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Sharing Info about Celiac Disease

Entries in this blog

Hope For A Less Challenging Gluten Challenge

The current “gold standard” tests for celiac disease include testing for celiac antibodies in patients’ blood and performing an endoscopy to obtain small bowel biopsies. In order for these tests to be accurate, one has to be eating gluten up until the time of testing. If a patient is already on the gluten-free diet when these tests are done, the diagnosis of celiac disease can easily be missed. I’ve encountered many people who have decided that they’d like to be tested for celiac disease after
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Celiac Disease Autoimmunity

I first came across the term “celiac disease autoimmunity” a few weeks ago as I read summaries of the article “Risk of Pediatric Celiac Disease According to HLA Haplotype and Country” that was published in the July 3, 2014 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine(NEJM). Based on my reading and interpretation of the article, it seems that celiac disease autoimmunity is interchangeable with the more commonly used term “potential celiac disease.” Both are used to describe cases in which people
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Gluten-Related Neurologic Symptoms In Children

There is a well-established relationship between celiac disease (and non-celiac gluten sensitivity) and the development of neurologic problems in adults. According to Dr. Marios Hadjivassiliou, a neurologist in the UK who is one of the world’s experts in this area, up to 50% of adults with newly diagnosed celiac disease have signs or symptoms of neurological problems. I have personally experienced a peripheral neuropathy (nerve damage) as a result of celiac disease and it was my neuropathy that
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Gluten Intolerance Can Actually Be Subclinical Celiac Disease

I think most of us have met people who have symptoms of celiac disease, but when tested, are told that their celiac antibody blood tests and biopsy results are negative (normal). Some of these people are labeled “gluten intolerant” or “gluten sensitive” by their doctors, others are told they may have “early” celiac disease, or “pre” celiac disease, and the rest are told that they have nothing wrong and are often advised to continue to eat gluten. Many continue to eat gluten and find themselves
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Celiac Disease Can Be A Pain In The Joint

Unexplained joint pains (arthralgias) were one of the main symptoms that I dealt with prior to my celiac diagnosis. Throughout my twenties I had pain and stiffness in my fingers, knees and ankles that would come and go with no apparent explanation. I ran track for part of high school and continued to run for fitness during college, but shortly after graduating had to stop running for a long time due to my joint issues. I was evaluated over and over again for lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, Lyme Dis
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Celiac Disease In Children

Drs. Guandalini and Assiri have written a summary of pediatric celiac disease that was published in the online edition of the journal JAMA Pediatrics last week. In this post I will share some of the highlights of their review article.   Although the overall prevalence of celiac disease is 1% in the pediatric population, only 10-15% of children with celiac disease have been diagnosed and treated.   The celiac genes (HLA-DQ2 and DQ8) contribute 40% of the risk of developing celiac. Environment
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Mast Cell Activation Syndrome Madness....

At this time last year I had never heard of mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) and the first time that I heard the name I thought that it was a “made up” disease. Since then I have come to realize that it is a real diagnosis and I have learned a ton about it, including the following:   MCAS is a newly recognized disease of the innate immune system (our bodies’ first line of defense against bacteria, viruses, parasites, and other invaders). Women make up the majority of patients with MCAS.
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Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity In Children (Summary Of November 2013 Research Study)

I was thrilled to come across a paper about non-celiac gluten sensitivity in children in the Journal of Pediatrics, one of the main pediatric journals. Many of my pediatrician colleagues read this journal on a regular basis. In this article, a group of Italian researchers has described the symptoms and lab test results in 15 children with gluten sensitivity (GS) compared to 15 children with active celiac disease and 15 controls (children with IBS-type symptoms that have no correlation with glute
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Early Feeding And Risk Of Celiac Disease In A Prospective Birth Cohort

**This is the first guest post on my page by Cristen, an incredibly talented scientist and mother of two children. Her youngest child was diagnosed with Celiac disease earlier this year. Many thanks to Cristen for tackling this challenging topic! Celiac is known to have a large genetic component and people with Celiac disease carry the HLA-DQ2 or HLA-DQ8 genes. However, only around 4% of people that carry these genes develop Celiac (Open Original Shared Link). The big question then is, what el
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The Celiac Iceberg Revisited At Icds 2013

The second to last session on day one of the 2013 International Celiac Disease Symposium (ICDS) was a talk entitled, “Melting the Celiac Iceberg-potential, latent, silent: to treat or not to treat?” I was very confused about these terms when I first came across them in the Celiac medical and research literature a few years ago. “Silent” Celiac Disease refers to patients who have Celiac Disease (elevated Celiac antibodies on blood testing and abnormal small bowel mucosa on endoscopy and biopsy)
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"celiac Disease Now"

The introductory lecture of the clinical forum of the International Celiac Disease Symposium (ICDS) 2013 in Chicago last week was entitled “Celiac Disease Today: An Overview” given by Drs. Alessio Fasano and Peter Green.   Although the official slides and presentations from the symposium are not yet available for purchase, based on my notes the following topics were addressed during this opening session:   Celiac Disease involves both an innate and an adaptive immune system response to glute
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My, Oh My, Peripheral Neuropathy

I spent a good chunk of last Christmas Eve in an MRI scanner, getting my spine analyzed for the white matter lesions of multiple sclerosis (MS). Mike, the MRI technician, piped George Winston’s “December” celiac disease through my MRI headphones, but the music did little to drown out the loud hammering sounds of the MRI and the thoughts that were racing in my head. I prayed and bargained while I was in the scanner, with thoughts such as, “If I do have MS, please let it be relapsing-remitting and
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Women With Celiac Disease, We Are Not Alone...

