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

Gayle Kennedy wrote

>The big difference between people who have peanut allergies and people who
>have celiac disease, is that an ingested peanut can cause anaphlactic (I
>don't know how to spell that!) shock and sudden death, while ingested
>gluten usually causes injury to villi and diarrhea, followed by slow death
>over many years.  I realize that a few celiacs have the same kind of
>anaphlactic shock reaction to gluten, as well.

Oh dear friends, please do not discount celiac as a life-threatening
condition.  Yes, it is true.  Not all Celiacs develop severe immediate
responses to gluten ingestion, but it does happen.  And you do not know
when or where or to what.

I had been diagnosed with Celiac for three years before my crisis came.
Flour in mashed potatoes. And it only took one bite.  My throat swelled, as
did my tongue.  I was lucky to have a bendryl type medication with me and
an emergency room close by.  I was hospitalized for three weeks going in
and out of shock.     For me, celiac is as deadly as peanuts, or any other
allergy.  But I had no clue.

It can happen.  It does happen.  My step-son's girlfriends aunt literally
dropped dead after taking a gluten containing medication.

Check out

http://www.csaceliacs.org/pharmaceuticals.html

"Gluten intolerance in the celiac patient is described as a pseudoallergic
response.  The pseudoallergic or anaphlyactoid reaction is different from an
immune-mediated syndrome which may require repeated exposure to produce an
effect.  In the pseudoallergic or anaphylactic reaction, the reaction may
occur as a result of a single exposure.  Acute reactions to the causative
substance are produced by direct release of mediators from mast cells and
basophills resulting in the classic end-organ effects that these mediators
exert.  Direct mediator release can then occur without evidence of a prior
sensitization period.  This nonimmune reaction is immediate, often severe,
and is therefore referred to as anaphylactoid.  Because it is
nonimmunological, it may occur the first time that a person is exposed to the
respective agent.  These reactions are of further interest and concern
because they can be elicited by very small and minute doses of the offending
substances."

I don't mean to frighten anyone.  But you need to respect the potential of
*this* disease.

I do.

Now.

deni weber

Valparaiso, IN  USA

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