As the school year approaches many are going to the doctor to get vaccinations. This topic is one that people tend to be very passionate about on both sides of the fence. I personally believe that most vaccines don’t live up to true scientific scrutiny. (Natural flu shot alternative here) That being said, I believe in the freedom to choose – one way or the other. On that note – making informed choices would be smart.
A New vaccine for celiac disease finished its Phase I trial. The results summary are as follows:
34 test subjects were double blinded to test the safety of the new Nexvax2 vaccine for patients diagnosed with celiac disease. All patients were HLA-DQ 2 or 8 positive. In all, 19 subjects received the vaccine. Three different doses were administered. Side effects were common with higher doses and included:- Nausea
- vomiting
- 1 subject withdrew from the trial due to “severe gastrointestinal symptoms”
9 Responses
I think there are additional factors that are being overlooked in why half the people who strictly follow the GF diet aren’t healing their guts. I think there should be further study on those who aren’t healed after 5 years to include gathering of statistics on such things as:
1. Region of the country they live in and/or travel to frequently — availability of GF items in local stores and ability to avoid gluten when dining out is much better on the pacific coast than in the northeast, and completely abysmal in the southeast. Exposure to even cross-contamination every 6 weeks can prevent healing; and for many people due to jobs, etc., it is impossible to eliminate dining out altogether.
2. Thorough questionnaire to the patient to see:
a.) If they can identify all of the hundreds of different ways that gluten appears on an ingredients label in food. (The FDA isn’t helping matters at all in this regard — shame on them!)
b.) If they can identify the additional ways that gluten appears in cosmetics and personal care products. There are a lot of scientific names for compounds and latin names for plant extracts that are used in the ingredients list of cosmetics, personal care products, pharmaceuticals, and supplements that do not look to the untrained eye like something that may contain gluten; and how many people really think twice about what’s in the lip balm before they smear it on…??
c.) Whether they are taking additional medications or supplements, and if so, gather the exact brand, name, and dosage and compare that with the list of drugs/supplements known to contain gluten. People often don’t think of this, or they rely on their pharmacist but the pharmacist gets busy and doesn’t investigate thoroughly, etc.
I make these comments based on part of my own experience: I live in the southeast and travel a lot, and when I was diagnosed, my doctor told me “no gluten – that means no bread or pasta or sauces.” And that’s all I was told. I learned everything else online, because I am a writer so research is something I do routinely. I have been attempting to live strictly GF for the past 6 years since my diagnosis, but every few months I learn of one more thing that I didn’t realize had gluten in it… and every month or two some well-intentioned and convincingly educated chef serves me food that makes me sick. The only way you can truly be assured in the southeast that you are always 100% gluten free is to eat only whole foods that only you prepare yourself, never eat out, and never participate in any social event unless you bring your own food that you don’t share — because when others share they cross-contaiminate into your dish without even realizing what they’re doing. This is not feasible for everyone.
So, before jumping on people about wanting to find a pharma-based treatment for something that is simply a dietary avoidance, understand that complete control over one’s diet can be mistaken (not just misunderstood) and isn’t always possible. Whether people are getting gluten completely out of their diet for long enough to heal the gut isn’t always just about whether they are also eliminating corn, etc…
Absolutely endorse Rene’s comments. I can’t even work in an environment where ‘normal’ food is eaten even if I don’t eat/drink anything at all. I’ve had to give up the teaching on an MA course I have done for years as even being totally obsessive about cleanliness and avoiding contact isn’t enough, and my attempts to sell GF baked goods at markets has gone the same way. Sometimes feel I might just as well stay indoors in my gf house the whole time.
Rene,
You made some very good points. Who is being jumped on?
After 18 months of GF life style I have learned I must control my own diet 100%! I don’t trust anyone else’s preparations except recently my husband’s and my Daughter’s. I used to spend at least an extra 150.00 a week at a l
After 18 months of GF life style I have learned I must control my own diet 100%! I don’t trust anyone else’s preparations except recently my husband’s and my Daughter’s. I used to spend at least an extra 150.00 a week at a local health food store buying so-called GF foods only to suffer the consequences of some ingredient of which I was ‘t familiar. Now I keep it simple….steamed fresh veggies and rice….not much else besides fish, some pork or beef occasionally. It’s not much fun but I can tell I am healing and overall I feel better and more energetic than I have in years!
I’m confused. Celiac’s and other gluten sensitivities are auto-immune diseases. This means that the body is already reacting to gluten as if it were a pathogen. A vaccine does exactly the same thing. Seems like a vaccine for gluten would make people with gluten triggered auto immune disease worse, not better.
Thank you. You helped me but I also had to stop my meds and to stop eating other foods as well.
I did not start to do better till I listened to this web site. I just wanted to thank you for my last two years have been a living hell and I was working to eat gluten free. It took a long time to sort out what I can and can’t eat.
What a lot of people don’t know is that the gluten free diet is low in Vitamin B12 and also the part of your stomach which absorbs it from your food is damaged by the Coeliac Disease. I felt much better for about six months after going on a gluten free diet and then started to feel more and more tired and couldn’t work out why. A year after diagnosis I went for another biopsy and was told there was no signs of the Coeliac Disease which meant I had healed and yet I still felt awful. I now have vitamin B12 injections every three months. I had five to bring me up to the required level. I feel much better but also now use an under tongue spray which goes directly into my blood stream to top up because vitamin tablets don’t work. I wrote a blog about it: glutenfreeblackbird.wordpress.com and there also some down to earth recipes for people that miss certain things like Fish and Chips, Lasagne, bread etc.
I have a wheat allergy which caused me to have the runs, urgency and severe cramps for fifteen years or more.
In the last three years or so I’ve gotten much better. “Gluten free” foods are often loaded with wheat starches (e1442 and 1422, etc, modified starches), or wheat glucose which I have determined by blind testing makes me sick.
Unfortunately all the coeliac societies have decided this is fine and “gluten free”.
Well whoopee for them but it still makes me sick. Because I don’t actually have coeliac disease rather a sensitivity to wheat and gluten containing grains.
And even so called “mixed blossom” honey, I suspect either because apiarists are using wheat glucose in so called sugar frames, and the bees evaporate this and incorporate it into their honey as if it were nectar, or perhaps because of bees collecting grain pollen?
A honey with a particular blossom listed is (usually) fine.
Other offenders include “yeast extract”, most is bad but not all, presumably because of what they raise the yeast on. Haven’t found a stock or bouillon that doesn’t make me sick, so if I want any I have to spend twelve hours making it from bones and mirepoix.
Symptoms always the same, pruritus ani a few hours after, that persists the entire week of symptoms, then a day without going, the day with constipation and cramps and then the rest of the week or so with cramps, urgency and the runs.
Often open sores appear on the anus, usually before even I have any unusual motions.
So yeah I have to cook my own food, most commercial preparations are out of the question. I’m glad it has forced me to prepare my own food and be more mindful of what I eat, and I am always going to hand onto that, but I think you personally are insane for not wanting to be relieved of the burden of being gluten sensitive.
Not being able to eat at restaurants, travel worry free or share food made by others is a major burden and limit on one’s life.