Ataxia, Nerve Disease, Neuropathy, Brain Damage and Celiac Disease

Image: CC--jsmjr

Many aspects of celiac disease simply have not been well studied, so they remain poorly understood. For example, researchers have not done enough study on people with celiac disease to understand if they show any readily available serological markers of neurological disease.

Photo CC: RDECOM

To follow up on reported associations between celiac disease and peripheral neuropathy, a research team recently conducted a study of peripheral neuropathic symptoms in celiac disease and inflammatory bowel disease.

Having been diagnosed with celiac disease, I know from having to follow a strict gluten-free diet that monitoring one's diet and health can be inconvenient, time-consuming, and challenging. Similarly, keeping one's blood sugar level under control for diabetics can be tough, but studies are showing how important this is, as it has been shown to prevent diabetic neuropathy, that is, nerve damage peculiar to diabetics, and its devastating effects.

New study on gluten sensitivity sensory ganglionopathy.

A team of researchers recently found that gluten sensitivity can play a role in triggering a certain type of neurologic dysfunction, called sensory ganglionopathy, and that the condition may respond to a strict gluten-free diet.

Restless Leg Syndrome and Celiac Disease (photo courtesy of Geraint Warlow)

A team of researchers that recently set out to assess rates of restless leg syndrome (RLS) in adults with celiac disease found a 31% prevalence of RLS among subjects with celiac disease, which was much higher than the 4% prevalence in the control population.

Celiac disease is a vastly growing epidemic. Those suffering from celiac  have varying levels of difficulty digesting wheat, rye and barley; as celiac  primarily affects the small bowel and is considered to be an autoimmune intestinal disorder. However, compounding  new evidence sited in the March 2010 edition of the The Lancet Neurology, suggests that celiac also affects the nervous system, indicating a wider systemic disorder than previously thought.

A new study says that migraines and carpal tunnel syndrome may point to celiac disease. Moreover, 35% of people with celiac disease report a history of depression, personality changes, or psychosis. Others commonly suffer from neurological issues that are not improved with a gluten-free diet.

“When a patient was diagnosed with SIBO, given a course of treatment that included rifaximin, an antibiotic that is not absorbed by the bloodstream, we found that the patient showed quick, dramatic and continuing relief of RLS symptoms,” explains Weinstock.

In the latest issue of the journal Medical Hypotheses, Dr. Rodney Philip Kinvig Ford of the Children’s Gastroenterology and Allergy Clinic in Christchurch, New Zealand, offers up a compelling hypothesis regarding celiac disease and gluten sensitivity, which asserts that the broad array of associated symptoms are more fully explained using a neurological perspective, than using a digestive/nutritional perspective.

Doctors are recommending simple, low-cost blood tests to screen for celiac disease in patients who have Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) with low serum ferritin, but who otherwise show no clear cause for iron deficiency.

This is an excerpt of my book, "Gluten-Free Portland - A Resouce Guide", published in 2008. It covers links between ADD/ADHD, ASD, Peripheral Neuropathy, and Gluten Ataxia and other neurological affects of gluten intolerance on the body.

Thanks to a team of doctors based in Great Britain, doctors may soon have a powerful new diagnostic tool in their efforts to combat the damage caused by celiac disease. In this case, the discovery concerns people with celiac disease who may develop neurological disorders.

Celiac.com 06/08/2007 -The results of a study recently published in the Alimentary Pharmacology &

Celiac.com 12/28/2006 – Antonio Tursi and colleagues at the Digestive Endoscopy Unit, Loren

Arch Neurol 2005;62:1574-1578. Celiac.com 11/29/2005 – According to Dr. Thomas H. Brannagan

Brain. 2003 Mar;126(Pt 3):685-91. Celiac.com 08/11/2005 – Researchers in the United Kingdo

Dig Liver Dis. 2004 Aug;36(8):513-8. Celiac.com 12/11/2004 - An Italian study was carried out to

Pediatrics 2004;113:1672-1676. Celiac.com 07/12/2004 – According to Dr. Nathaniel Zelnik a

J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2003;74:1225-1230 Celiac.com 10/08/2003 – According to a stud

Celiac.com 06/25/2003 - The Neuropathy Association -- On May 27, 2003 a link between Peripheral Ne