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Are C-Sections Related to Celiac Disease?

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 2 Comments

Quite an interesting article was posted recently on the REUTERS website. Some researchers in Germany did a small study about babies delivered via c-section and whether or not they were more likely to develop celiac disease than babies that did not have cesarean births. The research team studied adolescents and included kids with other conditions including Chron’s and ulcerative colitis. Only celiac children had a noticeably higher rate of being born via c-section. The other groups studied didn’t seem to be affected.

What does this mean exactly? Well, the experts don’t really know and they don’t all even agree that it means anything. Much larger studies would be needed to prove that there might be a link between how babies are born and their risk of developing celiac eventually. According to the article, it could have to do with bacteria in the intestines, but the researchers really don’t know enough at this point to make any connection between celiac and c-section births. Dr. Murray from the Mayo Clinic in the states suggests that a study about c-sections and diabetes rates would be another important study to do.

Excerpt from REUTERS article:

Researchers who were not involved in the study called the results intriguing, but said there may be explanations that don’t involve the way babies were born.

For example, Dr. Daniel Leffler, director of clinical research at the Celiac Disease Center at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said many of the children’s mothers may have had undiagnosed celiac disease. Given that celiac disease can be inherited, and that undiagnosed celiac disease increases the risk of cesarean section, undiagnosed disease “would be more than enough to explain the increased number of cesareans,” he told Reuters Health.

How interesting that undiagnosed celiac disease in the mother increases the risk of cesarean section. Maybe OB/GYN doctors should start testing every pregnant woman for celiac disease. That would be better than nothing. You would think that since almost 1 in 100 people in this country have celiac, the medical community could somehow get that information to all doctors here. Then they might start looking into celiac as a possible cause for some of their patient’s problems. As always, it comes down to money. As long as there is no money to be made (by the medical industry) to treat celiac disease, most U.S. doctors are not going to test patients for it, period.

While it’s very important to get people properly diagnosed (when possible), it might be a good idea to keep them from getting celiac in the first place. Dr. Alessio Fasano from the Center for Celiac Research at the University of Maryland believes that a vaccine is needed for celiac disease. In the U.S., we vaccinate against conditions that affect 1 in 500,000 people, but not for something that affects almost 1 in 100 of us.

Teenagers Following the Gluten-Free Diet

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 11 Comments

As I have mentioned before, my son follows a gluten-free diet and has since 2006 when he was 10 years old. My son has never been thrilled with the idea of following a gluten-free diet. He never really felt physically ill from eating gluten before he went on the gluten-free diet, so he didn’t have a lot of motivation. He did have some constipation and ADHD-like symptoms, but no cramping or diarrhea. If my son accidentally ingests gluten now, he is in the bathroom with diarrhea within 30-60 minutes. I am sure that he is really appreciative of my sharing that with you all, too.

My son has frequently told me that as soon as he is old enough, i.e., not living under my roof, he is going to eat gluten again. I explained that while I wouldn’t be able to control his diet when he was an adult, his body might have something to say about that. He goes back & forth with me all the time and says that if it doesn’t make him sick he is going to eat it. I have tried explaining that even though he may not feel sick that the gluten can still be causing damage to his body. For example, in the first 10 years of his life, he never really felt sick when he was eating gluten. Does that mean it wasn’t hurting him? No. His small intestine was damaged. When he had his endoscopy & biopsy in June 2006, his villi were damaged. Does this information matter to a stubborn teenage boy? No.

So, how do I keep my son from ingesting gluten? I have thought about this a lot lately & have come up with some ideas.

  • Blood work – My son sees his GI doctor yearly for checkups & she checks his blood to see if he is getting any trace amounts of gluten. This will help show the big picture, but obviously can’t be used to monitor him on a regular basis.
  • Health benefits – Try to reinforce the health benefits of sticking to the gluten-free diet. The gluten-free diet is a healthy diet when lean proteins, vegetables, fruits & whole grains are incorporated. I try to teach my kids that we “eat to live” not “live to eat”. My son’s hockey coach is playing a role in this as well. The coach asks the kids to eat a banana before each game. My son said that while he doesn’t like bananas, he has noticed a difference in his performance when he does eat the banana.
  • Positive reinforcement – I think praise goes so much further than criticism. I try not to bad mouth the gluten-free diet and have a positive outlook on it. Learn by example. If my son sees me having a positive attitude about the food that we eat it will hopefully carry over to him.
  • Involve him in cooking/baking – Try to recreate favorites or create new ones. Ask for his help and show him how he can make good gluten-free food. Ask him for his ideas and use some of them. This will give him a sense of empowerment, which will really go a long way.

