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I'd like to add a question to Sharon's  post about L-Glutamine.  I took it
for about three months, and eventually began to gain weight - for the first
time in my life - and I'm nearing 70.  Within a few months I had put on ten
unneeded pounds.  I quit taking L-Glutamine, and after a month, I put
myself on a low carbohydrate diet and have taken off ten pounds...(easily
and without being hungry, by the way.)  I have no idea what the
relationship was between the weight gain and the L-Glutamine.

I read Atkin's book [Dr. A's New Diet Revolution], however, and have begun
to wonder whether the L-Glutamine has tipped some balance of insulin
production in my body. Does L-Glutamine affect the pancreas?  Is L-Glut. a
possible trigger for diabetes?  This list has been carrying messages saying
that L-Glutamine is helpful for those who have never been able to gain
weight.  That seems to be true, but is there a price to be paid for that
weight?  Does anyone out there know the scientific answers to these
questions? I suppose we need an endocrinologist for this one.

Sharon wrote:
>Recently it was posted that our villi can heal in just a short six days
>after going gluten free.  If not quite this soon, maybe in six weeks.
******
From my reading, I have learned that a healthy person's villi regenerate
themselves every  three days or so, but that may not apply to the flattened
villi of a celiac who has been ill for a while.  Again, we need someone
with scientific training to fill in the missing information.
*****

Back to Sharon:
> If
>we are taking the amino acid L-Glutamine to help our villi heal, how do
>we know when we should stop taking it?  Or is it wise to take it
>continually just in case of gluten accidents?  I have been gluten free
>since September and have been taking L-glutamine for almost as long.
>Anyone know if I can safely stop taking it?

So I'm casting these questions into the wild blue yonder and hoping that
someone out there on the CELIAC LIST knows the answers.

Gayle Kennedy