Celiac

"I have celiac disease. They diganose u by doing a blood test. They take some blood out of your arm and test u on celiac disease. If the blood test comes back bad you go for a biopsy/endoscope. That is when they stick a long skinny tube with a camera on it a nd stick [...]

In early 2004, we learned that our daughter Alyssa has Celiac Disease. Celiac Disease is genetic condition where the body does not know how to process Gluten, the protein found in wheat and other grains. In the body’s attempt to digest the... ...This is a content summary for our subscribers. Visit GrowingKids.org for more of this article and many others.

A lifelong autoimmune intestinal disorder, found in individuals who are genetically susceptible. Until today, I had never heard of Celiac disease. It's amazing the things I learn from participating in these dNeero paid surveys.

Celiac disease is a genetic disorder. There are many unanswered questions about the genetics but much has been learned. Here are 10 facts you need to know about celiac disease genetic testing.10 facts you need to know about celiac disease genetic testing.1. Genetic testing can help determine your risk as well as your children’s risk for celiac disease.2. Celiac genetic tests are readily available and can be done on blood or on a sample from a mouth swab but your doctor may unaware of the tests, how to order them, or how to interpret the results. 3. Genetic testing can be done whether you are eating gluten or not eating gluten. Blood tests for celiac disease antibodies however need to be done while eating gluten and become negative within a few weeks of restricting gluten.4. Your insu

Why should you be interested in mast cells? Do you have unexplained or poorly controlled symptoms? Do you have severe allergies and/or suspected food intolerance or sensitivity resulting in various health problems. Are your health problems difficult to shake, reverse, or are they being blamed on poorly understood diseases? Have you been told you have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) but have had little improvement with the treatments offered or recommended to you? Then you should be interested in learning more about mast cells. A mast cell problem might very well be the cause. They are, at least, likely to be contributing to your feeling ill. They are known to cause severe allergies, unexplained or difficult to treat symptoms effecting numerous parts of the body. The good news is that there

Prometheus Therapeutics and Diagnostics has modified their celiac genetics testing and reporting. They are now including the number of copies of DQ2 and DQ8. Along with the DQ results they also include a table that summarizes the risk of celiac disease over the general population. Previously Prometheus only reported the presence or absence of DQ2 or DQ8. If you happened to be positive for both DQ2 and DQ8 then we knew your entire DQ pattern. However, if you only had one copy of either or two copies of one the results had less value for determining your risk of celiac disease, its severity and the possible risk of your parents and children for having at least one copy of the at risk genes predisposing to celiac disease. Now Prometheus provides a very detailed report of the DQ2 and DQ8 gene

Up to this point, I have been writing solely about my childs dairy allergy. The truth is food allergies come in all shapes and sizes. Celiac Disease is a severe allergy to gluten. This particular allergy wreaks havoc on the body of the gluten allergic person, if ingested. A close friend of mine, along with a visitor on this blog, suffer this allergy and I just want to give some recognition. When I learned that Damian was allergic to dairy, it was hard. There were many mistakes that I myself made, that caused my child much discomfort. Over time, through many mistakes and hours and hours of phone calls to companies, I have learned to cope with food allergies and it is no longer such a huge hassle. So when a close friend of mine came home from the allergist with the diagnosis of a gluten all

Genetic tests exist for Celiac disease and are highly accurate for determining the risk of the disease. When a complete genetic panel is performed the possibility that someone having or ever getting Celiac disease can be determined to an extremely high degree of certainty. Unfortunately, some tests are misleading because they do not include a portion of the genetic pattern that may be present that can predispose to the disease yet the report may imply absence of increased risk. Some tests can be done without a doctor’s order. Insurance coverage for the tests is highly variable. A couple of laboratories can run the tests on samples obtained from a mouth swab that is painless and well accepted by children. Genetic testing can be done at any age whereas blood tests for Celiac disease are no

