Dying From Celiac?

[SharonF]

After reading on here that Kid Rock's sidekick Joe C died of celiac, I did some googling. Not only do the websites say he died of celiac, they say that he was taking 60 pills a day.

I have some questions about this.

How do you die of celiac? I mean, nothing said "Cancer, caused by celiac," they just all said "died of celiac."

And 60 pills a day? What on earth for?

Educate me.

[KaitiUSA]

He died from complications I guess. Celiac can cause many problems if left untreated. Maybe he didn't follow the diet and ended up with getting something else due to severe damage. I have no clue why he was taking 60 pills a day...maybe that had something to do with him dying. Something just doesn't seem to add up in my mind about him...maybe someone else on here knows better then I do.

[VegasCeliacBuckeye]

Are you sure the 60 pills were for MEDICINAL purposes only?

[CMWeaver]

It is SO ironic that you post this. I recently heard about this as well.

Here is what I was able to obtain from the web. If anyone can shed some light, please do. We're only 4 months into the gluten-free diet with 4 year olds.

Joe C. suffered from a digestive condition called Celiac disease, a genetic disorder which was to blame for his pint-size stature (Joe C. rapped on Rock's Devil Without A Cause that he was 3 feet 9 inches tall). The rapper joined Rock's Twisted Brown Trucker band in 1994 and had become an integral part of the band's live show since Rock's launch to stardom in 1998.

He had a celiac disease, a chronic digestive disorder which made him take 70 pills a day. At night he was hooked up to an I.V. machine and was also on a dialasis machine which is a machine that cleans the toxins and poisons out of your blood when your body can not. The disease also kept Joe C. from growing any taller than 3" 9'.

From a Spin magazine interview: " Basically I got a growing disease, and I've been on medication since I was little. I take like 75 pills a day. One of the pills I take is called Prednisone, and it's a steroid, and it stunts your growth. And I've been on it since I was four. They try to take me off it occasionally, and I get really sick. So I could be off it, but I'd have to live in the hospital."

[KaitiUSA]

I understand the being short maybe because of a bad case of it...but the pills he took everyday? Sounds to me like he had something else wrong from the article that I read (posted above)

[mommida]

There is a auto-immune liver disease that is associated with Celiac. My daughter is to be screened for it during her yearly check at the ped. gastro. I can't think of the clinical name for it.

It was also said that Joe C. was not as carefull with his diet and lifestyle as doctors reccomended.

I've heard cause of death listed as Celiac Crisis before.

Laura

[celiac3270]

That is.......a lot of pills. First off, there are no pills for celiac disease, so that can't be it. Second, he'd have to have something wrong with basically everything in his body to be taking 70 pills...that's a strange story.

[KaitiUSA]

http://www.glutino.com/english/interieur/a...e.cfm?art_id=88

Here is a article I found and it says "One of the causes of death" in the first sentence.

"I'm doin' good, man," Calleja said. "I'm stickin' to my diet and takin' my medicine on time. You know, it's ridiculous. I take 60 pills [a day]. Right off the bat, when I wake up, [i take] two pills. An hour later, 10 pills. Three hours later, I've got the tube [in my stomach], and I shoot something through there three hours later. Two hours later, I take two more, and then an hour later, 10, then shoot the tube three hours later [again]."

Calleja's short stature was the result of a lifelong illness, celiac disease, a digestive disorder that required him to take more than 60 pills a day and be monitored by a machine at night.

ok what were the pills for? And why did he have a tube in his stomach because of celiac? does it all add up in your minds? or do you think they are not telling us something?

[Canadian Karen]

Maybe he was on massive doses of vitamins and supplements due to his inability to absorb. Perhaps the "pills" he is talking about is actually vitamins and minerals.

Regarding the tube in his stomach, I wonder if he had a colonoscopy (is that's what it's called when they remove part or all of your bowel and bypass it with a tube?). Perhaps he had many more bowel diseases than just celiac disease. Or perhaps he was what we regard as "the extremely rare" refractory disease....

It is still an intriguing story though...... it does sound like there is more to it - perhaps they are covering the fact that he abused his system with "many more substances....."?

Karen

[gabrielle]

I am so confused!!! This doesn't make any sense. I agree, there definitely has to be something else wrong besides Celiac Disease... I mean if he wasn't following his diet that's one thing, but 60 pills??? I think he died from taking 60 pills!!!

[ianm]

I could have easily been taking 60 pills a day with all of the crap that the doctors prescribed for me. Joe C may have known he had celiac but from my experience he could have been under the care of doctors that knew nothing about the disease. I went to at least 30 different doctors and not one of them ever suggested a food allergy. It does sound like Joe C had more than celiac.

[Guest ajlauer]

Regarding the tube in his stomach, I wonder if he had a colonoscopy

With a colostomy (removal of the colon), you end up with a bag sticking out (it's attached to a tube) to catch..... well, everything that would go thru your colon. The bag gets emptied when there's stuff in it, and that sort of thing. I have heard of diabetics having a little machine or tube in their belly to inject insulin into. Then there are like feeding tubes to place liquid food directly into the stomach.

