Vitamin B Complex for Coeliacs
I mentioned in this post some research, which investigated the “effect of B vitamin supplementation on plasma homocysteine levels in celiac disease”. These were stated that they might lead to strokes.
I have since contacted the lead researcher, Muhammed Hadithi, and he said the following :-
Your option to take vitamin B complex supplement is in my opinion very justified and wise.
Our findings were also confirmed but probably not published by group of Joseph Murray in Mayo clinic. Coeliac is risk for hyperhomocysteinemia and secondary blood vessel disease that can be well compensated by taking vitamin B complex. These vitamins can not do us any harm anyway and the benefits outweigh their costs.
If this simple pill might have a positive and as there is unlikely to be harm, I have now started taking them.
A Tax on Coeliacs
Darling has put the tax on cider up significantly.
It may be alright for those who can drink beer! But I can’t!
A Scare to Laugh At?
Last night I noticed that one of my eyes was very red. This morning it wasn’t any better, but it wasn’t any worse.
Was it blood pressure? Was it the statins? Was it the aspirin? Or was it something much worse?
So I got driven to the drop-in Health Centre in Haverhill and feared the worst. Perhaps that was that I had to wait twenty minutes or so, but then there did seem to be quite a few walking wounded in the centre.
When I did see the doctor, he gave me a bit of a thrice-over, had a deep look into my eyes and said that it couldn’t be any of the first three, as only one eye was badly affected. He said it looked very sore and said that it could be caused by hay-fever.
Too right! I suffered badly last spring and when I got the prescription for some drops at the pharmacy a few minutes later, the pharmacist said that he was dolling them out at a high frequency!
It’s funny, but before I was diagnosed as a coeliac, I never suffered from hay-fever. Now, I usually spend a rotten spring. You win some and you lose others. I suppose my immune system was so crap before, it wasn’t good enough to give me hay-fever.
A New Face for an Old Lady
I found this article on the British Library web site. It’s called Stroke and Coeliac Disease and is from Italy.
I’ve ordered it. I hope it’s worth the price.
Another Paper
This paper has the title of “Effect of B vitamin supplementation on plasma homocysteine levels in celiac disease”. It sounds boring, but I think it says that if you have low B6 and folate levels, then you might be more likely to get a stroke.
In any case I’m going to get my homocysteine, folate and B6 levels checked. I know the B12 are OK.
Coeliac Disease and Ischemic Stroke
I’m up early and playing on the Internet with Google. I’ve just typed “stroke coeliac” into the search engine with a couple of modifiers to cut out some of the things I already know about.
I have now found this paper by El Moutawakil B, Chourkani N, Sibai M, Moutaouakil F, Rafai M, Bourezgui M and Slassi I working in Casablanca in Morocco, entitled Coeliac Disease and Ischemic Stroke. This is the extract.
INTRODUCTION: Neurological manifestations of celiac disease are various. An association with ischemic stroke is not common and has not been well documented. We report two cases.
OBSERVATIONS: The first patient had experienced several transient ischemic strokes in the past 2 years and then had an acute ischemic stroke involving the territory of the right posterior cerebral artery. Investigations revealed celiac disease with no other recognizable etiology. The clinical course was marked by persistent visual aftereffects, but no new vascular event. The second patient had been followed since 1998 for celiac disease confirmed by pathology and serology tests. She was on a gluten-free diet. The patient had an ischemic stroke involving the territory of the left middle cerebral artery. Apart from a positive serology for celiac disease and iron deficiency anemia, the etiological work-up was negative.
DISCUSSION: The mechanisms of vascular involvement in celiac disease are controversial. The most widely incriminated factor is autoimmune central nervous system vasculitis, in which tissue transglutaminase, the main auto-antigen contributing to maintaining the integrity of endothelium tissue, plays a major role. Other mechanisms are still debated, mainly vitamin deficiency.
CONCLUSION: Being a potentially treatable cause of ischemic stroke, celiac disease must be considered as a potential etiology of stroke of unknown cause, particularly in young patients, and even without gastrointestinal manifestations.
I’d always fancied going to Casablanca to see the ghost of Humphrey Bogart.
Google Flu Trends
I found reference to Google Flu Trends in The Economist in an article about how Google are searching blogs and other information to find out what is going on.
An interesting graph is shown, but why are the UK, Finland and Denmark left out?
I wonder if the same techniques could be used to check for relationships. For instance, I wonder if my being a coeliac means that I am more likely to have strokes. So what if there are a lot of blog posts, with these two words in them? Obviously, it would need powerful and correct statistical analysis.
As an aside here, some years ago I wrote a program that used Google to deep search the Internet, create a database of all possible results and then display them in a Daisy chart. It showed a lot of promise, but I then had other things to do. That’s my life all over.
Gluten-Free Meals in Holland
When it happened the first time at a cafe near the Watersnood Museum, I just thought it was a nice gesture. But when it happened last weekend, I thought it could be part of an encouraging trend for coeliacs.
Cafe Restaurant Landbouw
But last week at the Cafe Restaurant Landbouw, for the second time I got gluten-free bread with my meal. So it was frozen and had been warmed in an oven or a microwave.
It was a nice gesture, that rarely happens in the UK.
Café de la Paix, Paris
The Cafe de la Paix is one of the most famous cafes in Paris. So much so, that the French declared it to be an historic site in 1975.
Cafe de la Paix, Paris
My late wife and I went there by accident. It was the only time we did too, but then it was also on the only day, that one of the horses we had bred, Diamond White, had won The Prix de l’Opera at the Arc meeting at Longchamp. We had hurried away from the racecourse and the crowds made it difficult to get anywhere, but by reason of some luck, we were able to get a bus to the Place de l’Opera.
So we just stumbled into this famous cafe and as we had little time to catch the Eurostar back to Ashford, we asked the waiter what could be served quickly.
Everybody in the cafe surpassed themselves and within an hour, we were on the Metro towards the Gare du Nord.
If there is a postscript to this trip it happened on the train home. The day had been disastrous for English punters and come the last race, The Prix de l’Opera, most had lost heavily. So they put what they had left on Diamond White at 12-1. And the rest as they say is history.
On the trip back, my late wife had needed a coffee and went to the buffet. When she interrupted the party and told them that she had bred the horse that had got them out of trouble, everybody wanted to buy her champagne.
But she didn’t drink bubbles!
So on this trip to Paris, when the guy I was to meet on business suggested that we meet in the Cafe de la Paix, I accepted.
I had a very good gluten meal too!
Smoked Salmon and Poached Egg
The picture shows the first course!
Incidentally, the wife of one of the waiters was a coeliac, so this made them even more careful.
Would I go again?
Yes!
Even if it is very expensive, but then the decor, the ambience, the food and the wine are worth it.
Ceiling of the Cafe de La Paix, Paris
Rose Gray at the River Cafe
The death of Rose Gray, one of the co-founders of the River Cafe, has just been announced. That is obviously extremely sad for her friends and family, but it also marks the passing of someone, who has left her culinary skills to the world. Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall have all paid tributes.
My late wife and I went twice. It was marvellous and of course, I was able to eat a real high-class gluten-free meal.
I’m sure if my wife was here now, we’d be discussing those two meals and paying our tributes.
There is a post here, that I wrote after one of the meals.
The Anonymous Widower 