It's Official... My Mom Has Celiac!

[Mother of Jibril]

Six months ago I was diagnosed with autoimmune hypothyroidism. I kept reading about a possible connection to gluten... and I was having abdominal pain... so after checking with an allergist I went on a gluten-free diet. Wow. What a HUGE difference it made. I wasn't able to get an accurate blood test, but the DQ8 gene, a couple of other autoimmune disorders, and a positive response to the diet was enough evidence to make me stick with it.

Anyway... when I saw my parents over the holidays they certainly noticed the change in my weight (I've lost about 30 pounds) and my skin (which hasn't looked this good since I hit puberty!). I was talking with my mom and I told her she really should get tested for celiac disease. And she listened! The blood test came back positive, so now she has an appointment to have her digestive system examined with a pill cam.

My mom is 61 years old and has been sick ever since I can remember. Over the last thirty years she has been diagnosed with diverticulitis, IBS, depression, diabetes (which she's now taking insulin for), fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, endometriosis (hysterectomy), arthritis (knee replacement), neuropathy, and migraine headaches. I hope she's able to adapt to the gluten-free diet and stick with it!!! She really deserves to feel better.

Keeping in mind that my mom has a lot of brain fog, can anyone recommend some good books or websites to help older adults? I'm going to send her my copy of "Celiac Disease: A Guide to Living with Gluten Intolerance," but I know she could use some tools that are really easy to understand and follow. She's a smart woman... but she has some mixed-up ideas about what a "healthy" diet means (thanks to the low-fat craze). I wish I had time to go up there and cook for a few weeks!

[rinne]

Good for you for figuring it out and helping your Mom.

This site?

[curiousgeorge]

oh that's GREAT! I'm pretty much sure my mother had it too but by the time I figured it out it was, alas, too late.

I hope she takes it to heart! It also gives you confirmation too!

[caek-is-a-lie]

Wow, your mom sounds like my mom, except her blood test was negative 10 years ago. Of course, it was just "below" a certain level, not necessarily zero. They never told us if we were actually at zero antibodies or not.

So she's 70 and I keep encouraging her to go gluten free anyway, but she won't, I suspect. It worries me because she will actually stop eating to stop feeling sick. If I lived closer, I'd just go over for a week and do all the cooking and make her see what a difference it makes. No more staying home for days because she can't leave the house with all the D she gets.

Oh well.

[Kaycee]

Your mums sound so much like my mum.

She has been ill for years, mainly just with stomach issues, and I guess high blood pressure and high cholesterol. She went to the doctor just before Christmas thinking she had what I had, coeliac. But the doctor didn't run the tests, instead he blamed it on her gall bladder and the thing that got me was that the Doctor said coeliac is not hereditary. Well those were mums words.

So mum has been low fat, she still has stomach issues. She is up here, well in this area for a few weeks. I can't convince them to go further, as dad is a hurdle in himself to get past. He did say once, it would be too hard for mum to change to a gluten free diet, but yet she embraces a lower fat diet. Her reading of labels even at 77 has never been a problem. What do you do?

Cathy

[rinne]

Wow, your mom sounds like my mom, except her blood test was negative 10 years ago. Of course, it was just "below" a certain level, not necessarily zero. They never told us if we were actually at zero antibodies or not.

So she's 70 and I keep encouraging her to go gluten free anyway, but she won't, I suspect. It worries me because she will actually stop eating to stop feeling sick. If I lived closer, I'd just go over for a week and do all the cooking and make her see what a difference it makes. No more staying home for days because she can't leave the house with all the D she gets.

Oh well.

And mine too.

[nora-n]

My mom has the D too and I have told her to stop eating all that bread lots of times. She is blood type 0 and knows about that type of diet, and she should eat maninly eat vegetables and meat, she does know how to do that, and that is the way I cook, but she craves bread, and lots of it....I wish she would listen to other people.