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Celiac.com 07/21/2016 - Celiac disease is a condition that can sometimes have vague symptoms, including mental and neurological symptoms, and that can make it hard to diagnose. Sometimes, individual cases can help to shed light on the serious nature of celiac disease, as well as the importance of a gluten-free diet in treatment. Consider the case of a 37-year-old Ph.D. candidate began to suffer from mysterious delusions, details of which appear in The New England Journal of Medicine. The doctors who treated her wrote that the woman, who was otherwise healthy and seemingly normal, had begun to believe that friends, family members and even strangers were conspiring to act out scenes for her in a what the woman thought was some kind of "game." The delusions got so bad that the woman began making threats against her family, and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital and was diagnosed with a psychotic disorder, according to the report. The doctors prescribed anti-psychotic medications, which, they wrote, did not work very well. However, during her stay, they did notice that she had several vitamin and mineral deficiencies, had lost a lot of weight and also had thyroid problems, according to the report. Noting the symptoms, the doctors began to suspect celiac disease, said Dr. Alessio Fasano, director of the Center for Celiac Research and Treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and one of the doctors who treated the woman. When the doctors confirmed celiac disease, the woman refused to go on a gluten-free diet, because she was still suffering delusions and believed the doctors to be actively deceiving her about having celiac disease. In this case, the woman lost her job, became homeless and even attempted suicide before she was finally re-hospitalized at a psychiatric facility, where she was successfully placed on a gluten-free diet, where she improved tremendously. She came to understand that a reaction to gluten had triggered her symptoms and caused her life to spin out of control, said Dr. Fasano, and she wanted people to understand that her strange behavior was due to the gluten reaction. The woman's case is not typical, to be sure, but it highlights the sometimes sneaky ways celiac disease can manifest, the serious health impacts celiac disease can have, and the importance of adopting a gluten-free diet. Source: Livescience.com.

Celiac.com 12/28/2006 – Antonio Tursi and colleagues at the Digestive Endoscopy Unit, Lorenzo Bonomo Hospital, Andria, (BA), Italy have published a study which concludes that any neurological damage caused by celiac disease may be irreversible—even after treatment with a gluten-free diet. Although the study is relatively small, its conclusions are important—especially to those who suffer from the neurological effects of celiac disease. More research needs to be done to determine why antineuronal antibodies persist in treated celiacs. It would be interesting to see if the removal of other common offending proteins (such as casein, soy, corn, eggs, etc.) from the diets of the patients in this study would have any effect on their antineuronal antibody levels. The following article that was recently published on Celiac.com may provide further insight: Gluten Causes Brain Disease! By Prof. Rodney Ford M.B., B.S., M.D., F.R.A.C.P. Below is the abstract of the study: Dig Dis Sci. 2006 Sep 12 Peripheral Neurological Disturbances, Autonomic Dysfunction, and Antineuronal Antibodies in Adult Celiac Disease Before and After a Gluten-Free Diet. Tursi A, Giorgetti GM, Iani C, Arciprete F, Brandimarte G, Capria A, Fontana L. Digestive Endoscopy Unit, Lorenzo Bonomo Hospital, Andria, (BA), Italy. Thirty-two consecutive adult celiac disease patients (pts), complaining of peripheral neuropathy (12 pts), autonomic dysfunction (17 pts), or both (3 pts), were evaluated to assess the presence of neurological damage (by clinical neurological evaluation and electrophysiological study) and antineuronal antibodies and to assess the effect of a gluten-free diet on the course of the neurological symptoms and on antineuronal antibodies. At entry, 12 of 32 (38%) pts showed signs and symptoms of neurological damage: 7 of 12 (58%), peripheral neurological damage; 3 of 12 (25%), autonomic dysfunction; and 2 (17%), both peripheral neurological damage and autonomic dysfunction. The overall TNS score was 105 at entry. Anti-GM1 antibodies were present in 5 of 12 (42%) pts: 3 showed peripheral neurological damage and 2 showed both peripheral neurological damage and autonomic dysfunction. One year after the gluten-free diet was started, histological lesions were still present in only 10 of 12 (83%) pts. TNS score was 99, 98, 98, and 101 at the 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 12th month after the gluten-free diet was started, so it did not improve throughout the follow-up. None of the pts showed disappearance of antineuronal antibodies throughout the follow-up. We conclude that adult celiac disease patients may show neurological damage and presence of antineuronal antibodies. Unfortunately, these findings do not disappear with a gluten-free diet.

