Can Going Gluten Free Unmask Underlying Autoimmune Disease?

[bakinghomesteader]

Since being gluten free, I have been diagnosed with arthritis, anemia, and now they are checking for lupus. I am 31. Geez. I shouldn't have arthritis. They are checking also that it is not Rheumatoid. The arthritis has reared up since gluten free. I seem to have been in MORE pain since gluten-free. I didn't know if I have all this and now it is unmasked or something. Any ideas?

Thanks

Bakinghomesteader

[Lisa]

Since being gluten free, I have been diagnosed with arthritis, anemia, and now they are checking for lupus. I am 31. Geez. I shouldn't have arthritis. They are checking also that it is not Rheumatoid. The arthritis has reared up since gluten free. I seem to have been in MORE pain since gluten-free. I didn't know if I have all this and now it is unmasked or something. Any ideas?

Thanks

Bakinghomesteader

I am not an expert by no means, but I think Celiac has a loud voice, symptom related. Once those symptoms are relieved, other quiet voice are allowed to be heard.

Celiac can be very complex, and well known to develop in to other issues.

[lonewolf]

You might also have another food intolerance. I had horrible arthritis at age 32. (And Lupus was suspected.) It went completely away when I eliminated gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, beans, nightshade vegetables, peanuts, red meat and a few other minor things. I have added everything back except gluten, dairy and soy, and don't eat eggs unless baked into something. I recently experimented with adding dairy back and after several weeks I started getting joint pain in my toes and fingers. I cut dairy again and it went away.

It sounds like a lot to give up, but it gave me back my life. I don't think that "just" going gluten-free would have done it for me. I had 3 kids at the time and it was inconvenient, but I'm so glad I recovered without the use of the horrible medications they wanted to give me.

Just something to consider.

[grey]

My arthritis pain got worse after going gluten-free. I've been doing occupational therapy on my hands and while my wrists are improving (tenonitis too), my hands are still pretty painful. My neck doesn't seem to have gotten worse, too much.

I agree that celiac has a loud voice. As some of my other pain (digestive, migraines) has receded while gluten-free, other things have gotten more noticeable and more painful.

I'm in my early 30s too, and I get frustrated too sometimes about things like arthritis and osteopenia, not to mention the brain fog. I can't imagine what I'll be like in 20 years. I just keep hoping the gluten-free will slowly improve things - it took years to do the damage, it might take months or years to repair.

Good luck.

[mftnchn]

I'm not sure, I have had a similar question. I have a lot of return of old symptoms after going gluten-free, and after about a month a recurrence of lyme disease. The latter could have been coincidence, after being off treatment for it for 4 months.

[bakinghomesteader]

This is all very interesting. I will wait and see what the blood tests say before I eliminate anymore. I am taking Celebrex now and it only takes the edge off the pain. I still have pain in my hands, etc. I felt good in the beginning of gluten-free, but then this all started. So it could be food related I guess. Thanks for the info.

Bakinghomesteader

[mftnchn]

Just one more comment, I have had a lot of joint pain, and it turned out to be lyme disease. You might check that thread as well, as there are a number of us with both lyme and gluten sensitivity/celiac.

[Karen B.]

I'm 48, I've had arthritis for a long time because when I was a kid, they gave me large doses of steroids for what they thought was lupus (probably undiagnosed Celiac).

I've found releif from the arthritis without NSAIDs by taking turmeric and fish oil. I've recently found out that the flax seed oil I take for other things might be helping too. This was a big deal to me because I've nearly given myself an ulcer twice over the years from NSAIDs and I've had to take something since my mid-twenties. Since I already had noticed spicy curries helped the joint pain, the turmeric caplets were not a big stretch. And no one gets an ulcer or heart attack from turmeric or fish oil. (Hubby takes fish oil for his heart)

One note -- more natural sources like turmeric and fish oil aren't effective immediately. If you try them, expect it to take at least 2-3 weeks to kick in. I was able to take enteric coated aspirin during this time and gradually phase it out.

[bakinghomesteader]

Well, Praise God. It is not lupus. I have just plain osteo arthritis.

Karen- I never heard of tumeric capsules. I will have to look for those. I wonder if I can take them with the Celebrex?

I am also going to eliminate most dairy for a while. I was just having it on my cereal. I bought some soy milk I used to drink. So maybe that may help too.

Thanks all

Bakinghomesteader

[confused]

Well, Praise God. It is not lupus. I have just plain osteo arthritis.

