Can Celiac Cause Neutropenia?

[meg-c 3]

Hi, everyone. I haven't been diagnosed with Celiac disease, so I hope it's okay for me to post here.

I'm a 21-year-old female who has been struggling with some chronic symptoms for about a year now.

Out of nowhere, I started losing weight. To date, I've lost upwards of 70 pounds. I was very much overweight beforehand, and I'm now hovering at a healthy weight. The weight has seemed to plateau somewhat recently, though. I was overweight my entire life, losing weight was never easy for me... even as an athlete. I'm now very sedentary. Along with the weight loss, I'm always super tired, I've lost lots of weight, have crazy dry skin/rash between my fingers, etc. I have occasion GI problems (intermittent diarrhea and constipation), sometimes floating stools. However, the never really cause me a huge inconvenience, just a difference I've noticed in my own habits. I also do not have any worthwhile stomach pain, cramps, or vomiting.

I've never had any of my vitamin/minerals checked, but I do know that I am anemic. I have a low ferritin (14 on last check) along with a low hemoglobin, hematocrit, etc. I've been treating with an oral multivitamin with iron; my levels aren't super low, I just can't seem to bring them over the threshold into normal range. It was also recently discovered that my WBC count (specifically neutrophils) were substantially low. My doctor and I thought perhaps it was a viral illness, so we rechecked it two weeks later... still low. We also tested ANA and a couple other things that could cause it... all normal. I'm under the impression that autoimmune diseases frequently cause low WBC counts.

I had a blood test for Celiac disease preformed a long time ago. It checked both my tTG IgA and total IgA -- both were within range. I was eating gluten at the time (and I still am, no plans to stop unless I receive a proper diagnosis).

It may also be worth noting that both my parents have autoimmune diseases. My father had T1 diabetes and my mother had transient Graves' disease. I know that autoimmune diseases can be more likely to run in families.

Any thoughts, suggestions, recommendations, or similar experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

[Ennis_TX 763]

I would suggest getting tested, often T1 and celiac go hand in hand. Anemia is a common issue same with teh C and D. I never used to have the extreme stomach pains that I noticed, but you really do not notice it when it is there 24/7 for years. I had major constipation and anemia for my diagnosis,  The dry skin between your fingers, weight drops, etc. Is all signs of nutrient absorption issues. There is something going on.

NOW you have to be eating gluten daily 1/2 slice of bread at least a day for 12 weeks prior to the blood test. They will follow up with a endoscope that you also have to be having gluten daily. I do suggest you go ask you doctor for the FULL comprehensive celiac blood panel. Feel free to post your results here and others can help you interpret them.

Now it could be celiac, ulcerative colitis or some other AI issue, after getting other levels checked we can help point you on other things to try. Even if you come back negative for celiac it might be worth trying the gluten free diet after wards as some people have Non Celiac Gluten Sensitivity and there is no current test for this other then the gluten free diet.

[meg-c 3]

12 minutes ago, Ennis_TX said:

I would suggest getting tested, often T1 and celiac go hand in hand. Anemia is a common issue same with teh C and D. I never used to have the extreme stomach pains that I noticed, but you really do not notice it when it is there 24/7 for years. I had major constipation and anemia for my diagnosis,  The dry skin between your fingers, weight drops, etc. Is all signs of nutrient absorption issues. There is something going on.

NOW you have to be eating gluten daily 1/2 slice of bread at least a day for 12 weeks prior to the blood test. They will follow up with a endoscope that you also have to be having gluten daily. I do suggest you go ask you doctor for the FULL comprehensive celiac blood panel. Feel free to post your results here and others can help you interpret them.

Now it could be celiac, ulcerative colitis or some other AI issue, after getting other levels checked we can help point you on other things to try. Even if you come back negative for celiac it might be worth trying the gluten free diet after wards as some people have Non Celiac Gluten Sensitivity and there is no current test for this other then the gluten free diet.

Thank you so much for your reply. 

