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Help For A Friend

CH16

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CH16 Newbie
CH16
Posted

Hello,

I'm writing on behalf of a family friend. She is 89 years old and has had Celiac Shrue for many years. While she has been careful to maintain a gluten free diet for years; with her advancing age she is having trouble maintaining her weight. Not being computer savy she has asked if I could find any information (particularly any new information) on this disorder and maintaining weight or diet advice. A higher calorie diet that would be tolerated by a celiac patient (and an older lady) would be most welcome. I should note that she has had excellent medical care and seems to have no other known complicating factors, beyond her age. This woman is a dear friend to the the family, and a strong old gal; I would be thankful for any information, suggestions, links to articles, etc. that anyone could provide. Thanks in advance for any information.

CH

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Jnkmnky Collaborator
Jnkmnky
Posted

Open Original Shared Link

All of these bread products are tasty and filling. There are even donuts! Adding carbs to the diet may help her gain weight. We like the white tapicoca rice bread. Make sandwiches, french toast, etc.

Open Original Shared Link

Chebe is nice because she can make anything bread related she'd like. Even "hot pockets"-- stuff with cheese, ham, turkey broccoli, pepperoni, mozzerella, and on and on ....

gf4life Enthusiast
gf4life
Posted

It would be helpful to know what her diet consists of now, so we don't suggest too many things that she is already eating.

Is she mainly just needing help with eating more calories, and a wider variety of foods? Or does she think she might be getting some gluten in her diet accidentally and needing help to find the source?

I am glad that she is maintaining her health and that she has good medical care. If she is loosing weight then she must not be eating enough.

God bless,

Mariann

lbsteenwyk Explorer
lbsteenwyk
Posted

Since she was diagnosed years ago, she may be over-restricting her diet. There are some ingredients that celiacs can use that were once restricted - vinegar for instance. Here are a few links to current diet information.

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

tarnalberry Community Regular
tarnalberry
Posted

I agree that it'd be helpful to know what she's eating now. If the main problem is not getting enough calories because she's not hungry or fills up fast, then she'll want to go with foods that don't cause her to fill up fast and are very calorie dense. Many store-bought gluten-free bread items are this way, because they may have a lot of fat, but I've found they also leave me VERY full for a while - especially if I'm drinking enough water with them to not get dehydrated - so it may work, but you'll want to be careful what items you go for. (The Kinnickinnick stuff I've tried isn't as "keep you full for half a day" as the Enjoy Life stuff I've had, for instance, and still has plenty of calories, so I'd second taking a look at the link for them that was already provided.)

Other things to go with are good sources of fat - like avocado, coconut, nuts, and oils. Eating frequently throughout the day can help too, as can getting low-intensity exercise. (For instance, if she's up to a fair amount of walking, doing that quite a bit in the day - slow walking, strolling, really - it can help stimulate the appetite. Though, again, it's important to see how it works for her.)

nettiebeads Apprentice
nettiebeads
Posted
Hello,

    I'm writing on behalf of a family friend. She is 89 years old and has had Celiac Shrue for many years. While she has been careful to maintain a gluten free diet for years; with her advancing age she is having trouble maintaining her weight. Not being computer savy she has asked if I could find any information (particularly any new information) on this disorder and maintaining weight or diet advice. A higher calorie diet that would be tolerated by a celiac patient (and an older lady) would be most welcome. I should note that she has had excellent medical care and seems to have no other known complicating factors, beyond her age. This woman is a dear friend to the the family, and a strong old gal; I would be thankful for any information, suggestions, links to articles, etc. that anyone could provide. Thanks in advance for any information.

            CH

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Does she have a dr that specializes in geriatrics? Has she been tested for diabetes? Weight loss is a symptom of that too, and at her age it could be a possibility. I'd like for her to be able to rule out other factors before focusing just on the Celiac aspect.

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    • knitty kitty
      High DGP-A with normal IGA

      By knitty kitty · Posted

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    • captaincrab55
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    • rei.b
      High DGP-A with normal IGA

      By rei.b · Posted

      Okay well the info about TTG-A actually makes a lot of sense and I wish the PA had explained that to me. But yes, I would assume I would have intestinal damage from eating a lot of gluten for 32 years while having all these symptoms. As far as avoiding gluten foods - I was definitely not doing that. Bread, pasta, quesadillas (with flour tortillas) and crackers are my 4 favorite foods and I ate at least one of those things multiple times a day e.g. breakfast with eggs and toast, a cheese quesadilla for lunch, and pasta for dinner, and crackers and cheese as a before bed snack. I'm not even kidding.  I'm not really big on sugar, so I don't really do sweets. I don't have any of those conditions.  I am not sure if I have the genes or not. When the geneticist did my genetic testing for EDS this year, I didn't think to ask for him to request the celiac genes so they didn't test for them, unfortunately.  I guess another expectation I had is  that if gluten was the issue, the gluten-free diet would make me feel better, and I'm 3 months in and that hasn't been the case. I am being very careful and reading every label because I didn't want to screw this up and have to do gluten-free for longer than necessary if I end up not having celiac. I'm literally checking everything, even tea and anything else prepacked like caramel dip. Honestly its making me anxious 😅
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      So you're saying that you think you should have severe intestinal damage since you've had the symptoms so long?   DGP IgG antibodies are produced in response to a partial gluten molecule.  This is different than what tissue transglutaminase antibodies are  produced in response to.   TTg IgA antibodies are produced in the intestines in response to gluten.  The tTg IgA antibodies attack our own cells because a structural component in our cell membranes resembles a part of gluten.  There's a correlation between the level of intestinal damage with the level of tTg antibodies produced.  You are not producing a high number of tTg IgA antibodies, so your level of tissue damage in your intestines is not very bad.  Be thankful.   There may be reasons why you are not producing a high quantity of tTg IgA antibodies.  Consuming ten grams or more of gluten a day for two weeks to two months before blood tests are done is required to get sufficient antibody production and damage to the intestines.  Some undiagnosed people tend to subconsciously avoid lots of gluten.  Cookies and cakes do not contain as much gluten as artisan breads and thick chewy pizza crust.  Anemia, diabetes and thiamine deficiency can affect IgA antibody production as well.   Do you carry genes for Celiac?  They frequently go along with EDS.
    • rei.b
      High DGP-A with normal IGA

      By rei.b · Posted

      I was tested for celiac at the same time, so I wasn't taking naltrexone yet. I say that, because I don't. The endoscopy showed some mild inflammation but was inconclusive as to celiac disease. They took several biopsies and that's all that was shown. I was not given a Marsh score.
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