A Possible Celiac Needs Our Help

[Nantzie]

I've been going to Yahoo Answers for a while now, answering questions that come up about celiac and related issues.

Today I saw something that scared me to death (emphasis mine):

"My SIS imagines her nose runs when she eats gluten or dairy food, and it keeps her awake.?

I have watched her closely, especially when she has given in and eaten something containing gluten and/or dairy products (usually cake, unfortunately) and the only time she had this symptom was when she had a cold. She is 84 and has starved herself so badly she looks like a skeleton covered in skin. Is she suffering from hypochondria or some sort of food phobia? Sometimes when I've managed to get a reasonably decent meal into her she has brought it up. She tends to make light of this problem and concentrate on the imagined symptoms. When we visited a friend suffering from hay fever she told us she had woken up with sore eyes as well as a runny nose, yet that morning she had assured me she slept very soundly. She certainly had no sign of a runny nose. "

The only other two answers other than mine are one person saying to get her doctor to tell this woman's sister to eat dairy and gluten, and another person just saying it was somatic.

There's no way to know of course if this poor woman has celiac just by reading this, but it really sounds likely to me. She should at least be tested for it. Just that an 84 year old woman knows the word gluten is a big sign that something is going on.

I'm hoping that some other people here can go to this Yahoo Answers question and post answers encouraging this woman to take her sister to a doctor and insist on being evaluated for celiac.

Please help ...

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Nancy

[CarlaB]

Good idea, I did it. I'm sixgoofykids.

[Mtndog]

thank you for letting us know about this. I answered too!

[Nantzie]

Thanks guys.

Nancy

[Nantzie]

An update, from the sister -

"Please understand my sister-in-law DOESN'T suffer from the symptoms she complains of. The only time she was sniffly was when she caught a cold. I would guess she brings up her meals (which is only occasionally, not all the time) because her years of self-starvation have made a decent meal difficult to keep down. I just want to know why someone would put herself through all this agony for no reason. When she DOES eat gluten and dairy food they seem to do her no harm at all."

I'm SO mad I'm shaking. I mean, take your sister to the DOCTOR and stop "guessing" as to why she's so sick.

If anyone wants to go back and try to talk some sense into this woman, at the end of your answer theres an edit button and you can add more information to the end of your answer.

Nancy

[Riayn]

The sister may be right. It almost sounds to me like this poor lady is in the early stages of dementia.

Yes, she should be checked for signs of food intolerances, but she should also talk to a doctor who is experienced in geriatric health.

[Nantzie]

She posted again today, and it turns out that it's the SIL who refuses to go to the doctor (which she didn't mention before). Her SIL will only go to a naturopath-type doctor.

So it's a whole different situation. If I had known that it was the SIL not wanting to go, and not the person posting the question not wanting to take her, I would have answered it much differently.

I told her that she might want to contact the department of social services to see if they either could talk to her SIL and see if they could convince her to at leasted be evaluated by an MD, or maybe there was some sort of program she qualified for like home health or something.

Like you said, the important thing is that she be evaluated. There's no way to know if her problems have anything to do with food intolerances, but it's one of many things that needs to be looked at by an MD. At her age and frailty, with who knows how many years it's been since she's been to a doctor, it's probably a combination of at least a few things going on.

Very frustrating for all involved I'm sure.

Nancy

[DaCat]

So, does the sister-in-law refuse to take her to "any" doctor, or only her own naturopathic doctor? If it's the latter, please know that in many cases a naturopathic doctor can be of more help than a traditional doctor. I don't think it's fair for the sister-in-law to refuse to let "traditional" doctors help (if needed), but a naturopathic doctor (if well qualified) could be a world of help to this poor lady - even if it's dementia. They tend to go after the source of the problem, not just treat symptoms. Just my 2 cents.

~Shelly

[Nantzie]

I agree about the naturopathic doctor to a point. I have a naturopathic doctor who is just wonderful who I admire and trust. I've seriously considered becoming an alternative medicine practitioner of some sort someday.

But at age 84, my concern would be that she's not getting the diagnostic workup that she needs. It could be a food intolerance and/or dementia, or it could be many other things. If this were my relative, who was very set on only being treated by a naturopath, I'd try and convince her to get some diagnostic work by an MD to see exactly what we're dealing with, find out from the MD what his/her recommendation would be as far as treatment, and then go to the naturopath. I'd then do as much as humanly possible naturopathically because that was what the sick person wanted.

My concern from the patient's point of view in this situation, which is probably why she won't go to the MD in the first place, is that the family would pressure her into doing whatever treatment the MD recommended and they wouldn't take her to the naturopath at that point. And it seems like the family isn't going to want to do anything in the way of special food needs. So I can't even imagine how that must be do deal with when you're the one who's sick.

If I ever became an alternative med practitioner it would be to work somehow along with MD's. Because there are serious limitations to both branches of medicine.

Nancy