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Aerophagia: definition

DementiaWhat Is Dementia?

[dropcap]D ementia is the term used to describe a group of symptoms that show significant deterioration of an individual’s intellectual and social abilities.

The deterioration in intellectual function is progressive and is characterized by memory and cognitive impairment involving deficits in reasoning, judgment, abstract thought, comprehension, learning, use of language, and task execution.

Some types of dementia can be reversed,  while most types of dementia are degenerative or nonreversible.

Q: What causes dementia?

A: There are  many differing causes of dementia.  Here are some causes according to nonreversible and reversible:

  • Nonreversible dementia may not be turned back due to these conditions:
  • Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of degenerative dementia caused by abnormal protein structures in certain areas of the brain. 
  • Lewy body disease is a leading cause of dementia in elderly adults.
  • Vascular dementia due to many small strokes.
  • Medical conditions: Huntington’s disease, multiple sclerosis, infections that can affect the brain, such as HIV/AIDS and Lyme disease, Parkinson’s disease, Pick’s disease, and progressive supranuclear palsy.
  • Reversible dementia may be stopped or reversed if these conditions are found soon enough:
  • Brain injury.
  • Brain tumors.
  • Chronic alcohol abuse.
  • Changes in blood sugar, sodium, and calcium levels.
  • Changes that can occur with celiac disease, diabetes, thyroid disease, and other metabolic disorders.
  • Nutritional deficiencies.
  • Use of certain medications, including cimetadine and some cholesterol-lowering medications.1

What Is Dementia In Celiac Disease and/or Gluten Sensitivity?

Sources:
  1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001748/ [↩]

Antacids: definition

schizophrenia gluten
PET scan showing schizophrenia. Courtesy Wikimedia.

What Is Schizophrenia?

[dropcap]S chizophrenia is a thought disorder characterized by psychotic symptoms and inappropriate and bizarre behavior.

Schizophrenia involves dysfunction in any of these areas:

  • Cognition which are thinking skills that include intellect, language, mathematical ability, memory, perception, reasoning, judgment, learning, and imagination.
  • Interpersonal relationships.
  • Ability to work or attend education.
  • Ability to take care of physical and financial needs.

Q: What are psychotic symptoms?

A: In psychosis the symptoms vary but include loss of contact with reality shown by hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech, and disorientation. Some may be depressed or manic. Some may be withdrawn and mute while others may become violent if frustrated or thwarted.

In hallucinations, affected persons see what is not real such as a burgler in the process of robbing them but which is not really happening or hear voices that are not real.

In delusions, affected persons may express strange ideas, claim to read minds or that they are a famous person living or dead.

Early-onset schizophrenia with onset before age 18 is defined by the same diagnostic criteria as in adults because it is continuous with adult schizophrenia. The onset before age 12 years comprises less than 1% of adult cases, and onset from age 12–18 years constitutes about 12–33% of all adult cases of schizophrenia.1

What Is Schizophrenia In Celiac Disease and/or Gluten Sensitivity?

Sources:
  1. Pagsberg AK, Tarp S, Glintborg D, Stenstrøm AD, Fink-Jensen A, Correll CU, Christensen R. Antipsychotic treatment for children and adolescents with schizophrenia spectrum disorders: protocol for a network meta-analysis of randomised trials. BMJ Open. 2014 Oct 10;4(10):e005708. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2014-005708. [↩]

Appendix: definition

Keratomalacia in a severely malnourished 10-month-old Indonesian boy. (Sommer A, Sugana T: Corneal xerophthalmia and keratomalacia. Arch Ophthalmol 100:404, 1982)
Keratomalacia in a severely malnourished 10-month-old Indonesian boy.1

What Is Keratomalacia?

[dropcap]K eratomalacia is a severe non-inflammatory eye condition characterized by a hazy, dry cornea that becomes softened and denuded (loss of protective layer), which when liquified is then irreversibly destroying the eyeball and causing blindness.

The conjunctiva and lacrimal glands (tear producing) are also affected resulting in ulceration of the eye surface with, or without, Bitot’s spots (foamy patches) because these tissues also require adequate vitamin A to function normally.

The conjunctiva is the mucous membrane that lines the inside of the eyelids and covers the eyeball surface, also called the white of eye.

Q: What does the term keratomalcia mean?

A: In the term keratomalcia, kerato refers to the cornea and malacia means softening of the tissues.

What Is Keratomalacia In Celiac Disease and/or Gluten Sensitivity?

Sources:
  1. Sommer A, Sugana T: Corneal xerophthalmia and keratomalacia. Arch Ophthalmol 100:404, 1982 [↩]

Bile Acids: definition

Doctor Examining UrineWhat Is Hypocalciuria?

[dropcap]H ypocalciuria is the term for an abnormally low level of calcium in the urine.

This laboratory finding indicates low urinary excretion of calcium by the kidneys, which is an early renal compensatory mechanism or attempt to conserve calcium in the presence of hypocalcemia (low blood calcium).

A low urine calcium level can be a feature of calcium deficiency, steatorrhea, vitamin D deficiency, hypothyroidism, parathyroid disorders, nephrosis,  pre-elampsia, and some medications such as thiazide (diuretic).

