Tag Archives: Nutrient deficiencies

Can Untreated Celiac Disease Make Your Child Mentally Ill? Watch These Recovery Videos!

If you or someone you know has a child with a mental illness, behavioral problem or unexplained neurological issue, you must watch this video. It vividly illustrates how gluten and celiac disease can cause neurological illnesses and how removing gluten from the diet can improve or cure the child. [Note: The title says two videos because there were two videos originally, but Youtube removed them. A reader informed us about the one below. Originally posted May 2009.]

Eamon Murphy started exhibiting mental aberrations and problems eating at three months of age. By the time he was three, his parents were frantically trying to understand what had caused his developmental delay in walking and talking, and now his trances, seizure-like episodes and regression. After a determined effort by his mother and a series of extraordinarily lucky events, he was finally diagnosed with celiac disease…and Read More »

Which Nutrients Should Be Tested When Diagnosed with Celiac Disease

Celiac disease causes malabsorption of nutrients. As the video states, get these nutrient levels tested when you are diagnosed with celiac disease: vitamins A, D, E, K, folic acid, B12, and minerals iron, calcium, and phosphorus.

If your doctor never tested you, ask him to test you now. If you don’t have a doctor, or if you do, we recommend Spectracell Laboratories. Spectracell tests the nutrient levels inside your cells, not just those that are in your blood. This gives you an accurate result. (We are not affiliated with Spectracell.)

Novak Djokovic #1 Tennis Player in the World Dispels Myth That Gluten-Free Diet is Deficient

Novak Djokovic: #1 Tennis Player in the World & Gluten-free!

On September 12, a gluten-free Novak Djokovic defeated Rafael Nadal to win the men’s US Open Final.
Djokovic, the #1 men’s tennis player in the world, credits his adoption of the gluten-free diet at the recommendation of a nutritionist in 2010 for his incredible success in 2011. He has won an astounding 64 out of 66 matches and 3 out of 4 Grand Slams in 2011.

Djokovic said in interviews that removing gluten from his diet has resulted in his increased speed, endurance and improved play. In his own words, he feels better, moves better and thinks better.

While watching the grueling 4 hour and 10 minute US Open Final and listening to the announcers repeatedly describe it as one of the most intense they had ever witnessed, a nagging thought begged the question…  Read More »

Nutrient Deficiencies Symptom Chart: Know Where You Stand So You Can Control Your Health

nutrient deficiency symptoms
Know the Symptoms of Nutrient Deficiencies so You Can Be Healthy!

The impact of nutritional deficiencies on health should be common knowledge among the medical professional community. All doctors, nurses and other medical professionals should be able to quickly and accurately identify and diagnose functional nutritional deficiencies in patients and correct those deficiencies. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

Medical teaching institutions do not focus on nutrition, so many medical professionals are not equipped to recognize the signs of nutritional deficiencies until the patient is extremely sick. In most cases, the patient is able to function, just not at his or her potential. He or she may have weight issues, skin, hair or digestive problems, anxiety or difficulty concentrating. This is called a functional nutrient deficiency.

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Understanding and Treating Zinc Deficiency in Celiac Disease

The mineral zinc is classified as an essential nutrient due to the vital functions it performs in our bodies.  It is found in almost every cell of the body with highest concentrations in the liver, pancreas, kidney, bone, and muscle. High concentrations occur in the brain, middle ear, eye, prostate gland, sperm, skin, hair, and nails. This micronutrient is essential for the activity of approximately 100 enzymes. Enzymes promote biochemical reactions in the body.

Zinc supports a healthy immune system. It is needed for wound healing and DNA synthesis. It helps maintain our sense of taste and smell and is involved in energy metabolism, hemoglobin production, carbon dioxide transport, prostaglandin function, synthesis of collagen, protein synthesis, and vitamin A metabolism. Zinc is important for male fertility. It supports normal growth and development during pregnancy, childhood, and adolescence. Read More »

Chronically-ill? Could Your Problem Be as Simple as Untreated Celiac Disease?

 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 »

Youtube Video Features Multiple Symptoms of Celiac Disease

May is Celiac Disease Awareness month. One in 100 people have Celiac Disease and only 3 percent are diagnosed in the United States. Part of the reason for the low rate of diagnosis is the range of symptoms of the disease.

A new video on Youtube does an excellent job of showcasing the many symptoms of Celiac Disease.

