[Fiddle-Faddle]

I just sneaked a look at the lecture my husband is preparing for tomorrow's biochem lecture--the topic is cystic fibrosis.

The main symptom is thick, sticky mucus clogging the lungs, and it is caused by an abnormal gene.

What caught my eye was something else on the symptom list:
1)ongoing diarrhea or bulky, foul-smelling or greasy stools,
2) huge appetite but poor weight gain and growth as a result of chronic malnutrition, and
3)stomach pains and discomfort caused by too much gas in the intestines.

Sound familiar?

I'm probably at the point where I think the whole world has celiac, and I know that they've isolated the CF gene, but --what if these people also have celiac? Or what if people with celiac are the genetic carriers of CF--being symptom-free for CF, nobody would ever think to test us for that gene.

Radman, where are you? I'd really like to hear your opinion on this?

[trents]

I'm certainly no geneticist or biochemist but I think with CF the mucous problem is not just limited to the digetstive track but is found systemically, i.e., in the respiratory track as well so it would seem to be a coincidence.

[Fiddle-Faddle]

I don't think the mucus is in the digestive tract, just the respiratory tract (but I could be wrong).

[nikki-uk]

Cystic Fibrosis involves excess mucus in the respiratory tract and the digestive tract.
It is a genetic fault (and I think docs now know which one is responsible)

Strangely enough my son was tested for CF as a baby(through a test called a 'sweat test')due to constant chest infections and the foul stools.

Luckily he tested negative to CF.

Fast forward 12yrs and the same son is now being tested for celiac disease (the 'foul stools' never went away)
His Dad was dx 18months ago and it switched on a lightbulb in my head!

I don't think that the CF gene is related to the celiac disease genes as it's a recessive gene.
I think (correct me if I'm wrong anyone)that both parents have to be carriers of the CF gene for your child to have a 1 in 4 chance of having CF.

[num1habsfan]

nikki-uk, on Apr 3 2006, 09:09 AM, said:

I think (correct me if I'm wrong anyone)that both parents have to be carriers of the CF gene for your child to have a 1 in 4 chance of having CF.

My sister has CF, and it is only my dad who has the carrier gene, and I guess I do too, so when/if I have kids, they both have the chance of having CF and Celiac.. but it'd be interesting to know if they were connected, because my sis always complains about having stomach pains after eating...

~lisa~

[nikki-uk]

Ok!-thanks for correcting me

[jenvan]

I haven't heard anything of them being connected genetically... So that leads me to think they are both determined with genetic markers independent from each other...and if someone has both it is a coincidence per se. Like, if you have blue eyes and brown hair--they are each determined independently. Developing another autoimmune disease or secondary illness is often linked to Celiac b/c of its impact on the body and long-term effects. Also a coincidence, that some of the 'symptoms' overlap. Perhaps I have missed it, but I have not read anything that might lead me to believe there is genetic overlap between the two. Maybe Tiffany has a good answer..she is a scientist

[TCA]

We went through CF testing for my son. I think they do it pretty standardly for failure to thrive kids. The sweat test was negative. We had a scare with our daughter a couple weeks ago. They found a pneumatocele in her lung and we were researching like crazy to see if it could be CF. It doesn't look like a possibility, thank goodness. From what we read, both parents have to be carriers of the gene. The mucous is very thick in both the respiratory and digestive systems. Meg has horrible mucous problems in the GI track, so we were very concerned. We get to see first had how bad it is with different foods since she has a G-tube.

[Ashley]

I'm not really sure if it could be linked or not, I really don't know much about it. But, I was tested for Cystic Fibrosis last month, and it came back negatively.

[Fiddle-Faddle]

num1habsfan, on Apr 3 2006, 11:22 AM, said:

My sister has CF, and it is only my dad who has the carrier gene, and I guess I do too, so when/if I have kids, they both have the chance of having CF and Celiac.. but it'd be interesting to know if they were connected, because my sis always complains about having stomach pains after eating...

~lisa~

My 7-year-old used to complain about stomach pains after eating--until I put the whole family on "gluten-lite" (gluten at only one meal a day) so that I woudn't ahve to prepare 2 breakfasts and 1 lunches. Also, his eczema went away.

[skoki_mom]

Fiddle-Faddle, on Apr 3 2006, 07:35 PM, said:

My 7-year-old used to complain about stomach pains after eating--until I put the whole family on "gluten-lite" (gluten at only one meal a day) so that I woudn't ahve to prepare 2 breakfasts and 1 lunches. Also, his eczema went away.

Gluten-lite, I like that! That is probably the best way to describe my kids diet around here. I fix whatever they want for breakfast or lunch (except pancakes are always gluten-free now, they like them better anyhow), but dinner is ALWAYS gluten free cuz I am not slaving over dinner I can't eat. Besides, I know for a fact the only thing their dad knows how to cook is pasta, so they eat tons of it at his house. The only thing I make separate at dinner is pasta cuz mine is just too expensive. However, my 5 year old is always pilfering mine and saying she likes it better.