In a previous report on the probiotic VSL#3, I stated that VSL#3 DS (double strength) came in a capsule form that is gluten free. VSL#3 DS does not come in capsules. However, it does appear to be gluten free. VSL#3 DS is only available in sachets of powder. VSL#3 DS requires a prescription but the other forms of VSL#3 are available over the counter (OTC) without the need of a doctor's prescription. As far as I can determine, the prescription strength form of VSL#3, VSL#3 DS, is gluten free since it is unflavored. The flavored form of VSL#3 powder contains maltose that according to the manufacturer, is derived from barley. Though they report the maltose is highly processed to the point they believe no gluten residues remain they cannot insure it is gluten-free. To take VSL#3 DS and VSL#3 O

A gluten-free chocolate breakfast bar with a cup of coffee is what I had on my way out the door this morning. I was in a rush to head to my office today for our weekly meeting before beginning my day scoping patients and seeing my clinic full of people with celiac disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity, Crohn’s disease, mastocytic enterocolitis and food allergies. Glutino makes a variety of

Gluten in salad dressings present a challenge to those eating out.Salad dressings commonly contain wheat or gluten. At a restaurant it is nearly impossible to determine if their salad dressing is safe. It is just another one of the challenges of eating out faced by those of us with Celiac disease & gluten sensitivity. Trying to maintain a strict gluten-free diet can be frustrating because of these

Gluten-free beer that tastes great! That’s my verdict on Anheuser-Busch’s new gluten-free beer Red Bridge. It is made from sorghum instead of barley. In my opinion it is reminiscent of Fat Tire, my favorite microbrew beer pre-gluten-free days. However, Red Bridge is sweeter, presumably because of the sorghum. Gluten-free beer that tastes better than regular beer?Though I never particularly lo

Increased mast cells have been reported in association with eosinophils in the gut in patients with celiac disease and inflammatory bowel diseases like ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease condition. Mastocytic enterocolitis (entero=small bowel, colitis- colon + -itis= inflammation) is a newly recognized disorder defined specifically by the microscopic presence of increased mast cells (>20 mast cells/high power field) in the gut, typically associated with abdominal pain and diarrhea diagnosed as IBS-D.Mast cells are a type of white blood cell important in immune defense. These “covert” cells are hard to see in the lining of the gut without special stains. Therefore, they have been not recognized as being increased in the gut until recently when this association was found with IBS.

The mouth may produce the specific diagnostic blood antibodies and manifest the characteristic microscopic changes of celiac disease according to a study published by researchers from Palermo, Italy. Both endomysial antibody (EMA) and tissue transglutaminase antibodies (TTG) were detectable in more than half of twenty eight adults and children with newly diagnosed celiac disease who agreed to participate in the study. The presence of and degree of lymphocyte infiltration in the mouth correlated well with the detection of antibodies from swab of the mouth. Further research into the feasibility of diagnosing celiac disease from sampling of the mouth without requiring a small intestine biopsy is indicated. Combined with genetic testing for presence of HLA DQ2 and/or DQ8, currently obtainable from a mouth swab, such testing could be highly accurate and non-invasive. It must be remembered that using EMA and TTG and presence of either DQ2 and/or DQ8 will select out those with celiac disease

Living with celiac disease and diabetes can be a challenge, but you can manage them. Celiac disease is linked with gluten protein in oats, wheat, rye and barley. The nutrient absorbing lining of the small intestine, called villi, is damaged by the gluten. This damage can result in diarrhea, vitamin deficiencies and weight loss. The [...]

For months now, my mom and my sister have been complaining of joint pain, headaches, and fatigue. I told them over and over, “It’s gluten!” I had begun to sound like a broken record and then I am afraid I began to sound like some kind of gluten conspiracy theorist. My [...]

