Monday, April 14, 2008

Addison's disease: Symptoms of celiac disease (as recognized by the medical community)

Do you have any or all of the following that you blame on overreplacement of hydrocortisone or prednisone???
  • osteoporosis or osteopenia
  • B-12 deficiency
  • anemia
  • diarrhea
  • unexplained rashes
  • myopathy or epilepsy
  • depression or paranoia
  • infertility or spontaneous abortion
  • lactose intolerance
  • arthritis (that is reversed by a gluten free diet)
According to Cecil Textbook of Medicine by Goldman and Ausiello pages 853 and 854, these are the recognized medical symptoms of celiac.

Testing for celiac includes the below tests BUT
"Patients with mild disease may have negative antibody studies, so intestinal biopsy remains the gold standard for diagnosis, provided that the pathologist can recognize milder degrees of villus atrophy."

  • AGA IgA antibodies
  • IgG antibodies
  • EMA IgA antibodies detected by indirect immunoflourescence or tTG
  • Sometimes helpful: Anti-tTG IgG

2 comments:

  1. Wow, I've never seen any medical connection between celiac disease and Addison's. In fact, when I told me doctor I was going off wheat and gluten because I figured this could only improve my health, he just looked at me strangely and started asking questions which suggested he thought I was anorexic or something. *sigh* Pity I'm out of choices for endo's.

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  2. Here's more: http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/rapidpdf/jc.2007-0960v1.pdf (you might have to buy this one but your doctor probably has immediate access).

    From my website: http://www.addisonssupport.com/celiac__addisons.htm

    Requires a free subscription: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/547107

    I guess doctors can't know everything so we've got to find a way to teach them! I've found handing them reputable journal articles or journal abstracts with pertinent parts highlighted works really, really well for getting my point across.

    :)

    Dusty

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