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The awareness part would be good. I don't think the pill will work, or it
will only work partially, for several reasons:
1. Like you say, it can't digest all the gluten.
2. People forget to take enzymes as it is.
3. You COULD have a drug that blocks the antibodies kind of like
antihistimines block histimines. I'm guessing
there would be side effects, but it could work.
4. Any drug is likely to cause as many problems as it fixes.
5. But even if can get around that, there is more than one way that wheat
causes problems. It's not
just a gliadin issue. You also have:
a. Glutenin, which affects some people though it's not well studied.
Glutenin is in oats, and similar
enough to a protein in rice that rice may be problematic too.
b. Exorphins: even if you don't react to the gliadin, it still acts like
a drug.
c. Phytates and other chemicals: even if you are not reactive to gluten,
the way we currently consume grains
is really not good for people.
        I think making people "less reactive" to gluten is a little like making
people "less likely" to get cancer
from smoking. A better solution would be to change the American diet to
be less grain-dependent: Grains
have been a recent experiment that has not worked on multiple fronts. And
to use other grains when we DO eat grain. Currently 40% of the American
diet is wheat, which is just plain weird and a MUCH higher percentage
than 100 years ago. A diet of bread and pasta is low in nutrients, high
in simple carbs, and a recipe for bad health.
        If we went back to the "pioneer diet" of meat, fish, fruits, vegies with
some nice desserts now and
then, we'd all be healthier. Food would taste better too.
        On a personal note, I have to say we would not go back to our old way of
eating no matter what.
People come over here to eat all the time, and really, no one feels we
are "deprived" -- we eat GOOD!
(As you may know ... :-) Having a pill to keep me from getting sick while
I travel though, I'd probably buy into.
        However --- I have found that my probiotic vegies and kefir DO seem to
have some enyzmes in them that "mop up" stray bits of gluten: at least I
seem to not react much when I've had some. I was feeling rather sick once
from something I ate and had a bowl of garlic/ginger/kimchi and the
reaction just kind of vanished. So it is possible that pill or no pill,
some of these "ancient remedies" already have the enzyme or blocker or
whatever
is needed.
        Gliadin is a lectin I believe, and lectins "glom on" to oligosaccharides
which makes them pretty harmless.  I'm guessing that some of these
fermented foods produce oligosaccharides -- they would not have to digest
the gliadin, just bond to it.
        Kefir shows promise too: some celiacs drink it on a regular basis and
have found much improvement.  It tends to "line" the gut with good
bacteria: whether those bacteria digest gliadin or just protect the gut,
I don't know.
        Of course, both of those remedies will make NO money for anyone, so they
are not likely to get publicised in this country.  ~Heidi
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        I absolutely agree although I think the "molecular mimicry" (which did
not originate at Stanford) idea could be a reasonable approach in this
sense--if you could "tie up" transglutaminase temporarily you might be
able to blunt the effects of the toxic protein fragments until the
natural proteases could degrade it.  THis wouldn't be useful for lasagna
but might block contaminant level protein that is such a problem when
eating out.  Implication would be that you could take your pill then
study the menu for something that looked OK then just go for it.  This
assumes that the transglutaminase-protein fragment complex is the only
stimulus for autoimmunity and that is conjecture.
        IMHO a potentially more successful approach would be to target the CD4
cells directly--try & bind up the DQ rendered sites on the surface of the
lymphocyte.  No small feat.  ALternatively try & kill off the whole clone
of memory cells, JUST THAT ONE CLONE, of course with eg a highly specific
retrovirus-like agent.
        Current trials are underway in severe lupus patients of anti-CD4
antibodies. However if you obliterate CD4s non-selectively you have
basicallt created an AIDS-like  condition which doesn't leave you much
better off (although severe Lupus is a really bad disease).
        When I think about all of those other autoimmune conditions and how
serious they can be it's rather nice to think that we are afflicted with
the only really etiologically treatable autoimmune disease.  In other
words, most of us (refractory sprue notwithstanding) don't really need a
pill or a new injection--we already have a really good treatment for our
condition.  ~David
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I also agree with you that an enzyme pill will not be that effective for
a celiac, and that immunosuppressive drugs can cause other problems.
However, i recently read an article about some scientists in UK and
Finland are trying for another approach. They are trying to come up with
a 'vaccine' made with specific gliadin protein chains, that can 'program'
our immune system not to attack these proteins. This will be like taking
a flu shot. I don't know how far they have made in this area, but it is
cetainly promising. ~John
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I just read your e-mail on the listserv regarding the good news coming
out of Stanford University's research on celiac disease.  And, yes, I do
have a comment and/or opinion. I found your negative outlook pretty sad.
You appear to have already made up your mind that the ongoing research
will only result in a pill that a) Won't really work, or b) Will have so
many harmful side effects as to make it more harmful than the disease
itself. Hopefully, you wrote your e-mail on a day that you were feeling
down in the dumps.  If not, then when they are able to put those
wonderful little enzymes in a pill suitable for humans, I hope you won't
consider yourself a viable candidate when they begin their testing at the
various hospitals around the country. What a shame that you have already
tried and convicted this new research as being destined for failure.
~Nancy Laude
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Glad you had the guts to write this.  There already is an enzyme to do
just this, I thought, as it digests down the opioid section of the wheat
and milk and yeast proteins that is the same as what causes the gluten
reaction, I thought.  And, the research this company did says that it
digests about 60% of the target proteins. And, of course, you're right,
it can't go into the body at all in it's original form without causing
harm. Houston Nutriceuticals is one of the companies making this enzyme,
and has a lot of discussion about it's products online.
(www.houstonni.com)  Helen in ID
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