Coeliac Journey Through Covid-19 – Oxford And Cambridge Compared
Oxford And Cambridge Compared
In May 2020, I had been looking at the statistics of the two cities and the country around them and found that the numbers of Covid-19 cases were twice as high in Oxford, when related to population.
In Oxford And Cambridge Compared On COVID-19, I give my reasons for why Cambridge has lower levels of Covid-19.
Consider.
- Both cities and surrounding counties have a similar character.
- Both have well-respected hospitals, medical schools and medical research.
- Air pollution appears to be low in both areas.
- Both cities probably have a similar ethnic mix and large student populations.
As I used to live near Cambridge, I have my own mad personal theory.
Addenbrooke’s Hospital
I have used several hospitals in my life, but only two changed my life totally.
- I had my vasectomy in the old Hackney Hospital.
- Addenbrooke’s, who with a simple blood test decided I was probably coeliac.
So perhaps, I’m biased.
But consider these possible facts.
- My coeliac consultant at Addenbrooke’s told me, that he had more patients with the disease than any other in the UK.
- The manager at Carluccio’s in Cambridge, told me that they sold more gluten-free food, than any other restaurant in the group.
- In 1997, I was diagnosed fast, because Addenbrooke’s were using a new genetic test. I was later checked using an endoscopy.
Could it be that someone at Addenbrooke’s had decided they wanted to find all the coeliacs in and around Cambridge?
What would be the effects of diagnosing as many coeliacs as you could find in an area?
- A doctor of my acquaintance talked of coeliac disease as the many-headed hydra, as it led to so many other medical problems. So extra diagnosed coeliacs might improve health statistics in an area.
- Personally, I have said good-bye to migraines, nail-biting and lots of joint pains, after going gluten-free.
- I also haven’t had a serious dose of flu since diagnosis. Since 2005, I’ve probably had the flu jab.
- Joe West at Nottingham University, has shown that coeliacs on a gluten-free diet have lower cancer rates than the general population.
Consider.
- Immunotherapy is a medical technique, where the patient’s immune system is activated or suppressed to help them fight a disease.
- Coeliac disease is an autoimmune disease, where gluten causes damage to the gut.
So could coeliacs on a gluten-free diet have a more powerful immune system?
Undiagnosed Coeliacs
Coeliac disease is genetic, with mine coming from an Ashkenazi Jewish ancestor from Konigsberg in the Baltic.
- Other roots of coeliac disease are Irish, Italian and black people, who have slaves as ancestors.
- There was no test for coeliac disease in children until 1960.
- There was no genetic test for coeliac disease until the late 1990s.
- Research has shown that coeliacs are at least 1-in-100 of the UK population, but could be higher.
- The NHS quotes the 1-in-100 figure on this web page, which also says reported cases of coeliac disease are higher in women than men.
If coeliacs on a gluten-free diet have a good immune system, do undiagnosed coeliacs have a poorer one?
Oxford And Cambridge Compared
Is the large number of diagnosed coeliacs around Cambridge, the reason the area has a lower COVID-19 rate than Oxford?
Conclusion
What do I know?
I’m just a mad engineer and mathematician with coeliac disease.
Coeliac Journey Through Covid-19 – Thoughts On Leicestershire
Thoughts On Leicestershire
In High Risk Of Coeliac Disease In Punjabis. Epidemiological Study In The South Asian And European Populations Of Leicestershire, I wrote a section entitled Cases Of Covid-19 In Leicestershire, where I said this.
This article on the Leicester Mercury is entitled 11 Areas Of Leicestershire Have Among Worst Infection Rates in the UK.
In Coeliac Disease: Can We Avert The Impending Epidemic In India?, I started like this.
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Indian Journal Of Research Medicine.
With the high levels of COVID-19 in Leicester and an Indian population who make up 28.3 % of the population of the city, I was searching the internet to see if there was any connection between those of Indian heritage and coeliac disease.
I know you should not try to prove a theory. But as a coeliac, I’m very interested to see how the millions of diagnosed coeliacs on a gluten-free diet like me, are faring in this pandemic.
I then talk about some extracts from the Indian research.
In a section entitled, which is entitled All Wheats Are Not Equal, I say this.
The other dimension to this problem is that not all wheat is alike when it comes to inducing celiac disease. The ancient or diploid wheats (e.g. Triticum monococcum) are poorly antigenic, while the modern hexaploid wheats e.g. Triticum aestivum) have highly antigenic glutens, more capable of inducing celiac disease in India, for centuries, grew diploid and later tetraploid wheat which is less antigenic, while hexaploid wheat used in making bread is recently introduced. Thus a change back to older varieties of wheat may have public health consequences.
So did all these factors come together to create the high levels of Covid-19 in Leicestershire?
Conclusion
I am getting bored with saying this. More research needs to be done!
Coeliac Journey Through Covid-19 – Keeping Calm And Carrying On
Keeping Calm And Carrying On
I decided that this was the best action to take.
- Coeliac-UK were still not giving any specific advice.
- Lockdowns didn’t bother me!
- During the pandemic, I didn’t have one food item or takeaway meal delivered.