Celiac.com 05/28/2009 - Dr. MariaPorpora and her fellow researchers in Italy studied a woman backin 2003 who had chronic abdominal and pelvic pain, deep dyspareunia(pain while having sex), and dysmenorrhea (menstruation pain similar tocramps). When she came in to Dr. Porpora’s clinic, she also haddiarrheaand had lost five kilograms in the last six months. Her painwas so bad that she completely avoided having sex. She measured the severity ofher pain on a one to ten scale, with one being low and ten being high: Dysmenorrhea: 10 Chronic pelvic pain: 7 Dysapareunia: 10 Shealso had a “normal cervix, a mobile, anteveted mildly enlarge uteruscaused by myomata (benign tumors), and the absence of adnexal masses(lumps in tissue near the uterus, usually in the ovary or fallopiantube).” The doctors werejustifiably confused, and even performed surgery tohelp relieve the pain, however, after six months her symptoms returned. She wasonly partially responsive to their “analgesic, antispasmodic, andantidepressant” drugs. She had no obvious gynecologic disorder. During subsequent examinations the doctors discovered an issue related to malabsorption, and the patient was tested forgluten antibodies. The results were positive, and the woman was put on a gluten-free diet. After one year on a gluten freediet the woman’s pain disappeared, along with her other symptoms offatigue, depression, and general intestinal issues. Accordingto this article, 40% of cases of pelvic pain in women have no known cause, even if they have been diagnosed with irritable bowelsyndrome or inflammatory bowel diseases. According to the doctors: “Celiac disease should betaken into consideration when a patient presents with unexplainedpelvic pain, dysmenorrhea, or deep dyspareunia if these symptoms areassociated with bowel disorders, even in the absence of a knownintestinal disease.” Reference: Obstetrics and gynecology 2002;99(5 Pt 2):937-9.

Celiac.com 05/08/2009 - In 1996-1997, in an effort to test a hypothesis by scientist Karl Ludvig Reichelt, Norwegian researchers began a long-term study of 23 children aged 4 to 11 from the southwestern Norwegian town of Stavanger. All of the children suffered from hyperactive disorders including ADHD. All children showed abnormal levels of peptides in their urine. Dr. Reichelt believed that metabolic disorders impair the effective breakdown of certain proteins in children and thereby cause mental problem, such as hyperactive disorders. Related international research has established links between protein disorder and the conditions of autism and schizophrenia. A growing number of studies also hint that some cases of ADHD are tied to digestive disorders. Data from this Norwegian study supports the idea that ADHD may also arise from a digestive disorder. This study indicates that consumption of certain foods, such as milk and gluten, may contribute to ADHD in children who lack the enzyme that breaks down proteins like casein, a component of milk--which also helps in the formation of cheese. Interestingly, when children who lack this enzyme eat foods that require the enzyme to properly digest proteins like casein, their brains experience an opium-like effect, which might explain at least some of the spaciness and impaired attention these kids exhibit. According to Reichalt's theory, hyperactivity can be controlled by reducing the intake of foods that require the presence of this missing enzyme to properly break down the offending proteins. In the study, 22 of the 23 children were placed on strict milk-free and/or gluten-free diets. They were taken off milk products and other foods containing casein. All exhibited a rapid improvement in general well-being, including improved mental health and general behavior, improved attention-span and better learning abilities. After a year, 22 of the 23 families reported clear improvements in their child's behaviour and attention-span. When the kids were taken off their diets, their symptoms returned nearly immediately. Before changing their diets, most of the children were taking medications, like Ritalin, to treat their symptoms. After their diets were established, their medications were discontinued. By 2004, a number of the children had ceased their diets for various reasons and some have returned to medication. Still, six children remained milk-free and several had also cut out gluten, which is found in wheat, rye, barley and to some extent oats. Due in part to the small sample size, and limited amounts of data from comprehensive studies on the number of ADHD children who suffer from peptide-breakdown abnormalities, the study has been met with a certain resistance among the medical community, where most doctors still believe that the evidence best supports medications like Ritalin as the best way to treat the ADHD. Still, the results carry weight among the parents, and among the Norwegians, as hundreds of other Norwegian children with ADHD, mainly in and around Stavanger, have in recent years been put on milk-free and/or gluten-free diets to help control ADHD and related disorders. Agence France Presse 2008. Yahoo! News 2008

Am J Clin Pathol. 2004 Apr;121(4):546-50 Celiac.com 04/20/2004 – According to researchers at the Department of Anatomic Pathology, William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, MI, the cause of flattened villi is not always celiac disease. The researchers studied seven patients who experienced several weeks of gluten-sensitivity and the same type of villi injury—"increased lymphoplasmacytic lamina propria inflammation, moderate to complete villous flattening, numerous crypt mitoses, and markedly increased villous intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs)." All patients were diagnosed with gluten sensitivity, and all returned 9 to 38 weeks later questioning their diagnosis, as their symptoms had substantially or completely disappeared, and clinical improvement in these patients seemed unrelated to their ingestion of gluten. A follow up endoscopy and colonoscopy was performed on these patients 4 to 16 months later, and the results of each showed a normal mucosa. According to the researchers: "Diseases other than GS can cause marked villous flattening and increased villous IELs in adults. The cause of small bowel mucosal injury is unknown. A similar non-GS-associated clinicopathologic complex, assumed to be due to a protracted viral enteritis or slow regression of a virus-induced immune reaction, occurs in children. The temporal aspects of symptom improvement and mucosal restitution in these 7 patients are similar to acute self-limited colitis. An overly exuberant immune response to an infectious agent is possible."