LauraTX

Chia seeds are naturally gluten-free.  You do have to make sure you get a brand that is not processed on shared equipment, stuff like that, same as any other foods.

Last year I used Gluten Free Nation pie shells (Houston based bakery that sells in groceries around here) and they turned out well for my pumpkin and pecan pies.  This year I really want to do a lattice top apple pie for Thanksgiving so I just tested out this crust recipe: Open Original Shared Link and it works fabulously.  The dough handles well, and the best thing about gluten-free pie dough is you don't have to worry about overworking it.  Really was my first time ever making pie crust from scratch.  Definitely going to do that this year for the holidays since it will cost a lot less than buying all those other pie shells.

Awesome!  I love Alton Brown and still watch Good Eats reruns all the time.  I want cupcakes now.... gonna write this recipe down!

I highly recommend using a flour blend like Kind Arthur Flour or Pamelas, and on their website they each have a ton of recipes that you can use so you don't have to experiment much.  When I was diagnosed, I went to my library and requested every book with gluten in the name, so I could try out cookbooks before I buy.  The best gluten-free baking cookbook, in my opinion, is the Americas Test Kitchen How Can it be Gluten Free cookbook.  They really do their homework and it was incredibly helpful for me.  Good luck with the holiday baking!

I met a lady who had a lot of health problems, multiple autoimmune issues and had just had a bout with cancer.  A while after meeting her she nonchalantly tells me she was diagnosed with Celiac disease 10 years ago, but just never went gluten-free, and maybe she will do it now.  I thought inside my head for a few seconds and decided I would just respond to her with complete kindness and not criticize her, let her know that there are a ton of risks and it is probably affecting her more than she knows, and offered to go to her house and do grocery shopping and such with her.  I hope she does, but with someone like that, you just can't force someone, just educate and hope for the best.  Sadly, with the age of easily accessible information on the internet, much of that is wrong, and many people will believe what they want to because they want it to be, as with the Italian wheat thing.  Italy has it's fare share of Celiacs, but people won't believe what they don't want to sometimes.  Same thing happens with morbidly obese people after  they have heart issues, diabetics who still eat an uncontrolled diet against what is needed... some people just will not take care of themselves.  A very sad thing to watch, indeed.  

Yes, thankfully they were unopened! I'm ever so grateful for this forum in sooooo many ways : )

I actually wanted to message you because my husband and I are headed to Dallas for the gluten-free expo next month. Where should we eat Saturday night? Anything cool to do after the expo sat afternoon?

How Cool!    I will send you a pm so I dont give my location away, lol.

Thank you! These are in my freezer now!

Ack!  I hope they are unopened.  But this is a good example of the usefulness of the forum.  Glad you were able to catch em.

I would buy another brand next time, people who try to say they are safe on a technicality like that are not going to get my money.  

Lindt in the US usually has barley malt flavoring in it, so I stay away from the brand.  Hopefully it is not a manufacturing process change and you will still be able to get that one.  What country are you in, Japan?

The bottom line is that gluten intolerance is not cut and dry... if you feel better eating gluten free, and have exhausted all testing methods, then do what makes you feel better.  

I do have thyroid issues. That is how they came to find out that I have Celiac Disease. 

Welcome to the Forum, Needleup.  The post you are replying to is from 2010 so you may not get a good conversation going with the old posters who may not be around.  Feel free to start a new post about any of your issues to get some better responses.

Well, for different regular gluteny breads, there are going to be different levels of gluten.   That question has been asked on the forum before, and the bottom line is that we aren't going to have an answer for that.  The answer to any problem with gluten is to cut it out 100%, a low gluten diet type of thing is not going to fully help anyone with an actual medical issue.  Things like pizza dough tend to be made with a higher gluten flour, if that helps, but since you are experiencing things like sneezing, it sounds like there is an actual allergy in there somewhere to something you are eating.  You also may be eating a higher quantity of the gluten containing product when you eat things like pizza and pasta as compared to a hamburger bun.  But the cookies, biscuits, and cinnamon rolls making you sneeze sounds like it is an issue to something else so you may want to keep a food journal and write down all the ingredients in things that make you sneeze, so that way you may be able to pinpoint what it is so you can avoid it.  

I, too, would rather go to costco but there is a sams right in my town, and the costco is a long drive along a toll road.  So, Sams it is for me, for now.  That is good info about the pizza... now I want pizza!  LOL

Which meatballs are gluten-free at sams?

I get a lot of household stuff and dry goods at sams.  When cooking for two, it isn't always the best place to stock up on food.  But I do like their natural chicken that is packaged vacuum packed two breasts to a pack, ready to freeze easily. Their OTC drugs and vitamins are usually labeled well, so I get some of those, too.  Every once in a while they will get a limited time product in that is gluten free, this past summer it was the freshetta pizzas,  I still write them once a month begging for them to get them back, lol.  I also like to buy underwear there, LOL.  Skip the other clothes, usually, since you can't try them on.

....Does it have to say "certified" in order for us to really know? You'd think the manufacturers could be more careful about these things.

On Medicines it is not going to be a common thing.  Vitamins and supplements do need more scrutiny than RX medications.  With RX medications the "There are no gluten ingredients but we cannot guarantee the absence of gluten" CYA statement means it is acceptably gluten free.

Good to see ya, and good to see those numbers.  More healing to be done!

