Tag Archives: Treatment

Being gluten free means adapting a whole new relationship to food, something that shapes our every day lives, holidays and traditions. Considering how complicated and challenging being gluten free can be, it seems appropriate to make our New Year’s Resolutions at least related to improving our health and gluten free lifestyle.

Last year I had a slue of NYRs all about improving my gluten free lifestyle. You can check out last year’s list here but in summary, I decided to:

1. Be (even more) gluten free – this means making smart, safe choices at restaurants like getting a salad instead of french fries due to risk of cross contamination.

2. Become informed — I vowed to start following GF blogs so that I can stay current on what other GF advocates are up to.

3. Get techy — there are many phone apps out there that make being gluten free much simpler. I decided to start Read More »

Just last week BioLineRx, a biopharmaceutical development company announced successful pre-clinical testing of a potentially revolutionary treatment for celiac disease.  This new treatment may help celiac disease patients reduce their gluten toxins to create an overall healthy body for all celiac disease patients.

Jerusalem, Israel – February 21, 2012 – BioLineRx (NASDAQ: BLRX; TASE: BLRX), a biopharmaceutical development company, announced the publication of pre-clinical results demonstrating that BL-7010, an orally available treatment for celiac disease, reduces gluten toxicity (the negative effect of gluten on the patient’s body). The research was published in the February edition of Gastroenterology.

The findings indicate that BL-7010 (previously called P(HEMA-co-SS)) reduces digestion of wheat gluten, thereby decreasing its Read More »

There are a number of nutrient deficiencies associated with Celiac and other autoimmune disorders. These occur not only BEFORE diagnosis, due to flattened villi and malabsorption, but AFTER diagnosis as well.  It’s up to us to choose healthy, naturally gluten-free foods (like fruits, veggies, lean protein and brown rice) in order to feel the best we can. Even then, we may still have deficiencies.

I was diagnosed about 5 years ago. Although I have experienced dramatic improvements in my health, sleep quality, and energy level, I have still been dealing with some “weird” symptoms that I wasn’t sure were going to go away. These include eye floaters (which I’ve noticed for about 2 years now), shakiness and rapid pulse especially during the first half of the day, and carbohydrate intolerance. (Eating high carb meals have been giving me headaches). So…. I was VERY excited when I heard that Gluten Free Works was going to be offering . I couldn’t wait to try it out.

When I got my results back, I was AMAZED at how many nutrient deficiencies I still had after being Gluten-Free for this many years. I came up deficient in:

VITAMIN A (this explained the eye floaters)
CHROMIUM (I had never heard of chromium before now, but this explained my problem with carbs. I have since read that a deficiency in Chromium leads to DIABETES… so I’m glad I figured this out now, rather than later ;)
SELENIUM (had never heard of that one either) Read More »

On December 13, I posted a question on the Glutenfreeworks Facebook page to ask people who had adopted a gluten-free diet if they no longer needed medications they had been taking. The response was incredible. Dozens of people described how they no longer needed drugs, some of which they had been taking for years or decades.

Here is my post and their responses…

“I gave a presentation to a group and mentioned a friend who had been on Zantac for 20 years. I went on to say that once she went gluten-free the acid reflux disappeared. A woman in the audience stood up and said the same thing happened to her – she had been on it since she was 10 (I’m guessing she was in her mid to late 30s.).

My question for you is what medication (of any kind) were you on, before you went gluten-free, that you no longer need to take and how long did it take before you did not need it anymore?”

LEXINGTON,  Mass., Dec. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Avaxia Biologics, Inc., a privately-held biotech company developing oral antibody drugs that act locally within the gastrointestinal tract, announced today that the company was awarded U.S. Patent 8,071,101, “Antibody Therapy for Treatment of Diseases Associated With Gluten Intolerance.”

This patent, which expires on May 27, 2029, provides broad coverage for treating celiac disease using Read More »

In the summer of 2008 when the term “gluten” first entered my realm of awareness, I was enjoying a lifetime of excellent health except for the occasional cold or flu.  In the summer of 2009 I was devastated to be diagnosed with a chronic and progressive kidney disease called Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (or simply, FSGS) w/nephrotic syndrome.  Like celiac disease, FSGS is an inflammatory disease, enflaming and scarring the glomeruli, or filtering system, of the kidneys.  It was also that summer that I discovered that eliminating gluten from my diet put my disease into spontaneous, full remission, an extremely rare occurrence.  I am on no medication, and have better health than ever before.  Because of my fortune of getting my life back in short order, I want to share my experience with others so that others can be aware that eating gluten free does not only benefit those with celiac disease. 

