My Husband's Symptoms

[achiera]

I have a question for all of you here. my husband is a self-diagnosed celiac. he's been gluten free for the past week and most of his symptoms have improved so much. but yesterday at work he ate pizza because their was nothing around, and we couldnt go out because he was so sick. most of his life he's had the brain fog, stomach pains, constipation or d. , headaches, gas, inability to gain weight, sore throats after eating bread/pastat, heart problems, etc... and we were talking last night about his family's medical history and it goes as follows, he can rememebr his mother always having similar symptoms throughout her life, and she died from hodgkins lymphoma about 10 years ago, her mother is now dieing from stomach/liver cancer and has always had similar symptoms, and her father had the same and died from colon cancer. now from what ive been reading, all of those diseases can stem from untreated celiac disease, right? i was just wondering everyone's opinion on the subject. i think he realized that it's possible that celiac disease is what his mother had and he is going gluten free from now on, and doesnt even want a offical diagnosis! i guess at the end of the day we all know whats going on in our own bodies more than any doctor or test. but my second question is what's the chance of 2 people getting married that both have the same disease?!?!? lol

thanks

alexis

[Rachel--24]

I think the chances are pretty slim but anything can happen! I think its very cool and definately makes life easier for both of you not having to worry about having gluten in the house.

[Guest nini]

actually I would think the odds are not that high really... right now they are estimating that one in 133 people have it... I think that as time goes on, they are going to put that number closer to one in say 50... I've been doing a little reasearch into blood type diets and that apparently the only blood type that may be able to digest gluten is AB... that would be the newest blood type on the evolutionary scale... the older blood types aren't capable of digesting the proteins in wheat, but AB types have evolved enough to be able to handle it... Interesting theory, might be something to look into. I know my blood type is A+...

[nettiebeads]

and he is going gluten free from now on, and doesnt even want a offical diagnosis! i guess at the end of the day we all know whats going on in our own bodies more than any doctor or test. but my second question is what's the chance of 2 people getting married that both have the same disease?!?!? lol

thanks

alexis

One - he has dx'd himself through the diet challenge. That was good enough for my dr. 9 yrs ago and I'm not arguing nor have any desire to get a more "official" dx. I know I can't have gluten, period. No other drs since have argued with me on that.

Two - and like nini said, the current estimate is 1 out of 133 probably have celiac, while only 1 in about 4,000 are properly dx'd with it. It just means that you two are more aware of celiac than the average population. Those with northern european ancestry seem to be more likely to carry the gene, so what are your respective backgrounds?

Anyhow, here's to his improved health!

Annette

[Nancym]

My own personal theory is it isn't slim at all because human beings have only been eating grain for 10,000 years and that isn't necessarily long enough to have completely adapted. Worse yet, we might never adapt because for a lot of us, we live long enough to reproduce and raise children.

Dr. Fine is looking for gluten antibodies in the gut and is finding them in an astonishingly high number of people, something like 60% I believe. I'm guessing only a small percentage of those get sick enough to be classified as celiacs but the rest of us are just somewhat sick to being mostly sick.

My own Mom is 86 years old and I believe she's gluten intolerant. She has a lot of the same symptoms I do, but not as bad. And I did get two of the GI genes, so one had to come from Mom. So I think it is possible to live a long life and just ignore it if your symptoms are light, but the last 10 years or so of your existence might not be so fun.

I think just giving a gluten-free diet a good run and seeing how you feel is a great idea. Why wait until you're so super sick you can't function normally at all? I think doctors are diagnosing the problem way, way too late. The tests are antiquated and they're too conservative in interpreting them and telling people to continue to poison themselves until they're much, much sicker.

I think this is one of those things that in 10-20 years people will look back and laugh at how antiquated and stodgy the doctors were back in the "old days", kind of like how we laugh at the advice they gave mother's in the 1950's to not breast feed and use formula instead because it was healthier.

[achiera]

thanks for the repsonses everyone, nettie to answer your question, we are both italian. my husband is a italian citizen and we lived there together for about a year. its funny because when we were there we both ate a gluten free diet and felt fantastic, I was searching for gluten free bread for the longest time while there, and finally found it in the pharmacy of all places! in italy celiac disease is so common that every child is tested for it before their 6th birthday. and gluten free products are considered to be medicinal.

alexis

[Rusla]

acheira,

I would say the instances are high with the ratios. It must be very high in Italy if they manditorily check every child before 6 years now. I am Scandinavian/Italian so, another high ration. It would be good if every country that has susceptibility to Celiac in its people should.

Sometimes in North America we are so far behind in medical things that, we think we are first.