Replies

I am so glad that you have improved with the diet. My husband was at the point of death in January, and had to have 5 pints of blood. We put him on the gluten free diet and immediately begin to gain weight and gain strength. It is a miracle the way that he has improved. We stick religiously to the diet and know immediately if he has has something that may have been contaminated. My husband has severe eye problems and we thought that for a lot of years that his problems were related to the medicines that he was taking for glaucoma. We have found that the Gluten Free Pantry Items are the best for bread and Bob's Red Mill for pancakes and other things. If you need some help with recipe's or such, feel free to contact me.

Celiac here too. I have researched many sources for online support and information. I have nothing to do with this group, but it is by far the best I have found on the internet. My Doctor had even heard of this group. Everything from recipes to "safe restaurants" are discussed and listed.

They even keep an up to date list of safe foods/medications by brands, and maintain various gf grocery store lists. No food is added to the list, that they update often, unless they have confirmation as to the safety, including whether cross-contamination is an issue. I download their list every year, to keep current, as items can be added or deleted.

http://forums.delphiforums.com/celiac/start

You have to register if you don't have a delphi account, but it is quick and easy.

Thanks for posting this article.

The eye problems you mention sound like Graves Disease. Has your husband been tested for pproper thyroid function? Celiac disease and other auto-immunity disease such as Graves, Hasimotos, and lupus have been related in recent studies as having some correlation. There is an aspect of Graves disease called graves ophthalmology or tyhroid eye disease (TED) which has glaucoma-like symptoms. While in celiac diease your own body's immune system cells attack the digestive tract, in Graves disease a similar process occurs where the body's immune system attacks the tissues around the eye, making them swell. Antibodies also attack the thyroid gland, causing it to over-produce thyroid hormone and making the patient hyperthyroid.

I have a mild wheat allergy, and I have been on the Atkins plan for a long time. In fact, I was atkins before atkins was cool. If your husband reacts poorly to wheat you might consider eliminating artificial flavorings such as monosodium glutimate and nutrisweet from his diet. Wheat bread and pasta make me break out, but if I have something with MSG in it I get a much worse reaction. The problem is that MSG is ubiquitous in packaged foods, but appears under a variety of misleading names. I try to avoid anything that contains things like sodium caseinate, maltodextrin, autolyzed or hydrolyzed protien, modified food starch, carrageenan, and the ever-present "natural flavoring."