I don’t want ever to punish him for not wanting to follow the diet or not following the diet. It hasn’t come to the point of him cheating yet, or that I am aware of. I don’t want to make this a battle or a power struggle. However, if he were to start cheating on the diet, what would I do? I think that if it came to that point I would enlist the help of my son’s pediatrician and/or GI doctor or maybe even a counselor to help him work through his feelings.

Donating Blood with Celiac Disease

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 6 Comments

Today I was able to donate blood for the first time ever in my life. I have tried before, but my hematocrit was too low. Having Celiac Disease can prevent your body from properly absorbing nutrients, so I wasn’t surprised when I was turned away a couple of years back. Now that I have been on the gluten-free diet for just over 4 years, I decided to give it a try again. I make sure that my diet is well rounded, concentrating on foods that are higher in iron, like dark leafy greens & lean ground beef. I also take supplements that include iron. When they screened me today, my hemoglobin, while in the normal range, was too low to donate at 12.1. They had another tech come back to get another sample & I passed, but just barely. My hemoglobin was 12.6 and it has to be 12.5 to donate. Phew!

The whole process, registering and all, took less than 1 hour. The actual time I was hooked up was 15 minutes or less. I was really surprised how quick it was. When I was done donating, I was shown to an area with tables & snacks. Of course the snacks were mostly cookies & crackers, but once I mentioned that I had to follow a gluten-free diet, the gentleman that was working opened up a drawer filled with gluten-free options! I had never expected that they would have food set aside that was specifically gluten-free. They had Fritos, Lay’s Potato Chips & peanuts. I liked that all 3 were also dairy-free.  I am not sure if all Red Cross locations have gluten-free snacks available, so you may want to carry your own, just in case.  I usually have a Lara bar or Pure bar in my purse at all times.

I was asked today on Twitter if there are there any special requirements for those with Celiac Disease wanting to give blood? The answer to that question is “no”. The requirements for donating blood if you have Celiac Disease are the same as they are for those without Celiac Disease. You can view more about the requirements here.  What happens if you are not eligible for some reason?  Most deferrals are temporary – you can read more about them here.

There is always a need for blood.  So if you have been thinking about it, just get out there & do it.  The donor centers have flexible hours that can work with most schedules.  You could even go on your lunch hour.   You can make appointments online at the Red Cross or by calling 1-800-GIVE-LIFE.  1 pint of blood can save up to 3 lives!

Living Gluten-Free as a Teenager

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 2 Comments

I have discussed traveling gluten-free for teens and school lunches for kids/teens. Now it is time to talk about life.  By life I mean day-to-day living – hanging out with friends, going to movies or the mall – teenager stuff. As your child grows, it is impossible to be in control of their every meal. It is for this reason that I started teaching my son, from when he was diagnosed, about what he can & can’t eat.  I have given him every tool possible to make safe food choices while he is away from home.

My son frequently spends the night at different friends’ houses. I try to feed him before sending him over to eliminate part of the need for food while he is there or away from home. Some parents call me or I will call them to see what they have planned.  It all really just depends on the time of day that my son will be with them and for how long he will be gone.  I can usually tell right away who gets it and who doesn’t. Yes, I could show up and sit down to teach a gluten-free diet class, but my son may run away if I were to attempt that.  My next best weapon is my son.  I teach him and prepare him.  I ask what they are doing & supply the necessary snacks.  If they are just hanging out at home I might just send along some cookies, baked goods, or popcorn (before braces).  I will also pack a Carnation Instant Breakfast – which only requires a glass of milk or a Think Thin bar. Small things, but they will definitely tide him over until I can get him home in the morning (which is really afternoon in the teen world).  My son is really good with reading labels & if he chooses not to call attention to himself, he just goes without.  He doesn’t starve.  If he is hungry, he always knows he can have a glass of milk or orange juice.  Eggs are another good “staple” that most people have in their kitchens.

If my son and his buddies head out the to movies or the mall, things can get a little more complicated, but I have learned to sit back & watch to see how he navigates on his own. My son is aware of what candy he can eat and what drinks he can have at the movie theater. There are so many choices at the theater, that finding something that is gluten-free has never been a problem for him.  He does not eat the popcorn (not only due to his braces, but it is too hard to verify the ingredients). When they go to the mall, there is a food court and Chick-fil-A is one of the places my son knows he can get something safe. My son even chose a salad the last time he was there!