How did I get so lucky to go from health to serious illness back to health in a short period of time? Read More »

ScienceDaily (July 22, 2010) — Walter and Eliza Hall Institute scientists have identified the three protein fragments that make gluten — the main protein in wheat, rye and barley — toxic to people with coeliac disease.

Professor Bob Anderson from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, Australia, has identified the three protein fragments that make gluten -- the main protein in wheat, rye and barley -- toxic to people with celiac disease. (Credit: Czesia Markiewicz, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute)

Their discovery opens the way for a new generation of diagnostics, treatments, prevention strategies and food tests for the millions of people worldwide with coeliac disease.

When people with coeliac disease eat products containing gluten their body’s immune response is switched on and the lining of the small intestine is damaged, hampering their ability to absorb nutrients. The disease is currently treated by permanently removing gluten from the patient’s diet.

Dr Bob Anderson, head of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute’s coeliac disease research laboratory, said it had been 60 years since gluten was discovered to be the environmental cause of coeliac disease.

“In the years since, the holy grail in coeliac disease research has been to identify the toxic peptide components of gluten; and that’s what we’ve done,” Dr Anderson said.

The research, done in collaboration with Dr Jason Tye-Din, Dr James Dromey, Dr Stuart Mannering, Dr Jessica Stewart and Dr Tim Beissbarth from the institute as well as Professor Jamie Rossjohn at Monash University and Professor Jim McCluskey at the University of Melbourne, is published in the journalScience Translational Medicine.

Dr. Bob Anderson & John Libonati at an NFCA-sponsored event April 30, 2009 in Philadelphia, USA where Dr. Anderson described his research and vaccine.

The study was started by Professor Anderson nine years ago and has involved researchers in Australia and the UK as well as more than 200 coeliac disease patients.

The patients, recruited through the Coeliac Society of Victoria and the Coeliac Clinic at John Radcliffe Hospital, UK, ate bread, rye muffins or boiled barley. Six days later, blood samples were taken to measure the strength of the patients’ immune responses to 2700 different gluten fragments. The responses identified 90 fragments as causing some level of immune reaction, but three gluten fragments (peptides) were revealed as being particularly toxic.

“These three components account for the majority of the immune response to gluten that is observed in people with coeliac disease,” Dr Anderson said. Read More »

 Identifying celiac disease may seem simple enough. After all, there are tests your doctor can perform to determine if your body is reacting to gluten, the grain protein that those with celiac disease cannot tolerate. However, it is becoming more and more accepted that celiac disease may not always present as classic gut symptoms. Instead, celiac disease can cause and contribute to other diseases, deficiencies, ailments, and conditions. Because of this, some people with celiac disease may be diagnosed with diseases that could have been prevented or can be eliminated by a simple gluten-free diet. In other words, celiac is often considered the “root cause” of other conditions, even though it is seldom tested for in chronically-ill people. Read More »

Alba Therapeutics Corporation announced today that for the first time, a European patient with active celiac disease has been enrolled in its clinical trial to investigate a treatment for the disease. Alba has enrolled and randomized the newly diagnosed patient from Spain in an eight-week Phase IIb trial with oral larazotide acetate, a tight junction regulator, for the treatment of patients with active celiac disease (CD). The global multi-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study will evaluate the clinical and histological efficacy, safety and tolerability of larazotide acetate in 106 active CD subjects adhering to a gluten-free diet, while assessing improvement in the clinical signs and symptoms of celiac disease.

(1) Green, P, and Cellier, C, Review Article,
 Medical Progress, Celiac Disease, N ENGL J MED
 2007;357:1731-43

For more information about Alba’s clinical trials, please visit the www.clinicaltrials.gov web site and search for Alba Therapeutics.

    Media: Mariesa Kemble
    Sam Brown Communications
    608-850-4745
    kemblem@aol.com 

    Corporate: Wendy Perrow, MBA
    Alba Therapeutics Corporation
    410-878-9850
    info@albatherapeutics.com
    http://www.albatherapeutics.com

----------------------
Author Information: John Libonati, Philadelphia, PA
Publisher, Glutenfreeworks.com.
Editor & Publisher, Recognizing Celiac Disease.
John can be reached by e-mail here.

