<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>
 
In this week's New England Journal of Medicine there is a study that finds
that half of celiac sufferers have fecal occult blood (traces of blood in
their stools). This finding suggests that we may be losing a lot of iron,
etc., in addition to the malabsorption from villi destruction/damage.
 
Re: Liver enzymes
 
In the accompanying editorial "The Many Faces of Celiac Disease", the
author notes that a frequent clinical complication of celiac is
 
"moderate, reversible elevations in serum amino-transferase concentrations
with minimal histopathological changes in the liver." He gives three
citations for this observation:
 
Trier, J.S. Celiac sprue. NEJM, 1991: 325:1709-19
 
Goggins, M, Kelleher, D. Celiac disease and other nutrient related injuries
to the gastrointestinal tract. AM J Gastroenterology 1994: 89:Suppl:S2-2S17
 
Bardella, MT et al. Prevalence of hypertransferaseminasemia in adult celiac
patients and effect of gluten-free diet. Hepatology. 1995.22: 833-6
 
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James J. Hughes PhD, Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, U. of Chicago,
(work) 312-702-3742  [log in to unmask]
(Web) http://ccme-mac4.bsd.uchicago.edu/CCMEFaculty/Hughes/Hughes.html
 
Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.
- Horace Mann