Karen- I never heard of tumeric capsules. I will have to look for those. I wonder if I can take them with the Celebrex?

I am also going to eliminate most dairy for a while. I was just having it on my cereal. I bought some soy milk I used to drink. So maybe that may help too.

Thanks all

Bakinghomesteader

Im happy for you that it is not lupus, i bet u are so relieved.

paula

[Karen B.]

Well, Praise God. It is not lupus. I have just plain osteo arthritis.

Karen- I never heard of tumeric capsules. I will have to look for those. I wonder if I can take them with the Celebrex?

I am also going to eliminate most dairy for a while. I was just having it on my cereal. I bought some soy milk I used to drink. So maybe that may help too.

Thanks all

Bakinghomesteader

I get them at Whole Foods. Turmeric is a spice so if you don't have a problem with yellow mustard or curries (Indian or Chinese) then it shouldn't be an issue. I started on one caplet a day and worked up to 2, haven't needed to go to 3. As always, check with your doc to be certain.

This is the stuff we get:

Open Original Shared Link

My doc tried to get me to take Celebrex but warned me that the tummy problems could be as bad as with aspirin. But this was right after the Vioxx thing so I decided to stick with aspirin -- we pretty much know those side effects by now.

[grey]

I'm glad to hear it's not lupus!

Be careful with the soy milk (you probably already know this), some are NOT gluten-free.

I use almond milk; I think it tastes a lot better and it's less soy (especially soy lecithin) which causes problems for a lot of us.

[tabdegner]

This is a really interesting thread. I wonder about celiac's "loud" voice. I went gluten free at the end of March 2007. In June, I was diagnosed w/autoimmune diabetes. I'm in a reasearch study for people who are high risk for diabetes and my blood sugar numbers have been fine for the last 2.5 years. (I am tested every six months with a 2 hour oral glucose tolerance test). But in June, my numbers all of a sudden just skyrocketed. I couldn't help think how interesting it was that I had just gone gluten-free. (I'm not saying that my gluten-free diet caused my diabetes at all, but it's just crazy it all happened at the same time). I'd love to see some research on this.

[lonewolf]

I am also going to eliminate most dairy for a while. I was just having it on my cereal. I bought some soy milk I used to drink. So maybe that may help too.

Careful with the soy. It makes my joints ache worse than gluten or dairy combined.

[Guest Doll]

This is a really interesting thread. I wonder about celiac's "loud" voice. I went gluten free at the end of March 2007. In June, I was diagnosed w/autoimmune diabetes. I'm in a reasearch study for people who are high risk for diabetes and my blood sugar numbers have been fine for the last 2.5 years. (I am tested every six months with a 2 hour oral glucose tolerance test). But in June, my numbers all of a sudden just skyrocketed. I couldn't help think how interesting it was that I had just gone gluten-free. (I'm not saying that my gluten-free diet caused my diabetes at all, but it's just crazy it all happened at the same time). I'd love to see some research on this.

That *is* interesting. Some of my ideas (note these are just guesses):

1.) In some cases, autoimmune diseases appear around the same time in some people. The process for Type 1 diabetes possibly just took a bit longer to express itself clinically. Were you diagnosed with Celiac in March? People with one autoimmune disease are at risk for more, as you know, so it *could* also just be coincidence of course. It is common for people with Celiac to have more than one autoimmune disease, even if they have been on the gluten-free diet since a very young age. A gluten-free diet may or may not help the progression of other autoimmune diseases, but it doesn't seem to actually prevent them entirely (obviously). There was a poster awhile back whose son had been gluten-free since a few months of age, and now has been diagnosed with Crohn's at age 2.

A gluten-free diet may even speed up the process...who knows? Interestingly, a new study posted here on Celiac.com said that *either* a gluten-free OR a HIGH gluten containing diet prevented Type 1 diabetes in NOD mice.

2.) The gluten free diet is often very high in carbs if you use gluten-free "replacement" products. Of course, Type 1 (autoimmune diabetes) is *NOT* caused by or related to poor diet, excess carbs, obesity, etc. However, if you already have autoimmune destruction of your beta (insulin making) cells occurring, that extra "stress" of a high carb diet may put them in overdrive. The more insulin they produce, the more they stand out to the immune system, and the more stress and attack they are under. Basically, it is acting like a catalyst.

3.) Now that your body is not busy creating antibodies and a response to gluten, it is now focusing on the trigger for Type 1 diabetes and reacting to it, which is currently unknown. This ties into the last part of 1.)