If you feel like the vaccine may be contraindicated by your history of lyme disease, definitely check with a doctor first.  We are definitely not familiar with lyme disease here as a general group.   If it is just people on the internet saying to stay away from the preservatives and such, getting that special one you mentioned is a good compromise.  But anyone who is extra susceptible to respiratory illness can suffer terrible complications from the flu, so you just have to weigh the risk vs benefit as you have to do in most medical decisions.  

The laboratory standards changing is something I have heard of.  This year there was a lot of controversy with certain insurers looking at patients who were on IVIG treatment and therefore had normal IgG levels, telling them "hey you are normal now so we aren't paying for IVIG anymore you need to be reassessed after a 6 month break" and totally screwing up people's lives.  I suspect that has something to do with all of that and more standards being put into place to try and protect against that.

Sbwife, are these gluten free breads and baked goods you are eating, or regular baked goods that do contain wheat and gluten?

Welcome to the forum!

I was what was thought to be an asymptomatic Celiac when first diagnosed by accident, but after I went gluten-free my stubborn low iron levels and my unexplained peripheral neuropathy went away.  For me and many others, some symptoms take a very long time to resolve- a year or more.  After about a year gluten-free, my neuropathy only comes back very scarcely and not nearly the severity it was.  So, in your case, it may be that more healing time is needed.  Even though you have been on the right track for 7 months, hopefully it will just take a little more time to get things back to normal.  Definitely keep up with your checkup appointments in the meantime.  

The above ladies are right on the money here.  I definitely wouldn't include anything processed in your elimination diet.  You should be able to make a decent cream of rice type porridge thing with cooked rice.  Lastly, if your water pill is a prescription medication and you are also having leg swelling, I would go see your regular doctor to make sure your heart is okay, and not discontinue that medication unless under their guidance.

Whoops, pressed reply too fast there.  Make sure the vaccine you get is one of the dead ones, and not a live one.  (Like the nasal mist).   More info can be found here: Open Original Shared Link

Unless a doctor is telling you not to get it, I would absolutely get your flu shot as soon as you can.  For the immunodeficiency patients it pretty much is not an option to not get it.

Thanks for posting those results.  The good news is your total IgG is good, it looks like a potential IgG Subclass Deficiency (Open Original Shared Link ) and that is usually not as severe.  A person I know with that has a similar story as you, his ears are constantly infected and he has hearing loss from the constant infections so they keep him on antibiotics all the time.    Sometimes other things they check can still mean you need IVIG therapy, but just a few low sub-classes doesn't necessarily mean you need it.  I would definitely follow up with the immunologist so they can at least take a good look at it, and at least have someone to go to any time you get those infections.

There isn't much else you can do to boost immunity other than to take care of yourself overall, anything that improves your overall health is a good plus to your immune system.  If you are of the severity that you need IVIG, many people get a huge improvement in their health after going on it, so it isn't necessarily something to be afraid of.  Myself, I was like you, the sickly child, always catching everything, and once I learned and was able to treat the true cause of it all, it helped me a lot.  So for now while you are waiting to get that appointment, just do the best you can to take care of yourself, and then you can get some good answers.

Hi Quincy,

I have Celiac disease and Common Variable Immunodeficiency with low IgG and IgA.  People with immunodeficiencies have a greater prevalency of autoimmune disorders... I also have lupus and things related to it.  When I was first diagnosed over a year ago, my immunologist said that just low immunoglobulins is not enough neccesarily to merit IVIG treatment.  They have to look at certain things with your B cells and T cells, and what your vaccine response is, along with the immunoglobulin levels.   Then from that the decision is made of a diganosis (i.e. just Open Original Shared Link or the more involved Open Original Shared Link).  There are cutoff levels for IgG values that sometimes need IVIG, and always need IVIG.  The lower you go, the more likely you will need it.  Have you seen an immunologist yet?  That is certainly your next needed step.  

When it was first discovered I had CVID, it was incompletely diagnosed by a rheumatologist.  Please get yourself to an immunologist who specializes in immune deficiencies, so you have a complete diagnosis and nothing is skipped.  It is likely your doctor, if they are not a specialist, is not going to have the skill set needed to interpret your results.

Lastly, please go check out the Primary Immune Foundation's website at Open Original Shared Link, they have a lot of resources.  They can even help you find a doctor if needed:  Open Original Shared Link

From the best of my knowledge there is only one other person on this board with experience with immunodeficiencies, a person whose child has it.  They will probably pop in to the thread soon.  Let us know what happens, and if you just need someone to talk to about the new discovery, I am here for ya.  The good thing is that you now know the cause of all the past infections and such, and it is great being able to treat the actual cause.

Hi Godschild,

For your gas, you can take gas-x.  Open Original Shared Link and I have seen store brands clearly marked as gluten-free.  For fiber, Open Original Shared Link are gluten-free.  Try to pick whole grain versions of things, like brown rice instead of white rice, get your veggies in, and try to limit things like dairy, cheese, and other things that can stop you up.  If you are thinking of taking medicine to clear you out, remember it is easier to prevent constipation with diet than to treat it, but the least harsh way to go is an enema, which you can buy at the drug store.  Make sure to read and follow all the instructions.  Other laxatives can be very harsh on an already upset system.  You can also look into eating dried fruit like prunes, start very small with just one per day as they contain fiber and sorbitol that can cause a greater effect than wanted sometimes.

Since you are new to the forum and celiac disease, I highly recommend keeping your questions here in the thread where everyone can read and respond to them, instead of chat where there may be no one on there.   Here everyone can see it and give you help.