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Do You Think Everyone Has Celiacs?

1974girl

By 1974girl
in Coping with Celiac Disease

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1974girl Enthusiast
1974girl
Posted

I say that tongue in cheek of course. I have a friend who has Lyme disease. You can tell her any symptom and she will tell you that you should get checked for Lyme disease. It seems we kinda do that in the celiac community, too! I don't even have it myself but my daughter does. But I find myself telling people they should get checked.

"My joints hurt in the morning." --- Oh...you should get checked for celiac. It can cause joint pain. (or old age can do that, too)

"My daughter has a belly ache."----Oh you should get her checked for celiac. (Or she might just not want to take that math test)

"I have an itchy rash." --You should get tested for celiac. Oh wait...it just started after you opened the pool. Oh, it was the chlorine? Oh, ok. My bad." HA HA!

"I am depressed." ----seriously, I told my aunt to get checked for celiac but honestly it could be that her SON has not talked to her in over 3 years and with holding her only grandchild.

I say all of this because I wonder if I am the only loon that does this. I don't want to be THAT person like my Lyme friend. I don't want everyone to have celiac. I know everyone does not have it. I just read on this forum where someone asked about neck and jaw pain. I have been tested and negative but have had a crick in my neck for 8 days. Ohhh....do I have celiac or maybe it was my new pillow? Please tell me I am not alone!

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LeahBanicki Rookie
LeahBanicki
Posted

I hope I don't do that but I have studied a lot about health. I find that people seem to find me. I talk about eating gluten free on facebook a lot and now get messages from people asking questions.

I always send them to good places to get info and tell them to get educated.

Celiac has a myriad of symptoms so it can be a good thing for more people to look into it if they are struggling with their health.

There is always a balance with being healthy. No one has all the answers.

Doctors who do all the schooling and make the Big Bucks still only call what they do "PRACTICING"

I got myself checked completely on a whim of my Mother-In-Law. Who casually mentioned a friend who had it and ... my agony better because of a casual conversation.

It is worth it, just to educate one person at a time.

hexon Rookie
hexon
Posted

Yeah, I have a co-worker with stomach issues and terrible frequent migraines. Another co-worker with lactose intollerance with a sister who gets rashes when she eats wheat. A friend's mom with fibromyalgia. And a family friend with grave's disease. I just tend to think all problems are caused by wheat now haha.

Chad Sines Rising Star
Chad Sines
Posted

I only do that to my sister to torment her, because..well..she is my sister. :D

I have had a lot of it going the other way "Do you think I have Celiac?" for everything.

Usually my outwardly-directed comments are along the lines of a lot of people have food intolerances, allergies, and other issues like Celiac and do not even know it. These can become quality of life issues, so it makes sense to test for allergies and try elimination diets if things are abnormal in the GI department. You just never know.

eatmeat4good Enthusiast
eatmeat4good
Posted

I'm still telling everyone to get checked for Celiac...2 years into the gluten-free diet. But then I was sick for 7 years and I would have been grateful if anyone ever suggested it might have been Celiac. I don't think you are wrong to do that. If 90% of Celiacs are undiagnosed it makes the odds pretty good that you will alleviate someone's misery by telling them about Celiac. I have 11 people now who are gluten free and greatly relieved of their symptoms. None of them were told by a Dr. If I ever hear my sister has fibromyalgia or my friend does...I tell them to go to celiac.com and check the symptom list. I usually end my speech with if you know anyone with fibromyalgia please tell them about Celiac disease. I write celiac.com on little notes when I get into a conversation with someone about Celiac, or their symptoms, I can grab a note from my purse and tell them to check it out. We have to get the word out. I think I am an evangelist about it because it stole so much of my life and it is doing that to other people too. Most people are extremely grateful for any avenue to follow up on to hopefully feel better. Some of those 11 people are children whose mom's listened to me. I feel very good about that. No, not everyone is Celiac, but those who are cannot ever get well unless they hear about Celiac and what gluten can do to you. So I say, keep it up! I'm going to!

srall Contributor
srall
Posted

Guilty. I think gluten causes everything in myself and others. I try and keep my mouth shut.

In all fairness, I do have friends who are struggling like I was a few years ago, and I do say to them, why don't you just try? My MIL actually listened and last I heard she's committed to gluten/dairy free (after symptoms got so much better)

There is also a friend of mine from church who so clearly has a DH rash (well...In my "expert" opinion) but he doesn't want to hear it. I've become the freaky food lady. I need to just keep my mouth shut!

  • 4 months later...
Owlmuse Rookie
Owlmuse
Posted

I've done that a little but mostly with relatives because of the increased chance that they could have it. Unfortunately the two I think most likely to also have it are rather flakey and I don't think have done anything about it. On the other hand my immediate family got tested after I was diagnosed and my brother's doctor (a rather prominent guy) said he would bet money my bro didn't have it - he had no symptoms, or so he thought. And yep, you guessed it my brother was positive and had more extreme intestinal damage than me! It just shows that EVERYONE should be tested!!