In response to the original CF question, CF is most definitely automsomal recessive. Both parents must carry the recessive gene, giving each child a 25% chance of having the illness, a 50% chance of being a carrier of the gene but not ill with the disease, and a 25% chance of not inheriting the gene at all. As others have posted, digestive troubles are a big part of the disease and people with CF have to take a lot of digestive enzymes to digest their food. I would not think celiac disease would be related, although combinations of illnesses are certainly possible in any individual. I can tell you that CF can present at birth, as we sometimes test premature babies in the NICU for CF if they present with excessive respiratory secretions or feeding intolerance or other bowel issues.

[Felidae]

This is interesting because when I was little (three or four) I was tested for cf. It came back negative, but I wonder if they had tested me for celiac what the result would have been. Back then they didn't know as much about either disease as they do now.

[azmom3]

I know this is an old topic, but I am just now familiarizing myself with celiac since my 22 month old was diagnosed a couple weeks ago. I had never heard of this before and nobody in my family had celiac that we were aware of. I did have 2 brothers and 1 sister who passed away from cystic fibrosis. I was reading a book about Celiac (sorry, I don't remember which one) and one thing that struck me in there was that CF and celiac disease co-exist. I believe it said that if you have CF, you're chances of having celiac disease were greatly increased. When I mentioned to my mom about my son having celiac, she remembered having researched that years ago when they were trying to find out what was going on with my brothers and sister. They were never tested for it though. I wonder, now that I have a child with celiac disease, what the likelyhood was that any of them also had celiac disease. We'll never know,but that's the closest thing we have in our family to resembling the celiac symptoms and since celiac runs in families, I wonder if it's connected.

[2kids4me]

Many diseases can occur more commonly together - diabetics have increased chance of being hypothyroid, celiac and hypothyroidism can occur in the same individual, there are known genetic links for all autoimmune disease and if one family member has one - then relatives are ina higer risk group. It isnt just celiac disease that has this "link", also different conditions can have the same symptoms but not be related - diabetes mellitus and diabetes insipidus have similar sames and symtoms except they are two unrelated conditions. MS can present like severe B 12 deficiency yet are not related.
See the following sites for autoimmune disease with common links:

http://www.aarda.org/index.php

http://www.diabetesm...or.com/aefs.htm

[/quote]

Quote

The syndrome of multiple endocrine organ involvement (and other organs that don't have hormones, like the skin) is called by several names, including: autoimmune endocrine failure syndrome,
autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome,
autoimmune polyglandular syndrome, and
immunoendocrinopathy syndrome.

This syndrome might include any or most of the following disorders:

type 1 or autoimmune (1) Diabetes
Vitiligo (white patches on the skin that lack pigmentation)
premature menopause
Addison's disease (adrenal gland failure)
Pernicious Anemia
Hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid gland), hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid gland function), and thyroiditis (inflammation of the thyroid gland).
Alopecia Totalis (loss of body hair)
Parathyroid gland failure
Pituitary gland failure
Candidia infections of the skin and mucus membranes

Two varieties of the syndrome have been described:


Type I
Type 1 Diabetes
Vitiligo
premature menopause
Addison's disease
Pernicious Anemia
Hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, and thyroiditis
Parathyroid gland failure
Alopecia
Pituitary gland failure
Candidia infections of the skin and mucus membranes
Malabsorption syndrome
Chronic Active Hepatitis

Type II
Type 1 Diabetes
Vitiligo
premature menopause
Addison's disease
Pernicious Anemia
Hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, and thyroiditis
Parathyroid gland failure
Alopecia
Myasthenia gravis
Parkinson disease
Celiac disease


If someone has several of these conditions, or if one member of a family has one of these conditions, and another family member has another, it's very likely that they may have antibodies (2) against other endocrine tissues. (And, if a biopsy of affected tissue were obtained, it will show lymphocytic infiltration (3).

[quote]

[azmom3]

Thank you for all that information. My grandfather had Parkinsons and one of my brother's had diabetes.

I noticed that your daughter was diagnosed with Aspergers....how much have the symptoms improved with a gluten free diet? Also, I would assume you're pretty knowledgeable about this syndrome...my son exhibits many, but not all of the symptoms, and I'm wondering if you know if there's a wide spectrum for how this affects kids. We are pretty sure he is ODD. He has every symptom of that. In addition to those symptoms though, he exhibits many of the ones under Aspergers, but some he doesn't have at all. I strongly suspect celiac as well. We've always been told he's just small, but he looks very skinny and pale to us. His behavioral problems have gotten out of control and just due to the fact that his brother was just diagnosed, makes us wonder. There are so many things out there and I feel like we have to do all the research and then go to the doctors with what we think is going on. Any insight you could give, I'd greatly appreciate. Thanks!