What Is Hypocalciuria In Celiac Disease and/or Gluten Sensitivity?

Calcivirus: definition

anemia-pregnancyWhat Is Severe Iron Deficiency Anemia In Pregnancy?

[dropcap]S evere iron deficiency anemia in pregnancy is characterized by abnormal formation of small, pale red blood cells that impair the ability of the fetus to obtain adequate oxygen for proper growth and development and imperil its life and cause the mother extreme fatigue with increased risk of infection.

Q: Why does this anemia imperil the fetus and cause the mother extreme fatigue with increased risk of infection?

A: Severe iron deficiency anemia significantly impedes the ability of the mother’s blood to carry sufficient oxygen for both her needs and the unborn baby’s needs. In this anemia the blood cells do not have adequate hemoglobin which functions to carry oxygen from the mother’s lungs to her body. Of course, the fetus gets its oxygen only from the mother’s blood.

Red blood cell production and function are dependent on a sufficient level of iron in the body and also the ability to use iron to make hemoglobin in red blood cells.

Hemoglobin is a protein that binds oxygen in red blood cells to be carried by the bloodstream to cells throughout the body. In iron deficiency anemia,  hemoglobin in females is below 12.5g/dl (normal range is 12.5g/dl  to 16g/dl ).

What Is Severe Iron Deficiency Anemia In Pregnancy In Celiac Disease and/or Gluten Sensitivity?

Chronic: definition

Child with autism stacking cans. Courtesy Wikimedia.
Child with autism stacking cans. Courtesy Wikimedia.

What Is Autism and Learning Disabilities?

[dropcap]A utism and learning disabilities constititute a non-progressive psychiatric syndrome appearing in childhood characterized by withdrawal from communication with others often accompanied by repetitive or primitive behaviors.

Primary gastrointestinal pathology may play an important role in the inception and clinical expression of autism.

Autistic children often manifest complex biochemical and immunological abnormalities.1 Following are four  main features involving the digestive tract:

1) Brain dysfunction from an abnormal gut. Common characteristics of hepatic encephalopathy (brain dysfunction caused by liver disease) and a form of autism associated with developmental regression and immune caused gastrointestinal pathology (abnormal) in an apparently healthy child, have led to the proposal that there may be similar mechanisms of toxic brain dysfunction caused by gluten and casein proteins.

Gluten in wheat and casein in cow milk are called exomorphines because they act like morphine (opioid) in the brain. Aberrations in opioid biochemistry are common in autism.

2) Characteristic intestinal pathology. Many autistic children with gut symptoms have ileocolonoic lymphoid nodular hyperplasia and inflammation of the intestinal lining. The colon lesion consisting of a mucosal infiltrate of yo T cells and Celiac Disease8+ T cells and crypt cell proliferation is enhanced significantly, and the basement membrane is thicker than in normal or disease groups. Neutrophil and eosinophil mucosal infiltration and absence on colonic epithelium of HLA-DR antigen suggests a T-helper -2 dominated immune response.

The corresponding small intestinal lesion also shows a distinct inflammatory reaction in which immune-mediated epithelial cell damage is predominant and blood anitibodies of the IgG type colonizes with complement. 

3) Intestinal permeability abnormalities. A subset of children with autism were found to display increased immune reactivity to gluten, the mechanism of which appears to be distinct from that in celiac disease. The increased anti-gliadin antibody response and its association with gastrointestinal symptoms points to a potential mechanism involving immunologic and/or intestinal permeability abnormalities in affected children.2

4) Secondary dysbiosis. Anaerobic dysbiosis develops in the colon caused by fermentation of the overload of undigested food arriving from the small intestine. Billions of microbes in the colon normally breakdown undigested food, however,  in autism, the process is dysfunctional and produces byproducts that are toxic to the brain resulting in encephalopathy.

What Is Autism and Learning Disabilities In Celiac Disease and/or Gluten Sensitivity?

Sources:
  1. Wakefield AJ, Puleston M, Montgomery SM, Anthony A, O’Leary JJ, Murch SH. Review Article: the concept of entero-colonic encephalopathy, autism, and opioid receptor ligands. Aliment Parmacol Ther. 2002; 16:663-674. [↩]
  2. Lau NM, Green PH, Taylor AK, Hellberg D, Ajamian M, Tan CZ, Kosofsky BE, Higgins JJ, Rajadhyaksha AM, Alaedini A. Markers of Celiac Disease and Gluten Sensitivity in Children with Autism. PLoS One. 2013 Jun 18;8(6):e66155. Print 2013. [↩]

Colorectal Cancer: definition

Cancer that starts in the colon (also called the large intestine) or the rectum (the end of the large intestine). Several digestive diseases may increase a person

Dysentery: definition

An infectious disease of the colon. Symptoms include bloody, mucus-filled diarrhea; abdominal pain; fever; and loss of fluids from the body.

Enteroscopy: definition

An examination of the small intestine with an endoscope. The endoscope is inserted through the mouth and stomach into the small intestine.