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    • knitty kitty
      Son's legs shaking

      By knitty kitty · Posted

      Blood tests for thiamine are unreliable.  The nutrients from your food get absorbed into the bloodstream and travel around the body.  So, a steak dinner can falsely raise thiamine blood levels in the following days.  Besides, thiamine is utilized inside cells where stores of thiamine are impossible to measure. A better test to ask for is the Erythrocyte Transketolace Activity test.  But even that test has been questioned as to accuracy.  It is expensive and takes time to do.   Because of the discrepancies with thiamine tests and urgency with correcting thiamine deficiency, the World Health Organization recommends giving thiamine for several weeks and looking for health improvement.  Thiamine is water soluble, safe and nontoxic even in high doses.   Many doctors are not given sufficient education in nutrition and deficiency symptoms, and may not be familiar with how often they occur in Celiac disease.  B12 and Vitamin D can be stored for as long as a year in the liver, so not having deficiencies in these two vitamins is not a good indicator of the status of the other seven water soluble B vitamins.  It is possible to have deficiency symptoms BEFORE there's changes in the blood levels.   Ask your doctor about Benfotiamine, a form of thiamine that is better absorbed than Thiamine Mononitrate.  Thiamine Mononitrate is used in many vitamins because it is shelf-stable, a form of thiamine that won't break down sitting around on a store shelf.  This form is difficult for the body to turn into a usable form.  Only thirty percent is absorbed in the intestine, and less is actually used.   Thiamine interacts with all of the other B vitamins, so they should all be supplemented together.  Magnesium is needed to make life sustaining enzymes with thiamine, so a magnesium supplement should be added if magnesium levels are low.   Thiamine is water soluble, safe and nontoxic even in high doses.  There's no harm in trying.
    • lizzie42
      Son's legs shaking

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      Neither of them were anemic 6 months after the Celiac diagnosis. His other vitamin levels (d, B12) were never low. My daughters levels were normal after the first 6 months. Is the thiamine test just called thiamine? 
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      Yes, I do think they need a Thiamine supplement at least. Especially since they eat red meat only occasionally. Most fruits and vegetables are not good sources of Thiamine.  Legumes (beans) do contain thiamine.  Fruits and veggies do have some of the other B vitamins, but thiamine B 1 and  Cobalamine B12 are mostly found in meats.  Meat, especially organ meats like liver, are the best sources of Thiamine, B12, and the six other B vitamins and important minerals like iron.   Thiamine has antibacterial and antiviral properties.  Thiamine is important to our immune systems.  We need more thiamine when we're physically ill or injured, when we're under stress emotionally, and when we exercise, especially outside in hot weather.  We need thiamine and other B vitamins like Niacin B 3 to keep our gastrointestinal tract healthy.  We can't store thiamine for very long.  We can get low in thiamine within three days.  Symptoms can appear suddenly when a high carbohydrate diet is consumed.  (Rice and beans are high in carbohydrates.)  A twenty percent increase in dietary thiamine causes an eighty percent increase in brain function, so symptoms can wax and wane depending on what one eats.  The earliest symptoms like fatigue and anxiety are easily contributed to other things or life events and dismissed.   Correcting nutritional deficiencies needs to be done quickly, especially in children, so their growth isn't stunted.  Nutritional deficiencies can affect intelligence.  Vitamin D deficiency can cause short stature and poor bone formation.   Is your son taking anything for the anemia?  Is the anemia caused by B12 or iron deficiency?  
    • lizzie42
      Son's legs shaking

      By lizzie42 · Posted

      Thank you! That's helpful. My kids eat very little processed food. Tons of fruit, vegetables, cheese, eggs and occasional red meat. We do a lot of rice and bean bowls, stir fry, etc.  Do you think with all the fruits and vegetables they need a vitamin supplement? I feel like their diet is pretty healthy and balanced with very limited processed food. The only processed food they eat regularly is a bowl of Cheerios here and there.  Could shaking legs be a symptom of just a one-time gluten exposure? I guess there's no way to know for sure if they're getting absolutely zero exposure because they do go to school a couple times a week. We do homeschool but my son does a shared school 2x a week and my daughter does a morning Pre-K 3 x a week.  At home our entire house is strictly gluten free and it is extremely rare for us to eat out. If we eat at someone else's house I usually just bring their food. When we have play dates we bring all the snacks, etc. I try to be really careful since they're still growing. They also, of course, catch kids viruses all the time so I  want to make sure I know whether they're just sick or they've had gluten. It can be pretty confusing when they're pretty young to even be explaining their symptoms! 
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