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I’m a celiac with a selective IgA deficiency, which has caused me such an
unusual set of health problems over the last 8 months that doctors at
University Hospitals in Cleveland, OH, presented my case to their colleagues.

I figure that if even one other celiac is battling similar symptoms, it’s
probably worthwhile for me to post a description of my case. My doctors,
some of the foremost folks in immunology and infectious disease in the
country, have come up with some unusual ways of dealing with the kind of
immune problems that celiacs have.

I was diagnosed as a celiac via a biopsy 2 ½ years ago. I also was
diagnosed with a selective IGA deficiency. The gluten-free diet did wonders
for me. I’m a 42-year-old guy, and I became healthier than ever before. In
May of this year, however, I was beset with the same sharp stomach pains
that originally sent me to doctors two years ago, the pains that resulted
in my diagnosis as a celiac. Starting in May (and lasting, it turned out,
well into August) I became more tired and weak with each passing day. In my
daily workout, I was going backwards, able to do less and less every time I
stepped on the treadmill or picked up a barbell..

I went back to the doctors.I got scoped again, in both directions. I had so
many vials of blood drawn that I lost count. The tests turned up a single
anomaly, a much higher-than-normal  eosinophil count in the blood.
Eosinophils rise to battle allergens or parasites.

Stool tests revealed the presence of a bacteria that most doctors don’t
believe is a bad one. It is called blastocystis hominus, and many people
have it. But because my eosinophil count was so high, my gastro doctor
decided to kill the thing off and prescribed a drug called flagyl in about
the highest dosage a human can take. The result was 10 days of pure hell.
Numbness and tingling in my hands and fingers, dizziness and the unceasing
feeling that I would vomit at any moment. (I would have vomited violently
if I had had but a drop of alcohol while on the drug, the doctors say.)

But the drug did not kill the bug. Flagyl relies on the immune system to
help kill the thing, and my IgA deficiency kept my body from helping out. A
stool test, however, revealed the presence of a bug that was not discovered
the first time, however. It is a bug that all doctors consider to be a bad
one, dientamoeba fragilis.

The doctors believe that my IgA deficiency is the reason the bugs were
thriving. My immune system was not killing them. So my gastro doc sent me
to an immunologist and an infectious disease expert. I have the good
fortune to live in Cleveland, OH, site of some of the best medical
facilities in the world. The experts I saw at University Hospitals are
among the world’s leaders.

The immunologist said studies have proven the effectiveness of a
little-known way of helping people with IgA deficiency. Cow colostrum.
That’s the stuff that precedes milk after a calf is born. It’s filled with
immune-system boosters, including a lot of IgA. It comes in a capsule form
and can be had at all sorts of vitamin shops. I found one that claims to be
gluten-free and will have to take it once a day forever. The immunologist
says that plenty of studies have been done on this. They show that
immune-deficient people with long histories of stomach infections stop
getting the infections once they take cow colostrums.

Then the infectious disease expert ordered up a 20-day course of a drug
that is not made commercially anymore, Iodoquinol. I have the good fortune
to live a few blocks from a compounding pharmacy, and they mixed up a
batch.It had no side effects, and it killed off the bad bug.

I’m all better. My stength and stamina returned. My eosinophil count is
normal. The doctors are not absolutely sure they know what happened. All of
my problems began with a gluten slip-up in April, and the doctors think
that it weakened me long enough to let the bugs flourish. They believe that
if I were to have such a slip-up again,l the colostrum would protect me.

I hope this helps someone.


Christopher Quinn
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