For more information about Celiac Disease visit the following websites: Read More »

How Blood Tests for Gluten Sensitivity & Celiac Disease Actually Work

This article focuses on the two main antibody blood tests for celiac disease. It will tell you what each test looks for and what the results mean.

The two blood tests recommended when testing for celiac disease are the AGA-IgA test for gliadin (wheat proteins) as well as the tTG-IgA test for tissue transglutaminase.

Recent research indicates the blood tests most doctors are using, tTG & EMA, are not as reliable as first thought. Young children, elderly, smokers, the very ill and the not very ill can be missed. EMA, or endomysial antibodies has fallen out of favor so they will not be discussed.

Preparation for Testing

Make sure when being tested that you are on a gluten-containing diet, because the antibodies the tests look for would disappear if you are were gluten-free. Once you go gluten-free, future testing is unreliable.

AGA – The Test for Gluten Sensitivity

The AGA-IgA has fallen out of favor for CELIAC DISEASE, but it tests whether an immune reaction against GLUTEN (gliadin) is present in the system – it detects a GLUTEN SENSITIVITY reaction. You can have gluten sensitivity without developing the lesion that is characteristic of celiac disease. That is, you can have gluten sensitivity without celiac disease.

tTG – The Test for Celiac Disease

tTG tests for tissue transglutaminase antibodies, or antibodies against your own tissues. The tTG blood test does NOT tell you if you have celiac disease per se. It tells you the likelihood that villous atrophy will be discovered if an endoscopy with biopsy is performed. The higher the number, the more likely you have enough damage that one of the samples would show villous atrophy.

One thing to consider is that you have over 20 feet of small intestine. Biopsy samples are tiny and only about 5 are taken. How much damage is required before a positive biopsy sample is found?

Also, you can also have the beginning stages of celiac disease and the test results will be “negative” now, but if you were tested at a later date they could rise, making you positive. That is, the levels of antibodies now may not indicate probable intestinal damage enough to be found on endoscopy with biopsy. But they can rise over time – one month, six months, a year.

In one study we reviewed while creating the medical manual, Recognizing Celiac Disease, of the children who tested positive in the study, 40% had tested negative 5 years previously.

No test is 100% accurate. Determining celiac disease is still a judgment call. Even if the tests come back negative, try a strict 100% gluten free diet to see if symptoms improve. If they do, ask your doctor to take multiple vitamin and mineral levels to determine whether deficiencies exist.

Page 30 in Recognizing Celiac Disease lists the vitamins and minerals the NIH recommends checking: vitamins A, D, E, K, B12, folic acid and minerals calcium, iron, phosphorous.

The symptom charts in the book list which deficiencies cause which symptoms so you can determine which nutrient levels to test and give your doctor reasons to test for them. (Doctors will not take nutrient levels unless there is a reason to take them.) Correct the nutrient deficiencies and you will correct the symptoms in many cases.

A diagnosis is just a diagnosis. Good health is the most important thing.

For more information on the tests click here.

For more information on Recognizing Celiac Disease click here.

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Author Information: John Libonati, Philadelphia, PA
President-elect, Celiac Sprue Association (CSA).
Publisher, Glutenfreeworks.com.
Editor & Publisher, Recognizing Celiac Disease.
John can be reached at john.libonati@glutenfreeworks.com.

Can a celiac disease book save a life? A story how this one saved seven…

Saving a life means more than just keeping a person from dying. It means helping them get well.

While practicing medicine as a registered nurse, Cleo Libonati regularly saved people’s lives. Now her book “Recognizing Celiac Disease” is doing the same for people across the country and around the world.

Here is a letter telling how one family credits the book with saving their lives…

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Dear Cleo,

I have been “sick” most of my life (I turn 40 in July) with random things, too many to list here. I have been really sick the last 10 years, but started feeling as though I was “dying by the inch” in 2004. I finally broke down and went to my primary when premature ventricular contractions were occurring every 5-10 seconds that felt as though my heart was going to jump right out of my throat. I had many other random multiple sclerosis type symptoms, but the severity of the PVC’s were what scared me the most, that is until 2006. I began to have many gastro symptoms that kept me in the bathroom several times a day with alternating elimination problems, I couldn’t keep food down, and pain in the left side of my swollen, hard, tender abdomen every time I ate. I had an EGD and colonoscopy on 2/15/07. The three days before the test were the best I had felt in 4 years. Since I worked in Oncology and was used to seeing patients doing prep for them, I put myself on clear liquids 2 days before the Go-Lytely. So, I was gluten-free without knowing it for 3 days prior to testing. Read More »