- In March 2020, I wrote Carry On Blogging, which details how I was carrying on.
Throughout 2020 my blog posts on Covid-19 were only a trickle for much of the year.
These are some other thoughts.
Lockdowns
Lockdowns didn’t bother me, although as a Graduate Control Engineer, I’m against them in principle.
If you’re trying to control a complex system, you don’t use bang-bang control, where you switch something on and off.
Try riding a bike, by only steering hard-left and hard-right.
Interviewing Coeliacs
Coeliac disease must be the one condition, where you regularly meet others with the same condition as you shop.
So every time, I go shopping for gluten-free products and I meet someone in the Free From aisle, I try to get a conversation going.
I must have met nearly a hundred coeliacs in the last four years and I have yet to find one that has suffered a serious dose of Covid-19.
Conclusion
Admittedly, my research has been rather haphazard and random, but my findings generally follows the pattern of the Padua research I wrote about in Risk of COVID-19 In Celiac Disease Patients.
This is the paper on the US National Library of Medicine, which is from the University of Padua in Italy.
This is an extract from the paper.
Among the 171 patients included in our registry and on gluten free diet from at least six months, we contacted 138 CeD subjects (80.7%), aged 41.3 years old (SD 14.9), 73.9% were females on a gluten-free diet from a mean of 6.6 years (SD 6.0). Two patients had a diagnosis of refractory celiac disease type one and one of refractory celiac disease type 2. Among them, none reported to have been diagnosed with COVID-19, whereas 19 CeD patients experienced flu-like symptoms with 1 of them having undergone a negative naso-pharyngeal swab.
Their study certainly gave me confidence to carry on until the vaccines arrived.
Coeliac Journey Through Covid-19 – The Elderly And Covid-19
The Elderly And Covid-19
Note that this page is an updated version of A Thought On Deaths Of The Elderly From Covid-19, which I wrote in April 2020.
The main update concern dates and ages.
It has been shown, that a lot of the deaths from Covid-19 are over seventy.
I am seventy-five and a coeliac, which was diagnosed when I was fifty in 1997.
As my GP practice nurse said at the time of my diagnosis, as we read my doctors notes together, the signs are there of coeliac disease in a lot of my earlier visits to a doctor.
So why wasn’t I diagnosed earlier?
- There wasn’t a test for young children until 1960, so my early bad health couldn’t be diagnosed.
- No clue as to my problems was obtained until an elderly but extremely competent locum decided that my blood should be analysed as a fiftieth birthday present. I had no B12 and was running on empty.
- Eventually, I was sent to Addenbrooke’s and I was diagnosed by a blood test. I suspect it was a trial of a new genetic test, as I got the result by post in two days.
How many undiagnosed coeliacs are there in those over seventy, who because they are coeliacs, have a compromised immune system?
I would be undiagnosed but for that elderly locum!
How many other coeliacs were there in the UK population in 2020?
- Age UK had a figure of twelve million who were over 65 in the UK.
- If 1-in-100, as stated by Coeliac UK and the NHS, in the UK are coeliac, that is 120,000 coeliacs over 65.
- The NHS quotes the 1-in-100 figure on this web page, which also says reported cases of coeliac disease are higher in women than men.
Note that as of 2020, 177,388 have been diagnosed with Covid-19.
Conclusion
Many of those 120,000 coeliacs will have been born before 1960 and have a high probability of not having been diagnosed, for the simple reason, that a childhood test for coeliac disease didn’t exist.
Will these undiagnosed coeliacs have a compromised immune system, that makes them more susceptible to Covid-19?
It has been said, that a good immune system helps you fight Covid-19! From my personal experience of living fifty years as an undiagnosed coeliac and over twenty-three years after diagnosis, that my immune system is now a lot stronger.
A full statistical calculation of the elderly and Covid-19 needs to be done.
Coeliac Journey Through Covid-19 – Dexamethasone
Dexamethasone
In June 2020, I wrote Dexamethasone Declared First Drug To Save Lives Of Coronavirus Patients, after reading an article with the same title in The Times.
Out of curiosity, I typed “Dexamethasone and coeliac disease” into Google.
I found this page on SpringerLink, which is entitled The Role of Corticosteroids In Celiac Disease.
This is the first sentence.
Since Dickie first described the benefits of a gluten-free diet in the 1940s and 1950s, this diet is the standard of care for all patients with celiac disease. For patients with a new diagnosis, dietary compliance can be difficult to achieve, possibly resulting in a clinical course marked by delayed recovery and persistent symptoms. This is of particular concern for patients in the developing world, where gluten-free food items may be difficult to obtain or to identify. While dietary modifications are likely to remain the treatment of choice in celiac disease, the use of adjuvant corticosteroids in newly diagnosed patients is a topic that has been addressed previously.
According to a retired Senior Hospital Pharmacist friend, Dexamethasone has been around a long time and is used in shock. She added “So don’t know why not tried before.”
It does seem though that the drug has similar affects as a gluten-free diet on coeliacs.
Budesonide
Budesonide was also recommended for Covid-19 patients at one time, and is also linked to the treatment of coeliac disease.
As I keep saying more research needs to be done.
The Anonymous Widower 