Bleeding and/or swollen gums is an inflammatory disorder characterized by changes in gum integrity that may result in tooth loss.
Sponginess of the gum (swelling) indicates inflammation, called gingivitis.
Q: What causes gingivitis?
A: Gingivitis that is caused by inadequate dental hygiene shows as pockets of swollen gum between or along the base of teeth where sticky plaque was allowed to build up. Plaque holds bacteria that inflames the gums where it occurs.
Gingivitis that is caused by vitamin C deficiency, pregnancy, certain drugs such as the anti-epileptic drug phenytoin, and leukemia affects the whole gum irrespective of mouth care.
What Are Bleeding / Swollen Gums In Celiac Disease and/or Gluten Sensitivity?
Paleness and Tendon Problem: Symptoms of Hypocupremia.
What Is Hypocupremia?
Hypocupremia, or low plasma copper, means the level of copper is too low to meet metabolic needs of the body for copper and is characterized by these many features:
Impaired energy production causing weakness.
Impaired ability as part of an enzyme to oxidize vitamin C which is required to breakdown histamine.
Faulty blood cell formation and instability of blood cell membranes causing anemia, shortened life span of neutrophils causing susceptibility to infection, faulty platelet formation causing impaired blood clotting.
Hypoglycemia means the level of glucose within cells is too low to meet metabolic needs of the body for this essential sugar.
Q: What are the metabolic needs for glucose?
A: Glucose is the most important simple sugar in human metabolism mainly because it is the primary source of energy for most cells of the body.
Energy contained in the glucose molecule is obtained by the body from its reaction with oxygen (oxidation). This oxidation reaction occurs in power producing mitochondria structures that are located within cells.1
Hypoglycemia is characterized by alterations in neurologic, metabolic and muscular functions:
Neurologic function because brain tissue is particularly dependent on glucose for energy,
Metabolic function of glucose-dependent tissues which include red blood cells, white blood cells, bone marrow, eye, inner heart of the kidney, and peripheral nerves because these tissues cannot metabolize fatty acids as an alternate source of energy, and
Muscle function because muscle cells continually require glucose for energy production.
Glucose is made available to cells through the regulating action of insulin, a hormone produced by specialized cells located on the surface of the pancreas.
What Is Hypoglycemia In Celiac Disease and/or Gluten Sensitivity?
Geographic tongue is a painful alteration in tongue tissue that is characteristic of riboflavin (vitamin B2) deficiency.1
Q: How does the tongue surface appear?
A: Areas of inflamed tissue with flattened papillae develop among areas of normal tissue, giving a map-like appearance to the tongue surface. There are often swollen papillae that hurt or sting, such as is seen in the photo to the left.
A diet that does not provide adequate amounts of riboflavin and any condition that 1) interferes with riboflavin absorption from the gut, 2) depletes the vitamin from the body, 3) overuses the vitamin in the body, or 4) adversely affects its use in the body will result in riboflavin deficiency causing geographic tongue.
Riboflavin is essential for converting foodstuffs into energy, maintaining the normal lifespan of red blood cells and maintaining healthy skin, eyes, hair, and nervous system. Riboflavin is converted into its active forms, flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) and flavin mononucleotide (FMN). These enzymes are primarily involved as co-factors in oxidation reduction reactions that are essential for cellular energy production and respiration.
Riboflavin is required for the conversion of pyridoxine (vitamin B6) to its functional form and the production of niacin (vitamin B3) from the amino acid tryptophan. Riboflavin has a role in antioxidant status by activating glutathione reductase, which regenerates used glutathione, a powerful antioxidant.
Respiratory infection, exercise, certain diseases, drugs and hormones can adversely influence riboflavin status.2 Stress is a major depleter of riboflavin.
What Is Geographic Tongue In Celiac Disease and/or Gluten Sensitivity?
Testing Thigh Strength. Courtesy Charlie Goldberg, M.D., UCSD School of Medicine
What Is Hypophosphatemia?
Hypophosphatemia means the level of phosphates in the bloodstream is too low to meet metabolic needs of the body for this mineral.
Q: How important is phosphorus in metabolism?
A: Phosphorus is crucial to life, being present in every cell of the body and constitutes 45% of skeletal bone weight along with 40% calcium needed to support the body as a framework.
A low blood phosphate level is characterized by alterations in blood acid-alkaline balance and serious neuromuscular, hematologic, renal, skeletal, and dental abnormalities.
Symptoms result primarily from decreased production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the main energy source in cells, and phosphocreatine, a secondary energy source for muscle contraction.
Acute phosphorus deficiency may precipitate rhabdomyolysis which is destruction of muscle.
Nervous system dysfunction is observed in severe hypophosphatemia.
Chronic phosphorus deficiency causes proximal myopathy (upper arms and thighs).1
Severe phosphorus deficiency has widespread and ultimately fatal consequences.
What Is Hypophosphatemia In Celiac Disease and/or Gluten Sensitivity?
Sources:
Takeda E, Ikeda S, Nakahashi O. Lack of phosphorus intake and nutrition. Clin Calcium. 2012 Oct;22(10):1487-91. [↩]
Laryngospasm is an acute disorder of the larynx that is characterized by life-threatening spasms of the muscles of the larynx located in the throat.