I think there have really only been 1 or 2 times that we have had difficulty feeding my son while he was gone with his friends and that was when he went to a local amusement/water park.  Most of these places have strict rules in place about bringing food into their parks and searching for patrons upon entering.  I have copies made up of a letter from my son’s doctor with his diagnosis & the need for him to follow a strict gluten-free diet outlined in it.  I always send this along with my son when he goes to places like this. I just pack it right along in his lunch box or cooler that I pack his food in.  He has had several of these outings now with no trouble at all bringing the food in.

Coming up in May, my son will be taking a trip to Washington DC with his school.  I have already talked with the tour coordinators & they assure me that other gluten-free teens have successfully gone on this trip.  I will make sure to write up a report on how it all goes when my son returns.

Surprising Ways Celiac Disease Can Manifest Itself

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 5 Comments

People often tell me stories of how they suffered for years and I used to think about how fortunate I was that my anemia diagnosis led to my celiac diagnosis ten months later. As it turned out, my road to a diagnosis was much more involved than that. The year before I found out about the anemia, I was diagnosed with Shingles. The problem was that I was not in the age group of people who have that condition. Therefore it was misdiagnosed as a muscle spasm and then as hives from the spasm medication. By the time my husband drove me to the third doctor’s visit (in ten days), someone finally figured out I had Shingles. Since the condition requires treatment within three days, mine had already progressed to something called postherpetic neuralgia.

Several years ago David Letterman was out of work for weeks for a case of Shingles. It was later reported that he had PostherpeticNeuralgia. The thing about this condition that many people don’t know is that it is so painful you don’t think you’ll live. The pain is so severe that you just assume you are not long for this world. My case is no different than the average person with the condition. I could not sleep, eat or even think during the episode. The pain overtakes your life every second of every day in ways no one who hasn’t experienced it can imagine. Narcotic drugs do not begin to touch the pain of this type of pain. Luckily for me, a dear friend of mine suggested I see a neurologist when the doctors threw several narcotics at me and said that’s all they could do for me. They might as well been giving me candy. The specialist I was referred to specialized in treating people with postherpeticneuralgia. He gave me a strong anti seizure medication called Neuronton, which you step up on until you get less than pleasant side effects. That is when you know you’ve reached the limit of this medication for your body. Eventually, if you’re lucky, you become pain free and begin the process of stepping down off the medication.

By the end of the first week on the medication, I felt that I would live. Dateline NBC did a story the very night that I finally started coming back to life, about how the maker of the drug lost the biggest class action lawsuit against a drug company. The suit was founded around the illegal practice of off label use of the medication. Some people with a bi-polar disorder that were given the medication committed suicide. My husband told me to stop taking the meds and I told him if I didn’t make it to get in on the lawsuit.

After my Shingles episode was finally over, after about four months, I assumed it was a fluke that I got a condition that only people 50 and over got. It turns out that people under 50 with auto-immune conditions also get Shingles, which I remember reading and not thinking much about during the episode. When I finally had my celiac diagnosis, and learned that is in fact, an auto-immune condition, the pieces all fell into place. There is now a vaccine for Shingles that is for people 60 and older.

If you ever know anyone that is diagnosed with Shingles who is under 50, please let them know the chance they have an auto-immune condition of some kind is extremely high. They might not have celiac and there is no study showing a connection between the two conditions. In hindsight, had I taken what my neurologist said to me more seriously, I might have been diagnosed with celiac earlier. I specifically inquired about the possibility of me having an auto-immune condition. He said that we’d only worry about that if I did not respond to the meds. Since I responded well to them, it was never discussed again.

Even though I really had a short road to my celiac diagnosis, and feel very fortunate about that, for over four months during my plight, I was not a fully functioning human being. In fact, I was like a living zombie. It simply should not be so hard to get tested for and diagnosed with celiac disease in this country. The NIH started a campaign to educate doctors in the U.S. about celiac in 2006. Over three and a half years later, it seems that their big campaign consisted of publishing some information about celiac disease in a gastroenterologist journal. The problem with that is that the front line of defense should be primary care doctors. People with celiac who have depression as a symptom – or migraines – are not going to be sent to consult with a gastroenterologist. Dentists need to be educated about celiac disease as well. The goal of the NIH program was to get an additional 500,000 people in the U.S. diagnosed with celiac disease in five years. If the agency plans to meet that goal, they better step up their game now.