I have spent a good portion of this summer enjoying my time with my family, traveling, and not obsessing about celiac disease (which has led me to not write about it either!) Overall, I am comfortable with my gluten free household and life and have accepted my diagnosis. But, the other day, in part due to fatigue and in part due to accidentally eating a KIND bar with soy protein (soy is one of my other food intolerances and I feel like total garbage after eating it), I totally lost my calm. I fo
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Should Your Kids Be Screened For Celiac Disease?

I have four children, who are all at high risk for developing Celiac Disease. I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease 3 years ago, but have had symptoms since early childhood. My husband does not have Celiac Disease, but he carries one of the two main Celiac genes, DQ2. Due to my children’s risk, I have had their pediatrician screen them when they turn 4 years old with a Celiac panel (blood test with Celiac antibodies). My third child, Gabby, just turned 4 so she will have her first Celiac panel at
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Celiac Disease And Multiple Food Intolerances

There are many of us with celiac disease who develop additional food intolerances after going gluten free. Despite maintaining control of my celiac symptoms by being strictly gluten free, I have become intolerant to soy (2011), sulfites (2012), and too much dairy (late 2012-early 2013). My allergy skin prick tests for soy and milk were negative, which shows that my reactions are not IgE mediated, and, thus, not “typical” food allergies in which there would be a concern about anaphylaxis. I have
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Celiac Disease And Endometriosis

As I was doing my weekly glance through the PubMed database (www.pubmed.gov) I came across an interesting letter to the editor in the Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics entitled, “Celiac Disease and Endometriosis: What is the Nexus?” Endometriosis is a common gynecologic disorder, which effects approximately 10% of women of childbearing age. It involves the development of endometrium, which is the tissue which lines the uterus, in areas of the body outside of the uterus. Symptoms of endometri
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"up To Date" Management Of Celiac Disease In Adults

“Up to Date” is an online medical database for physicians and other practitioners. I use it almost every day when I am at work to get a brief overview of the most recent evidence regarding the diagnosis and management of my patients’ problems.   I just reviewed the most recent “Up to Date” highlights on the management of Celiac Disease in adults (published April 10, 2013). Here are some of the highlights:   There are 6 key elements in the management of Celiac patients (note pneumonic CELIAC)
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Non-Responsive Celiac Disease

Nonresponders are the 5% of Celiac patients who have either persistent symptoms and/or abnormally high Celiac antibodies after two years on the gluten free diet.   According the most recent medical review in the “Up to Date” database, there are 5 main categories of nonresponders to the gluten free diet:   -Patient is continuing to eat gluten. This is the most common cause of persistent symptoms. This can be on purpose (i.e. taking a little bite of a gluten containing food every once in a whi
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Celiac Disease And The Thyroid Gland

If you have Celiac Disease, it is important that you know a bit about your thyroid gland, as you are at a high risk of autoimmune thyroid disease. Experts estimate that between 8 and 12% of people with Celiac Disease have, or will eventually develop, problems with their thyroid gland. Conversely, between 3 and 5% of people with autoimmune thyroid disease will develop Celiac Disease. I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Disease (hypothyroidism) in 2003, seven years before my Celiac diagnosis.   The
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Let's Talk About Celiac Disease And Infertility

One of my favorite Celiac Disease-related pages on Facebook is that of the University of Chicago’s Celiac Disease Center. One of the first “tidbits” that I read on this page, after discovering it last fall, was the following statement: “Women who have experienced persistent miscarriages or infertility without a known medical cause should be tested for celiac disease.” I had no idea that there was such a strong association between Celiac Disease and infertility until I read this sentence.   I h
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The Gluten Contamination Elimination Diet (Summary Of Dr. Fasano's Recent Paper)

As many of us already know, there are some celiacs who are “refractory” and continue to have ongoing symptoms after going gluten free. In addition, there are a bunch of us who are “super sensitive” in terms of reactions to gluten cross-contamination. I am one of the super sensitives. Not too long ago I had a reaction from eating one bite of a Trader Joe’s “no gluten ingredients” brownie which I had prepared in my own gluten free kitchen for a potluck.   Just last week, Dr. Fasano and colleague
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Non Celiac Gluten Sensitivity

Yes, this is a real diagnosis, and it effects between 6 to 8% of our population, or approximately 18 million people. Many doctors and patients are unaware that it exists. Most of the papers on this topic have only been published in the last 2-3 years. The British Medical Journal published a case study and review of gluten sensitivity in their November 30, 2012 edition. It is the first case study I have come across in a major medical journal in which a patient self-diagnoses based on information
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Celiac Disease And The Innate Immune System

I know that this title sounds very boring (so much so that I doubt that many will read any further than this). But, if you can bear with me, there is some fascinating research involving the role of the innate immune system in reactions to wheat. Trust me!   The role of the immune system is to fight infection. There are two main types of immunity: innate and adaptive. The adaptive immune system is highly evolved and involves antibody formation. The ability of our bodies to “remember” previous
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Yes, It Is "safe" To Raise Non Celiac Kids Gluten Free

I’ve realized that I have not written for almost a week and I think I am okay with this. When I started this blog two months ago, I anticipated being able to post about once a week, so I think I am on track. Between working full-time, running, and trying to squeeze in some sleep, the main reason that I have not had time is that I have four small children. I am trying my best to cherish this phase of our family life, as I know that someday I will have four teenagers at once!   None of my kids
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The Effects Of Gluten On The Brain And Nervous System

Most of the articles about gluten and celiac disease I’ve came across in the media have focused on symptoms related to digestion, such as abdominal pain and bloating after eating gluten, and damage to the small intestine. The bulk of the gluten-related discussions on the celiac forums I’ve perused concern questions and answers regarding the diagnosis of celiac disease and tips for following the gluten free diet. There have been several papers published over the last few years about the neurologi
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