Technology for diagnosing digestive has progressed to the point that we now have a video camera pill (wireless video capsule endoscopy) that you can swallow. As the food doc and a gastroenterologist keenly interested in celiac disease and Crohn’s disease, I perform capsule endoscopy regularly on my patients and have now for several years. The pill camera is increasingly being used to evaluate celiac disease especially since it is covered by more insurance plans now for this indication. Rondonatti et al. report a multicenter study in the August 2007 issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology that confirms video capsule endoscopy has good sensitivity and excellent specificity for the detection of villous atrophy in patients with suspected celiac disease. Capsule endoscopy offers the ability to see the entire length of the small intestine, far beyond the reach of the standard endoscope. Unfortunately, though capsule endoscopy is ideal for evaluating celiac disease, until just rec

How Celiac disease and gluten ingestion results in neurological injury is not well understood. It is however now well recognized that celiac disease and gluten are related to a variety of brain and peripheral nerve problems. According to a new study, nerve cell death, known in medicine by the term apoptosis, occurs in celiac disease not just from the presence antibodies against nerve cells in the blood of people with celiac disease with neurologic problems but from other factors in the blood, especially gliadin and tissue transglutaminase antibodies, and in people without obvious neurological problems. The presence of antibodies to gliadin and tissue transglutaminase in the blood are associated with nerve cell death in the absence of anti-nerve antibodies. The complicated nature of the process that gluten ingestion and celiac disease results in neurological damage can be appreciated by the reading the study by Cervio et al. from the University of Bologna, Italy, published in the July 2

Eosinophilic esophagitis may be a manifestation of celiac disease and gluten sensitivity. Bua et al. from Italy report three patients aged 7, 17 and 19 years old, who were discovered to have eosinophilic esophagitis during evaluation for celiac disease. Biopsies of the lower esophagus obtained at the time of endoscopy performed to obtain duodenal biopsies to confirm celiac disease revealed eosinophilic esophagitis. All three had positive specific antibodies and small bowel biopsies diagnostic for celiac disease. However, they also had eosinophils greater than 20 per high power field found on esophageal biopsies though they were not symptomatic for eosinophilic esophagitis. I have also found eosinophilic esophagitis in patients with celiac disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity. Like Bua, I believe there is a link to gluten and eosinophilic esophagitis. Two of the three patients in the Italian report failed to resolved their eosinophilic esophagitis on follow up biopsies. However,

Do you have symptoms or health issues that won’t go away and tests for food allergies and Celiac disease have been negative or inconclusive? Have you been told you have IBS, fibromyalgia, migraines, chronic fatigue or depression but feel that the medications and treatments recommended for you by doctors have not helped and you wonder if your symptoms might be related to your diet? Do you believe foods or chemicals in the foods you eat may be contributing to how poorly you feel and your unexplained symptoms yet doctors have told you that food allergy tests are negative or inconclusive? If you feel this way you are not alone. Now there may be help in a new form of food sensitivity testing to determine if your body is reacting negatively to the foods you are eating. The Food Doc is now partnering with Signet Diagnostic Corporation to bring this testing to patients on-line.If you are not sure you have symptoms from foods, take this food symptom survey on my secure website. High scores i

Food, bacteria and yeast in the gut are increasingly being acknowledged by doctors to have a role in the development of a variety of chronic diseases. For years alternative and complementary health practitioners have been advocating various elimination diets and supplements for treatment of a myriad of illnesses and symptoms. Recently more medical researchers are seriously looking into science of food and gut bacteria and yeast causing illness. This research is more common in Europe than in the West because in the U.S. most of the research funding is linked to drug development. Since dietary treatment is not a drug pharmaceutical companies are generally not interested. Their deep pockets are not available to the research scientists working on food related illness who depend on pharmaceutical company funds to survive in academic medicine. However, Celiac disease affects 1%, food allergies 8%, gluten sensitivity 10% and various food intolerance 30-60%, so what we eat is important. Our g

Here is an interesting finding by the Mayo Clinic where they found that patients with Celiac Disease often also had cognitive issues develop.  I find it interesting because it is an observation that I (a non-doctor) have made and have written about in Wellness Piece by Piece.  The difficulty for many people with chronic conditions is that their symptoms are often so varied.  Many systems of the body are affected.  That often makes it very difficult to diagnose.  It makes it very difficult to uncover the underlying cause of the condition.  My stomach hurts, I have bowel problems, rashes, anxiety, headaches and I can't remember my PIN number when I need money.  Do I go see a GI doc?  A Dermatologist? A Neurologist?  A Psychiatrist?  All of these docs mean well, but they are not trained to treat the WHOLE body.  It is why I always say that the major symptom of someone with a chronic condition is that they have seen a LOT of doctors. 

