Coeliac Symptoms
Before detailing how I was diagnosed, I will go through a list of symptoms that coeliacs can suffer from.
Coeliac disease has been called the Many Headed Hydra by doctors because it produces so many different symptoms. I think that this is because gluten strips your gut and then you don’t take up the vitamins and nutrients that you need. This is especially true with Vitamin B12, which is essential for good cell health.
Consequently, you will get a problem in any organ that needs that nutrient.
It’s a bit like expecting your car engine to run with low engine oil. You can’t be sure where the problem will manifest itself.
I have taken this quote from the précis of a paper by M Hadjivassiliou, R A Grünewald and G A B Davies-Jones called Gluten Sensitivity: A Many Headed Hydra, that appeared in the British Medical Journal in June 1999.
Marsh’s “modern” definition of gluten sensitivity is to be recommended: “a state of heightened immunological responsiveness to ingested gluten in genetically susceptible individuals.” Such responsiveness may find expression in organs other than the gut. Gastroenterologists, dermatologists, neurologists, and other physicians need to be aware of these developments if the diagnosis and treatment of the diverse manifestations of gluten sensitivity are to be advanced. The aetiology of such diverse manifestations presents the next challenge.
I would endorse that as my experience of moderating the UK-Coeliac Yahoo Group gives me the impression, that a lot of coeliacs are misdiagnosed in a first instance, because of their symptoms. The real cause is sometimes not found until many years later.
So what symptoms can you get?
- Abdominal Distension in Children – *
- Amenorrhea – Absence of menstrual periods in a woman
- Bone and Joint Pain, and Arthritis – *
- Constipation – *
- Dandruff – *
- Depression – Generally mild, but not always – *
- Dermatitis Herpetiformis – A serious skin disorder
- Dry Skin – *
- Failure to Thrive in Children – *
- Feelings of Inadequacy – *
- Gait Ataxia/Apraxia
- Gallstones – *
- Gum Disease – *
- Gut Problems – Abdominal pain, bloat, diarrhoea and wind – *
- Heartburn
- Inability to Lose and Gain Weight – *
- Infertility and Recurrent Miscarriage
- Itchy Scalp – *
- Lactose Intolerance – *
- Lightheadness and Fainting – *
- Liver Problems
- Low B12 and Folate Levels – Leading to anaemia – *
- Migraine or Persistent Headaches – *
- Mood Swings – *
- Mouth Ulcers
- Muscle Weakness
- Osteoporosis
- Sinus Problems – *
- Sleep Disturbance
- Small Stature – *
- Thyroid Problems
- Tinnitus
You can almost play that well-known game called Name That Symptom!
The ones marked with an asterisk (*) are ones that I experienced at some time or another.
A classic one is gallstones. I was diagnosed at about the same time as I was diagnosed as a coeliac. I was told to have an operation. Since then though they have been quiet and I hope they stay that way!
But whatever you say it’s a lot of possible things you can suffer from.
Eggs Florentine
This recipe came from the BBC’s web site and is by James Tanner.
It isn’t that good for cholesterol, but it’s quick and easy.
This is what you’ll need for one.
- 25g/1oz butter
- 75g/2¾oz spinach
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 free-range eggs
- 100ml/3½fl oz double cream – I use St. Helen’s Farm Goats cream
And this is the method that I use.
- Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. I use the bottom of the top over in the AGA.
- Melt the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the spinach and sauté for three minutes, or until wilted.
- Place the spinach into a small ovenproof dish and season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Crack the eggs into the dish and pour over the cream, then place into the oven and bake for 10 minutes, until golden and bubbling.
- Serve in the ovenproof dish.
It’s good and fills a hole!
Two Freddies
Freddie Flintoft’s exploits on Monday morning as he bowled out the Australians to win the Second Test were awesome and he deserved the Man of the Match award. There was fire, accuracy and variation in one of the best displays of fast bowling by an England fast bowler in recent years.
I’m also reminded of another display of awesome fast bowling, by another Freddie, that I was lucky enough to see on television in 1961. It was at Headingley and the bowler was the legendary Fred Trueman. This paragraph comes from his obituary in The Times.
Trueman stored away in his memory his ideas of every batsman’s weakness, whether it be a lowly undergraduate or one of the great players of the day, and he expected to take a wicket with every ball he bowled. He had such a wonderful range that at Headingley in the Third Test match in 1961 he was able to take 11 Australian wickets for 88 runs bowling quickish off cutters (including a spell of five wickets for no run in Australia’s second innings), and two years later, in the Third Test match against West Indies at Edgbaston, to take 12 for 119 with pace and swing (the last of six of them coming in 24 balls at the cost of one scoring stroke).
Sadly, England lost that 1961 series by two matches to one.
I hope that’s not an omen for this series.
Gambling, Zopa and On-Line Bots
A strange thing is that since I’ve been using Zopa, I have cut down my gambling on things like horse racing.
I think that using Zopa is a bit like on-line gambling with a bit of the same buzz, as you check the results of what has happened every day about 10:30 at night. Or it certainly seems so to me. But perhaps I’m more an information man, than a true gambler.
Whilst we’re looking at gambling, there is an interesting site, which talks about on-line bots, that do automatic processing on gambling, foreign exchange and other sites.
Not for me!
Computers are great slaves, but bad masters.
Swine Flu Finds an Appropriate Victim
I did think of calling this post, “God Doesn’t Vote Labour”, but then that would be against my principles as I don’t do god.
But it appears that the Labour candidate in the Norwich North by-election has got swine-flu. Is it some sort of poetic justice or an insult to pigs?
Why I Drive a Lotus
Last night I drove into town to buy my supper at Waitrose. I was in the Lotus Elan.
It is quite a twisting road and I was probably doing fifty around the bends, which is perfectly safe and the sort of speed that everybody does. Where I cross the county border, there is a gentle bend to the right, with a very small side road. A black Mercedes convertible was waiting to turn onto the main road, but he was obviously dithering as to whether to turn left or right. As I approached to within about thirty metres or so, he pulled out straight in front of me.
Why? The guy must have seen me coming, as the Lotus is bright yellow.
But he didn’t and just kept coming.
I couldn’t go straight on as I would have hit him side on, so I braked hard and dived up the side road, missing him by perhaps three or four metres. An easy move for the Lotus, but one that even the Jaguar might have had difficulty performing.
The guy just drove off and then stopped fifty or so metres on the other side of the road, on the inside of the bend. Perhaps, he wanted someone else to run into him.
The Anonymous Widower 