<<Disclaimer:  Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Dear Joe Murry:
Thank you for your many interesting postings. I was wondering if you or
anyone has any advice on how to speed up the healing of the leaky gut
wall once gluten has been removed from the diet?  I have been using fresh
aloevera gel twice a day and natural silica gel orally for my son.A shot
in the dark but harmless and worth a try. Also vit. E. Any ideas?
Another question: is there a higher incidence of autism in countries
such as Ireland where celiac disease ocurrs more frequently?
My two and a half year old autistic son improved quite a lot when I
removed casein and gluten from his diet; esp. gluten. He was quite
addicted to bread and noodles to the exclusion of almost all other foods
before we changed his diet.  The diet resulted in reduced hyperactivity,
near ceasation of autistic self stimulating behaviors, normalization of
sleep habits and ceasation of hand biting and teeth grinding. My son has
had just about every symptom of celiac disease that I have read about and
has had diareaha all his life. He appears to metabolize everything
improperly but gluten and casein are the worst by far. I thought that if
I could give him digestive enzymes it might help reduce the amount of
peptides passing through the gut wall.  However I have read that the ph
of the stomach is too acidic for these orally ingested enzymes to survive
on their way to the gut. It has been suggested that bicarb (such as the
pancrease excretes) be given before meals and the enzymes given with
meals.  What do you think about this and what amount of bicarb and what
sort of timing would be optimal?
Again, thank you so much for you contributions to the listserv.
                        Sincerely,
                                Portia