The news release below is timely because anti-gliadin antibody blood tests are losing ground while the reality of gluten sensitivity looms far larger than is now appreciated by many doctors!  These blood tests are absolutely necessary to investigate health problems caused by gluten itself, yet they are being dismissed by doctors who look only to diagnosing celiac disease.

Positive anti-gliadin antibody tests show undigested gluten peptides in the bloodstream.  This abnormal finding tells the story that gluten has passed through the tight barrier defenses of the small intestinal lining into the body where it can wreak havoc, with or without celiac disease.  Gluten is a food protein in wheat, barley, rye and oats.

In screening for celiac disease, an inherited immune response to gluten entering the small intestinal lining, doctors rely on the celiac specific antibody tests, anti-endomysium and anti-tissue transglutaminase.  However, the investigation to find these auto-antibodies must not exclude the anti-gliadin antibodies. 

“Doctors Slow To Recognise Gluten Harm.” Dr. Rodney Ford, Leading New Zealand Paediatrician And Allergist Challenges Medical Stalwarts With Revolutionary Gluten Thinking

There is more to gluten problems than just coeliac disease. Gluten sensitivity is ten times more prevalent than celiac disease in New Zealand and mostly undiagnosed. This is the message that Christchurch-based paediatrician, allergist and author, Doctor Rodney Ford wants to get across to the public and the ever conservative medical fraternity.

The practice of medicine is restricted to the knowledge, experience, attitudes and politics of the society it functions in. Medicine is an inexact but evolving science, thus current standard medical practices are often disproved. The validity of medical opinion, long held to be the gold standard of diagnosis and treatment, are constantly challenged. This is a healthy dynamic, one that enables the pursuit of excellence and the evolution of better forms of practice, resulting in better outcomes for patients. Why, then asks Dr Ford, is there such resistance to his new Gluten Syndrome hypothesis recently published in a book and supported by years of clinical experience and research.

In the absence of coeliac disease, his latest research shows that the simple gluten test (IgG-gliadin antibody) is a sensitive indicator to detect those people who get sick eating gluten but who have tested negative to Celiac Disease. However, this test is rarely ordered by general practitioners or specialists. He says “This is because of an illogical rejection of gluten sensitivity as a valid diagnosis. Ignoring gluten flies in the face of all of the evidence and is also alienating doctors from their patients.”

Picture this, if you will: a six year old girl, Elizabeth, small for her age, a distended stomach, gas and suffering from gastric reflux. Her teachers reported a lack of attention at school and early learning problems. Elizabeth had been thoroughly investigated by the medical profession: blood tests, bowel biopsies, colonoscopy, endoscopy. Celiac Disease had been ruled out, various medications had been tried and doctors had started to question her mother’s parenting skills. Elizabeth’s parents had gone beyond frustration and fear for their child, they were at the point of desperation.

This is a common story in Dr Ford’s practice. It is also one of the many success stories he has to share. After seeing Dr Ford, a positive IgG-gliadin antibody test and being put on a gluten free diet, Elizabeth improved within a few days. Within weeks she made a remarkable recovery and was in essence cured. Gluten was no longer a choice for her and accidental intake still causes her a reoccurrence of symptoms. Adhering to a gluten free diet has enabled Elizabeth to grow into the healthy, happy and successful young woman that she is today.

Common stories such as this, along with the increasing research and evidence of gluten based harm, should be enough to spur the medical profession into action in an effort to save the current generation of children from the long term health, social and financial consequences of what is an easily diagnosed and treatable condition.

The shocking truth is that this terrible scourge of gluten is being ignored by most medical practitioners. Even worse, the blood tests that can diagnose it are being abandoned by many medical laboratories. For instance, Medlab Diagnostics in Auckland no longer offers gliadin antibody tests.

The medical professions reluctance to act on the gluten problem is costing New Zealand billions of dollars each year with long term and far reaching consequences. From a dollars and cents point of view it makes no economic sense. From a patient care point of view it is bordering on negligence.

Source: Scoop Independent News, New Zealand, Thursday, 19 June 2008, 9:49 am
You can find this news release at http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE0806/S00059.htm