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Hello friends,
    I was and am overwhelmed by the amount of responses I received to my querie regarding hand lotions. I would have liked to espond to all of you, but because there were so many, I was unable to do so. Please know that I greatly appreciate all of you.
    The overwhelming majority of people, in fact almost everyone, suggested that gluten cannot be absorbed through the skin, and therefore I must have inadvertantly ingested something harmful. 
    One respondee sent the following:
    "According to Dr. Jon Zone, the specialist in dermatology and DH and Celiac, you cannot get a Celiac reaction from anything topical.  If it is not ingested and go into the small intestine, it cannot hurt you.  He spoke at the Celiac Disease Foundation annual meeting in November and clearly stated this numerous times.  The skin is not permeable so shampoo, cleaning products, lotions etc., do not need to be gluten free.  If you get an allergic reaction, that may be specific to you, but it is not from Celiac Disease."
    With that in mind, it was suggested that I may have applied hand lotion and before it was dry picked up a piece of food with my fingers and put it into my mouth, thereby transferring the gluten in the hand lotion to my mouth. That made sense to me.
    Thanks also to the many kind people who sent recommendations as to g/f hand lotions, including offers for free trial samples. 
    You folks are the very best.
Milt
Meherrin, VA

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