Laryngospasm is a rare feature of hypocalcemia (low blood calcium level) characterized by severe alteration in nerve conduction and muscle contraction.
What Is Laryngospasm In Celiac Disease and/or Gluten Sensitivity?
Microscopic View of Hemochromatosis Stained Blue. Courtesy Wikimedia
What Is Hemochromatosis?
Hemochromatosis, also called iron overload liver disease, is a common inherited disease in the Caucasian population that is characterized by increased iron deposition within the tissues (overload) associated with injury to them.
Hemochromatosis is an autosomal recessive disease, meaning a pair of abnormal genes are inherited from each parent. Parents are unaffected because they carry only one gene.
Q: Where is iron deposited?
A: In hemochromatosis, more iron is absorbed from the small intestine than is needed by the body. Subsequently, because the body has no satisfactory means to release iron overload, excess iron is deposited in various organs such as the liver causing cirrhosis, joints causing arthritis, and the pancreas causing diabetes mellitus.1
Consumption of alcoholic drinks with food should be avoided because alcohol increases leaky gut and greatly increases the absorption of iron. On the flip side, eggs and foods containing calcium such as milk and cheese are beneficial for hemochromatosis because they impair the absorption of iron. Another iron inhibitor is food that contains phytic acid which includes the bran and outer layer of grains, seeds, nuts, peas, beans, and lentils.
Iron overloading, as measured by a random (non-fasting) elevated transferrin saturation value, is estimated to occur in 1 to 6 people per 100 in the United States according to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention). Too much iron increases the risk for metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus, cancer, liver disease, and osteoporosis.
Medical treatment to remove excess iron from the body uses phlebotomy that draws blood through a vein and/or certain injectable drugs (deferoxamine and deferairox) that bind to iron.
What Is Hemochromatosis In Celiac Disease and/or Gluten Sensitivity?
Anatomy of Upper Airway and Throat. Courtesy Wikipedia.org
What Is Post-Cricoid Carcinoma?
Post-cricoid carcinoma is a rare malignancy arising in the hypopharynx.
Q: What is the hypopharynx?
A: The hypopharynx is the lower portion of the pharynx that opens into the larynx. It is comprised of the postcricoid region, pyriform sinus, and posterior hypopharyngeal wall.
Tumors rarely appear in the posterior pharyngeal wall or postcricoid region without also involving the pyriform sinus. The lack of anatomic barriers between these sites and a propensity for these tumors to develop in the pyriform sinus and spread outward account for this phenomenon.
Overall prognosis for these tumors is poor. Because of the rich organic lymphatic and vascular networks, aggressive growth and early cervical metastases (compared with cancers at other head and neck sites) characterize these cancers.
A study investigating the clinical course of 21 patients with post-cricoid carcinoma found the 5-year cause-specific survival rate was 52%. All the patients who eventually died did so within 3 years of the treatment. Seven patients had distant metastases, representing a higher frequency as compared with that of patients with recurrence of the primary focus and cervical lymph node metastasis. All of these patients who had been treated by surgery died of the cancer.1
Unfortunately, hypopharyngeal cancers are discovered at a later stage than other head and neck cancers. The delay in diagnosis from symptom onset averages 10 months.2
What Is Post-Cricoid Carcinoma In Celiac Disease and/or Gluten Sensitivity?
Sources:
Asakage T, Nakao K, Ebihara Y, Fujishiro Y, Watanabe K. A clinical study of post-cricoid carcinoma. Acta Otolaryngol Suppl. 2007 Dec;(559):118-22. doi: 10.1080/03655230701599354. [↩]
Low cholesterol found in blood indicates an abnormal blood level of this essential lipid (fat) that is characterized by decreased production of steroid hormones and bile.
Cholesterol is a soft, fat-like substance found in the bloodstream and is an essential structural component in all body cells. It is required for membrane fluidity and permeability of cells. Within the cell membrane, cholesterol also functions in intracellular transport, cell signaling and nerve conduction.
Cholesterol is required for these essential body processes:
Cholesterol is converted to bile by the liver and stored in the gallbladder until needed for digestion of fats in the small intestine.
Cholesterol is used by the adrenal glands to produce the steroid hormones cortisol and aldosterone.
Cholesterol is used by the sex glands to make progesterone, estrogen, and testosterone and their derivatives.
Cholesterol is needed for the production of vitamin D.
Q: What makes cholesterol bad for you?
A: There are different forms of cholesterol that can be bad or good depending on the level. In blood vessels, low-density lipoprotein (LDL or ‘bad’) cholesterol can abnormally join with fats and other substances to build up in the inner walls of arteries. The arteries can become clogged and narrow, and blood flow is reduced. This is atherosclerosis which can lead to stroke, heart attack and thrombosis.
High-density lipoprotein (HDL or ‘good’) carries harmful cholesterol away from the arteries and helps protect from heart attack and stroke.1
What Is Low Cholesterol In Celiac Disease and/or Gluten Sensitivity?