Zonulin levels are increased in celiac disease. However, chronic gluten (gliadin) exposure also affects zonulin in non-celiac intestine. The result is an increased gut permeability (or leaky gut). Just published in Gut is an article reporting abnormal claudin proteins result in patchy loss of barrier function or tight junctions (leaky gut) in active Crohn's disease. Drago et al published a report in the Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology in April 2006 that transient zonulin release could be triggered by exposure to gliadin even in normal intestine. An increase in intestinal permeability was noted in normal intestine though it was not as pronounced as in celiac disease patients. Intestinal tissue from celiac patients, even those in remission, exposed to gliadin demonstated a sustained increase in zonulin release resulting in significant and sustained increased intestinal permeability. Zonulin affects expression of the proteins claudin and occludin that constitute the cytoskele

Antibodies for tissue transglutaminase found in intestine of blood test negative celiac disease are also found in intestine and brain in people with brain disease due to gluten. Gluten ataxia is a brain disorder characterized by balance disturbance not explained by any other cause but due to ingestion of gluten. The disorder responds to a gluten free diet if irreversible brain damage has not already occurred. Calcifications can be seen in the brain on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Deposits of gluten related antibodies have been found in brain tissue obtained on biopsy and autopsy specimens. Mario Hadjivassiliou, M.D. from Sheffield England recommends gluten ataxia be added to a list of gluten related diseases that includes peripheral neuropathy and the skin disorder dermatitis herpetiformis. He has called for a new paradigm to be accepted where celiac disease is not considered primarily as an intestinal disease. Dr. Hadjivassiliou and colleagues recently published a report of nine

Why celiac disease develops in 1% of people in the world who eat gluten-containing grains but not in the other 35-45% who are genetically at risk is not known. Having abnormal levels of gut bacteria levels is a risk. A 2005 study from Sweden revealed that altered short chain fatty acids (SCFA) levels produced by gut bacteria are a new piece to the puzzle. This also provides further support for the use of probiotics in the treatment and prevention of celiac disease. The healthy human gastrointestinal tract contains millions of live microbes that aid in digestion and produce various nutrients including SCFAs. These short fragments of fats when unbranched are health food for the intestine. Altered levels of SCFAs are measurable and result from an inbalance of gut microflora. Tjellström et al measured short chain fatty acids levels as an indicator of gut bacteria levels in children with celiac disease and healthy children and found significant differences. The found both untreated CD an

The probiotic VSL#3 breaks down gliadin, the toxic protein produced from gluten. VSL#3 hydrolyzes gliadin peptides according to De Angelis et al. ("VSL#3 probiotic preparation has the capacity to hydrolyze gliadin polypeptides responsible for Celiac Sprue" in Biochim Biophys Acta. 2006; 1762(1): 80-93). They observed almost complete breakdown of gliadin during prolonged fermentation in bread dough. The ability to decrease the toxicity of wheat flour is a giant step forward. VSL#3 (www.vsl3.com), a commercially available probiotic, has previously been shown effective in digestive conditions such as Crohn's disease, IBS, antibiotic associated diarrhea. Probiotics are known to decrease gut permeability. This study confirmed proteins extracted from dough pre-treated with VSL#3 released less zonulin, the protein that controls tight junctions between intestinal lining cells. Zonulin is believed to be important in the development of celiac disease. It increases permeability of leaky gut t