College

My daughter went for college orientation today and signed up for her classes. She has the Hope Grant and the Hope Scholarship which is money made available to A+ students, and can be used for college within the State of Georgia. If you go out of state to college it doesn't apply. It is paid for by our lottery, and it is totally free to any student that maintains good grades all the way through high school. I seriously doubt that Nick will be able to get one, but he will try. It is pretty hard to keep your grades up to where they need to be to get the Hope Scholarship, for four full years. But Ana is a high achiever and she did it.

She is going to work and go to school, she got her classes so that they do not conflict with her work schedule. She was going to wait to go down for orientation, and I advised her to go the first day, because with classes it is first come first serve. She doesn't actually begin until October. She opted for the fall schedule which gave her the summer and another couple of months off.

I am having a good day. I ate rice and applesauce yesterday. That is my food of choice after I have been glutened. It seems to be easiest on my intestines and stomach. Another of the problems that goes with Celiac's is terrible acid reflux. And after I have been glutened, it seems my whole system has been scalded. So anything with vinegar or citrus burns from my mouth to............well the whole system. Obviously, as the wheat protein eats away the vilia of my intestines, it leaves them raw inside. Not a pretty picture.

So today, I eat only food that is mild and easy on the stomach, and in very small portions. Needless to say I have been losing weight. My Dr. always thought that Celiac's patients would be thin. He admitted that he didn't really know that much about the disease, he only knows three people with Celiac's. Well I joined a Celiac's self help group, and far more are overweight than thin, the reason being you eat because you are always hungry. When you begin to once again get some nutrition from your food, your appetite goes way down. Or anyway mine did. I have lost close to 20 pounds since April.

Celiac's Disease

This is the most comprehensive study and explanation that I have found. And I want to keep it, because I have a hard time remembering and even understanding exactly WHAT Celiac's is. It is not an allergy to wheat......it is so much more than that. I have my father to thank for this, it came to me through his family. He died last year from small intestine cancer which is a direct result of having long term, untreated Celiac's Disease.


UM Scientists Pinpoint Key Receptor in Celiac Disease

A study from researchers at the Center for Celiac Research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine answers a fundamental question relating to the cause of celiac disease and, possibly, other autoimmune disorders such as Type I diabetes and multiple sclerosis. People with celiac disease must not eat foods containing gluten, a protein found in wheat.
For them, gluten triggers an autoimmune response in which the immune system attacks the body, leading to a wide spectrum of serious health problems.
The new study, published in the July 2008 issue of the journal Gastroenterology, identifies the key gluten receptor in the intestine that opens the gateway through which gluten enters the body and triggers a faulty immune response in celiac patients.
The receptor, called CXCR3, is critical to the early stages of the faulty immune response. Pinpointing it could help doctors treat celiac disease more effectively, according to Alessio Fasano, MD, professor of Pediatrics, Medicine and Physiology of the University of Maryland School of Medicine and medical director of the Center for Celiac Research.
"This is a scientific question that had never been answered before," Fasano says. "It is not only significant in the basic science of autoimmune disorders such as celiac disease, but in therapeutic approaches for the future. This opens a new scientific paradigm for the study of immunity.
There are three key components of celiac disease, according to Fasano. One is genes, and researchers have already identified a number of genes that seem common among celiac patients, but none that are consistently found in all patients.
The second component is the environmental trigger that leads to the autoimmune attack. Triggers have remained elusive for all autoimmune diseases except celiac disease, in which gluten is the undisputable trigger.
The third component is a leaky gut, wherein the barrier of the intestine becomes permeable enough to allow in the offending antigen - in this case, gluten, to come through.
Researchers at the Center for Celiac Research found that gliadin, the component of gluten that proves problematic for celiac patients, binds to the receptor called CXCR3.
This interaction between gliadin and CXCR3 triggers the release of a human protein called zonulin, which opens up the intestinal barrier to make it more permeable. In healthy patients, this effect is temporary. In celiac patients, the effect is long-term, and the results can be devastating.
The findings may be significant for other autoimmune disorders as well, Fasano says. The same process may occur in patients with Type I diabetes and multiple sclerosis, in which the intestines are the port of entry or the pathway through which the offending antigens in these and other autoimmune disorders get into the body, he explains.
"For the first time, we have evidence of how the foreign antigen gains access to the body, causing the autoimmune response," according to Fasano, who is also a pediatric gastroenterologist at the University of Maryland Medical Center. "Further study is needed, but this could allow us to intervene before the zonulin is either released or activated, preventing the immune response altogether."

A Day for Resting

My back is hurting really bad today, that is what happens when I eat something that contains wheat, rye or barley. And of course there's the stomach cramps and trips to the bathroom. I have other symptoms, but they are a little less painful. I lose feeling in my toes and fingers and I get dizzy after I eat a meal. They are all signs that I have been glutened. Usually it is wheat, not barley or rye. Wheat seems to be in just about everything. Either plainly listed, or hidden in things such as spices or natural flavoring. If I am in doubt of what I can eat, I have to go to the Celiac's website and check it out or call the company. Yesterday my neighbor gave me a piece of barbecued steak. Jimmy barbecues often, and he knows that I love barbecue, so he gave me some steak yesterday. I asked him, now, this doesn't have anything on it that I can't eat, does it? He assured me that it didn't.... Well, all I know is, it tasted awfully good. And for the most part, if it is gluten free, it is pretty much flavorless. So I had my doubts. I was up about two hours after eating it in pain. And that lasts all through the night and into the next day. Well today is the next day, so I won't be doing much today. I knew better than to eat it......people just don't GET IT. For some reason they seem to think it is something you can eat a little and get by. Well that isn't the case, you can't trick the body, it seems to know when it has wheat, and it punishes me big time. I don't know if I will say anything or not, what is the use, I already ate it...........but next time.......I will decline.

Living Gluten Free

Living gluten free means being careful what I eat, and I guess being careful means having to cook for myself from now on. My husband cooked fish a couple of nights ago and he used some spice that wasn't on my "approved" for Celiac's list, and consequently, I paid the price. Just about two hours after I ate my back started to hurt, and then I had to run for the bathroom. The cramping was a lot like delivering a 9 lb baby. Without the baby.... This goes on for about six hours, and then I fall into bed exhausted and my back feels like someone hit me with a board. I also run a low grade fever, I sweat, my heart races, my limbs feel weak and to heavy for me to use, and I get a terrible headache. Often my blood pressure drops and it feels like I am going to faint. These symptoms last through the next day and sometimes even into the following day. Today I am feeling some better. My blood pressure is back up to normal, my headache is gone, my backache is just a dull throbbing, and my arms don't feel totally useless.

This is the reaction that I get when I eat anything (wheat, rye or barley) that has gluten. Wheat gluten is in many things that you would not expect, including cooking spices, salad dressings, prepared mixes, cereals, almost all breads, cracker, cookies, cakes or muffins. This means that I cannot just grab a bite of those little samples that they have at the grocery stores. It means I can't take a bite of my son's cookie, or go out for a pizza or take a quick taste when I am cooking to see if the gravy has enough salt. It also means that I can't lick stamps or envelopes. I have been glutened twice in the last two weeks, and believe me I will NOT eat anything that I haven't prepared for myself, for awhile. The memory is to painfully fresh.

If I am in doubt whether something has gluten, all I have to do is eat it, and within two hours, I know. But it not the way to sample things, from now on if I can't locate it on the website as being gluten free, I don't eat it.