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Some of you know of my #1 son's struggles with gluten sensitivity.  He was
not the typical celiac child.  He was a well developed, healthy looking
child of normal weight and above average intelligence.  But in spite of his
best efforts, he was a serious under achiever.  His grades were always poor.
  I had to homeschool him for 6 years because of his inability to function
in a regular classroom.  He had to repeat his senior year in high school to
graduate.   But he was determined to get a college degree.  (Gotta love him
for his tenacity!)

Years of struggle in community colleges and various jobs passed by.  He was
always tired, in physical pain 24-7 and was diagnosed with both ADD and
fibromyalgia.  He was sometimes too ill to work & lost several jobs because
of poor performance.

As if things weren't bad enough, around age 23 he took a dramatic turn for
the worse.  He developed symptoms of schizophrenia.  He was delusional,
hearing voices & hallucinating.  His behavior became unpredictable and my
previously sweet young son even made threats against me.  His grades in
community college were so poor he was put on academic suspension.  I
discussed the delicate situation with my family doctor, but hadn't been able
to get our son to visit the doctor about his problems yet.

Around this same time, I found out that I have celiac disease.  I couldn't
help but wonder if my son's problems could be somehow related.  I was able
to gently talk him into getting blood tested through conventional labs for
celiac disease and was told he did not have celiac disease.  I wasn't
satisfied with that, so I had him tested by EnteroLabs in Dallas, Texas.
His tests came out positive for gluten sensitivity w/ malabsorption --
EnteroLab's equivalent of celiac disease.

Within 24 hours of starting the gluten free diet, his face brightened, his
hallucinations & delusions vanished and he began to be able to focus on his
school work like never before.  He felt happy and well for the first time in
many, many years, perhaps his whole life.  Life was suddenly easy & doable
for him.  He was so joyful, he composed two pieces on the piano entitled
"Happily Ever After" and "Gratitude."  With new found energy & a hope for a
normal life he was able to improve his grades and finally get accepted into
a four year university!  He's now in his senior year and my husband and I
couldn't be more pleased with his progress!

He began the gluten free diet nearly five years ago.  To this day, he must
stick with the diet to function normally.  Occasionally he gets careless,
slips up and ends up paying dearly for it with bizarre behavior & an
inability to focus on his school work for a few days.  He has a supportive
college roommate and friends who understand his condition.  Once after being
on the diet for less than a year, he got weak at a social gathering and ate
a jelly doughnut.  After about 40 minutes he became verbally insulting to a
couple of young women.  This is uncharacteristic behavior for him as he's
normally courteous & reserved.  The young women left the gathering in tears.
  My son, of course, felt terrible the next day after he recovered from the
gluten reaction.  What could he say, "The doughnut made me do it?"  That
experience was a big turning point for his learning just how important the
GF diet is to his success in life.

I often wonder how many so called schizophrenics really have celiac disease.
  I've heard studies that claim that gluten and schizophrenia aren't
related, but those studies were based on conventional blood tests for
antigliadin antibodies without GF diet trials.  My son's conventional blood
tests came out normal, yet his response to the diet was profound & life
changing.   So I wonder if a lot of schizophrenia patients would benefit
from a Gf diet trial.  If I were as rich as Bill Gates, I'd fund my own
research & get the answers.

Anyway, I shudder to think of what may have become of our son had we not
learned about celiac disease.

I hope something I've said here will be of benefit to someone out there.

Valerie in Tacoma

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