Medication For Celiacs

[silk]

My daughter came home from school the other day and said there was a girl who also has Celiac who says she takes a pill when she plans to eat gluten the prevents her from having problems afterwards.

I explained to my daughter that while that sounded like a wonderful option, just because she was not having symptoms did not mean she was not still doing damage to her health and her small intestine.

Has anyone else heard of this? I asked her to ask the girl what it is that she is taking but she has not see her again to do so.

[RiceGuy]

There are some digestive enzyme products which are supposedly designed to target gluten, at least to some extent, so say the manufacturers. That's the only product I'm aware of. And your guess is correct. While it may reduce symptoms and/or the recovery time from a glutening, it doesn't prevent damage. I actually tried a couple different ones, and had a gluten-like reaction to at least one of them. Turns out that some companies include maltase (also called malt diastase), which is derived from barley!

So that poor girl is not doing herself any good if she's knowingly ingesting gluten. The enzyme products are only intended to assist in dealing with accidental exposure to gluten. I've read that an estimated 30% of Celiac sufferers have no noticeable symptoms, even though the damage is still being done internally.

[Skylark]

None of the DPP-IV products on the market in the US work. They are making unsubstantiated claims under the supplement labeling act. Proper controlled studies show that the gluten is not broken down. There is one enzyme product sold in the UK that contains the barley enzyme Alvine is styduing in the US. It might be helpful but it would only work on tiny amounts of cross-contamination, not a meal full of gluten.

Poor kid.

[Booghead]

I have one, but I don't think it works at all. I take it for vitamins that are commonly deficent in Celiacs.