The weight loss has evened off for the most part recently, which I'm pretty happy about. I had my B12 checked and it was low-ish (normal range apparently but I know it's not optimal from my own research) and a pretty high folate. I haven't had any other vitamin levels checked. My anemia is fairly under control, my hemoglobin runs in the 10-11 range, just can't bring it to the 12+ range (which is new for me, because I used to be able to donate blood). I'm really quite curious about the low WBC and possible connection to a AI condition -- maybe it's the light at the end of the tunnel? I have an appointment with a hematologist in a month or so to be evaluated. 

I have continued to eat gluten, no plans to stop anytime soon. 

Thank you so much, I definitely will post my results if/when I get them. I've been tested for SO much, I feel like a crazy person. I've felt pretty good recently, but this just can't be normal...

 

Thanks again! 

[cyclinglady 1,424]

Anemia was my only symptom when I was diagnosed.  I also tested funny with only the DGP IgA elevated, yet I had some pretty severe intestinal damage.  So, ask for the complete celiac panel as the TTG IgA does not catch all celiacs.  

[Jmg 299]

Hi

13 hours ago, meg-c said:

 

Any thoughts, suggestions, recommendations, or similar experiences would be greatly appreciated.

These papers may be of interest: 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1785098/

http://casereports.bmj.com/content/2016/bcr-2016-214874.abstract

Quote

Leukopenia/neutropenia

Abnormally low white-blood count has been reported in a few children with celiac disease.⁷² These findings appear to be rare, and deficiencies of both folate and copper have been implicated as possible etiology for the leukopenia.^69,70,83 The data on treatment of these patients are extremely limited but we recommend initiating a GFD and supplementing these patients' diets with oral copper sulfate if there is evidence of copper deficiency.

They both suggest copper levels may be low. Perhaps something to check?

 

Also just on this point:

Quote

I had a blood test for Celiac disease preformed a long time ago. It checked both my tTG IgA and total IgA -- both were within range. I was eating gluten at the time (and I still am, no plans to stop unless I receive a proper diagnosis).

It may also be worth noting that both my parents have autoimmune diseases. My father had T1 diabetes and my mother had transient Graves' disease. I know that autoimmune diseases can be more likely to run in families.

I fully respect your position of wanting evidence before you act. However...

I tested negative for celiac, blood test then endoscopy. However I do have a major problem with gluten. It affects all sorts of systems across my body. I only discovered this through a change in diet, which then led me back into the testing procedure via a gluten challenge. I became ill again and was convinced I'd have a positive test, because I react just as a celiac person would, but no, for me the tests were negative.  This is called Non Celiac Gluten Sentitivity or NCGS. If and when you've ruled out celiac then given your family history and symptoms you have nothing to lose by giving the gluten-free diet a try.  I didn't know just how ill I'd become until I removed gluten from my diet. Please give serious thought to trialling the diet. 

Best of luck!

Matt

[meg-c 3]

8 hours ago, Jmg said:

Hi

These papers may be of interest: 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1785098/

http://casereports.bmj.com/content/2016/bcr-2016-214874.abstract

They both suggest copper levels may be low. Perhaps something to check?

 

Also just on this point:

I fully respect your position of wanting evidence before you act. However...

I tested negative for celiac, blood test then endoscopy. However I do have a major problem with gluten. It affects all sorts of systems across my body. I only discovered this through a change in diet, which then led me back into the testing procedure via a gluten challenge. I became ill again and was convinced I'd have a positive test, because I react just as a celiac person would, but no, for me the tests were negative.  This is called Non Celiac Gluten Sentitivity or NCGS. If and when you've ruled out celiac then given your family history and symptoms you have nothing to lose by giving the gluten-free diet a try.  I didn't know just how ill I'd become until I removed gluten from my diet. Please give serious thought to trialling the diet. 

Best of luck!

Matt

Thank you so much for such a through response! Those papers were extremely interesting. It's nice to see that my PCP is on top of things -- when she called to inform me of the low WBC, she ordered a bunch of new tests. One of them actually was copper, and apparently that was normal. 

 

Good to know. I have a few appointments set up these next few weeks and really don't want to trial anything at the moment. If nothing comes of it, I'll probably give a trial gluten free diet a go. 

 

Thank you again!