play a part.

Can Celiac Disease Cause Sleep Apnea?

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 7 Comments

Now that more research is being put into Celiac Disease, it is truly amazing just how many problems are now considered to be a symptom of Celiac. It seems I read about new ones all the time, or I see previously speculated information actually be confirmed.

While doing some symptom research, I recently noticed that Best Sleep Apnea Treatments has written a post referencing sleep apnea and other sleep disorders as symptoms of Celiac Disease and a gluten intolerance.

They site gluten is a key component for sleeping comfortably and people that are intolerant to gluten in turn develop sleeping problems:

Sleep doctors are able to detect and treat both common and rare sleep disorders. Some common sleep disorders are insomnia, jet lag, sleepwalking, snoring and obstructive sleep apnea.  And, it could be that you have intolerance to gluten.

Gluten is a type of protein compound in certain cereal grains – primarily wheat, barley, and rye – the basis of breads, baked goods, and pasta. These are foods that are helpful in getting good sleep.  But the inability to sufficiently digest gluten protein can lead to all sorts of symptoms, including skin rashes, irritability, aggression, moodiness, ‘brain fog,’ cognitive problems, cramping, bowel problems, pain, and sleep disturbances.  This is why it is so important to see a doctor if you are experiencing sleep disturbances as often the sleeping problems are really caused by a medical problem.

When intestinal cells are damaged for any reason, they cannot properly absorb nutrients, which results in malabsorption. Without healthy intestinalcells, you can become malnourished, no matter how much food you eat. Many people do not realize that a second key function of intestinal cells is to produce several key digestive enzymes. In particular, these cells produce specific protein and carbohydrate degrading enzymes needed for the thorough digestion of gluten (and other similar proteins such as casein).

Sleep disorders is a pretty big group of symptoms to attribute to Celiac Disease, so this is definitely something people should be aware of and looking for in my opinion.

On a similar note, I also noticed our friend Zach wrote about Restless Leg Syndrome (another sleep disorder) and how it is also considered to be a symptom of Celiac Disease.

Recipe: Gluten-Free Apple Crisp

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff

While we are in the heart of winter time here in the United States, it can sometimes be fun to think about summer and the foods that go with that time of year. If you’d like to make a homemade gluten-free apple crisp, here is a nice recipe we recommend. Throw in some ice cream and you have a great treat!

If you’d like to check out other recipe ideas, check out our gluten-free recipes page!

Gluten-Free Apple Crisp Recipe

Pie Ingredients:

  • 2 cups blanched almond flour
  • ½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon nutmeg
  • ½ cup grapeseed oil
  • ¼ cup agave nectar
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 5 medium apples, peeled, sliced, then chop slices in half width-wise

Pie Directions:

  1. In a large bowl, combine almond flour, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg
  2. In a smaller bowl, combine oil, agave and vanilla
  3. Stir wet ingredients into dry
  4. Place apples in a 2-3 quart glass baking dish (a pyrex bowl or an 8×8 square)
  5. Sprinkle topping over the apples
  6. Cover and bake at 350° for 50 minutes on low rack
  7. When apples are soft and their juices bubble, remove cover and bake 10 more minutes to brown crisp

Getting a Blood Test for Celiac Disease

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff

The most common way to get diagnosed with Celiac Disease typically involves two different tests. The first part is a blood test, and the second part is a biopsy to officially confirm Celiac Disease. Chances are if you know of anyone that has been officially diagnosed, this is the process they went through.

For people that are wanting to learn more about the testing process, I ran across a great post focusing specifically on the blood tests for Celiac Disease, which explains the varying types of blood tests that exist due to some being more sensitive towards milder forms of the disease while others are more specific for more severe forms of Celiac.

The most specific tests are tests for Celiac disease endomysial antibodies (EMA) and tissue transglutaminase antibody (tTG) tests. These two tests are IgA based tests and can be negative if you are deficient in the immunoglobin IgA, which occurs in 10-20% of people with Celiac. When either EMA or tTG are positive Celiac disease is very likely and usually the intestine biopsy is positive. Recent studies indicate that the tTG may only be positive in 40% of true Celiacs when mild degrees of intestine damage are present on biopsy. Seronegative Celiac, meaning the blood tests are negative but the biopsy is positive, may occur in up to 20% of Celiacs.

Antibodies for gliadin (AGA), the toxic fraction of gluten are considered very sensitive but not specific for Celiac disease. Newer assays for AGA antibodies for gluten that has undergone a chemical change called deamidation appear to be more specific for Celiac disease (Gliadin II, Inova) than the older gliadin tests. They also may be as or more accurate than EMA and tTG antibody tests but are not yet widely available.

If you’d like to learn more general information about getting diagnosed with celiac disease, check out our Celiac Diagnosis page.