He may be just celiac now, but like many others, went thru 100 other diagnosis and unneccessary surgeries in the past. And it seems like whenever someone is on one drug, they have to take 10 more with it. You know.... like, the prednisone does something to his blood pressure.... so then he has to take blood pressure pills.... and maybe they make him constipated, so he has to take laxatives.... the laxatives make him dizzy so he needs to take something for that... etc..etc...

It is interesting to have all these different experiences on this board... yet his is still quite different from the rest!

[dfish]

Throwing in my two cents . . . if Joe C was on Prednisone his whole life, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if he had to take "60 pills" a day. I'm not sure if anyone else who has taken it has had the same experiences as most people I know, but Prednisone is one nasty, nasty drug. I got prescribed it when I was first diagnosed for celiac and was on it for about three months. I got all of the common side effects, which include swelling, joint pain, "moon face", weight gain, and pushed into hyperinsulinemia (borderline diabetes) and had to get weaned off of it for another three months; now I'm diabetic and am supposed to take medication for that, too. My doctor just put me on it again two days ago for a different issue and after only one day my hands and knees are killing me and I already feel puffy and screwed up. Luckily, I'm only supposed to be on it for a week, but even with that short duration of a dose, I could still have side effects long down the road. Also, Prednisone suppresses one's immune system, so you become very susceptible to any contagious disease, including colds and flus, as well as more serious infections and viruses. When I read that he was taking Prednisone his whole life, one, I could understand why he was probably put on a whole bunch of other drugs just to counteract the effects of that one and two, I felt really bad for him because I can't imagine anyone having a good quality of life taking this drug for any length of time. It's a doozy!

[scoutfinch]

Actually, you don't have to have your colon removed to have a colostomy. The colostomy just refers to the creation of a stoma where the upstream end of the colon is brought to the outside of the body. This can be permanent or temporary. I came out of hysterectomy surgery with a colostomy - the doctor tore a hole in my bowel with a retractor - they basically disconnected the lower part of my colon so it could heal. Of course, this was a nasty surprise for me and necessitated another surgery to reconnect everything 10 weeks later. Needless to say, I know more about my colon and things related to it much more than I ever thought I wanted to.

That still doesn't explain the tube in Joe C's stomach or the 60 pills a day...

[angel-jd1]

Joe C was also (please excuse my terminology if it is not politically correct) a little person or a dwarf. I believe that this too can bring on health conditions that would have nothing to do with celiac disease. This could be part of the reason for his large list of medications.

[KaitiUSA]

They said his height was because of celiac......was that not true?

If he was a dwarf then your right that can cause some serious health issues...

[Guest nini]

He was in fact a dwarf, AND consumed major amounts of gluten laden alcoholic beverages. I've seen him on MANY interviews and he joked extensively about his drinking. I'm thinking that his doctors did not know enough about celiac to manage it, and were just treating his symptoms and NOT the cause. It's a shame too.

[KaitiUSA]

That would be more to the story then...I don't think he had very good doctors, and I don't think he was really gluten free...I think he had several health problems due to being a dwarf.

[strack2004]

Hi all! Maybe Joe's doctors knew him well enough to know they couldn't really control all that he did to himself at home and other places. So they just did the best they knew how with medicines to treat all the stuff he did to himself. Someone else said many of the pills may have been vitamins and minerals in individual pills. Just another idea Cheers, Ruth S. Strack2004

[muffinxx]

please read my post from a few months back, my mother also died of celiac x

[stef-the-kicking-cuty]

I also think that it's possible to die from celiac disease, if you don't pay attention what you put into your mouth. If nutrients and vitamins are missing for a few years all possible organs can shut down. Like with me I had severe muscle weakness while being undiagnosed. The heart is a muscle, too. What, if it stops???

[luvs2eat]

If he was on dialysis, that's got to do with kidneys... maybe he had what the young kid on Different Strokes had... dang... I can't remember his name... that made him really small and short... and in need of a new kidney!

[Canadian Karen]

Gary Coleman.......

Karen

[Celiac gurl]

Well.... I just had a 50/50 chance of survival in surgery 2 months ago, they had to pull out my sigmoid colon that was heavily diseased with diverticulitis while I perforated many times and gluten poisoning weakened my colon, I had a slow deathly flow of peritonitis until one day the colon burst like a sausage... it was life or death and I woke up finding out I was so poisoned they had to wash the entire abdominal cavity and I woke up with a colostomy... and I am only 53

[cyclinglady]

8 hours ago, Celiac gurl said:

Well.... I just had a 50/50 chance of survival in surgery 2 months ago, they had to pull out my sigmoid colon that was heavily diseased with diverticulitis while I perforated many times and gluten poisoning weakened my colon, I had a slow deathly flow of peritonitis until one day the colon burst like a sausage... it was life or death and I woke up finding out I was so poisoned they had to wash the entire abdominal cavity and I woke up with a colostomy... and I am only 53

We are so glad that you are alive!  My Aunt experienced this, but she does not have celiac disease.  She had a hernia.  The hospital was more focused on her pneumonia and put off treating her hernia.  She has fully recovered and has adjusted to her colostomy bag.  I am sure you will be fine too.