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On September 14 Rosalie Jalbert wrote:
 
>The risk of an intestinal malignant tumor appears to increase with the
>duration of the disease, and careful adherence to a gluten-free diet
>has not been shown to decrease that risk.
 
Your article was loaded with information, but I'm not sure I agree with
the overall tone it took, which seemed to me to promote medicine as much
as diet. With regard to the above statement, I would like to know where
you got this information.
 
Most of the information I've heard about CD has stated the opposite of
your above statement, which is to say, that a Celiac on a GF diet DOES
decrease his/her risk of getting Lymphoma of the small intestine.  The
following was taken from the Sprue-Nik PRESS Eighteenth Edition, March
1995 "Celiac in the 90s,"  Dr. Joseph Murray on CD and DH:
 
"Lymphoma in the small intestine is extremely rare in the general
population. Untreated Celiacs have a 70 or 80 times greater chance of
developing lymphoma. A lifetime of not following the GF diet gives a
Celiac about a 7% chance of developing lymphoma. There is also an
increased risk of other GI-related and lymphatic cancers. The risk of
developing lymphoma immediately begins to decrease when a Celiac patient
starts following a GF diet. The risk continues to decrease until, after
3-5 years, it approaches that of the general population."
 
You also wrote the following about DH:
 
>Skin lesions respond dramatically to therapy with dapsone but
>commonly recur if drug therapy is not maintained. The intestinal lesion
>does not appear to respond to dapsone but usually improves when gluten
>is eliminated from the diet. Therefore, it is assumed that most
>patients with dermatitis herpetiformis have the celiac sprue syndrome.
 
I would like to add:
 
DH is caused by reactions to antibody complexes that, for reasons not
totally clear, become deposited under the skin. These DH breakouts can
continue for a long time after a GF diet is adopted, because these
deposits are not reabsorbed by the body very quickly. In about 70% of
the cases, dapsone treatments can be discontinued after 18 months-2
years; for the other 30% it takes longer.
 
Dr. Murray on DH:
 
"Dr. Murray believes that ALL Dermatitis Herpetiformes (DH) patients
also have Celiac disease, whether they realize it or not.  This celiac
disease is often latent or silent. Earlier reports of patients with DH
who did not have enteropathy (small intestinal damage) may not have
counted milder forms of the celiac disease damage."
 
Regarding drug treatment:
 
Ritalin and Dexedrine may be correcting the symptoms of ADD but they are
*not* addressing its causes. A diagnosis of ADD is a catch-all used when
the doctor is unable to determine the real underlying disease. Also, it
is an easy solution. Celiac Disease (gluten-intolerance), which is
common among people of northern European descent, has many symptoms.
Among them is all the symptoms that you ADD sufferers describe.
 
I think it is important for Celiacs to know that their difficult diets
could be the difference between a long and healthy life, or an early and
painful death.
 
Scott Adams
San Francisco, USA
Scott's Celiac Page:
http://www.hooked.net/users/sadams/