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

I had wonderful, caring responses to my question about taking immune
boosters.  Here's the best explanation from a doctor: Jack Maines.   I sort
of slammed doctors in general (with respect to CD) in a previous e-mail to
this man not knowing he was a doctor, thus the comments at the beginning of
his post.  I think this shows he's quite a guy.

>Diane- thanks for looking after me.  And so far as we doctors are concerned,
>keep up the beat!  We need feedback when we get off track.  trouble is its
>hard to accept new ideas and celiac is a new idea.  Most of us had maybe 10
>minutes on it in medical school, a 1/2 page in our text book and that mostly
>devoted to tropical sprue.  Most have never seen a case.  For the new
>doctors coming along, that will not be true, thanks to people like you and
>the others on this list who have done the lion's share of the work on this
>disease.  I, (for example) would not have known about it except for my son
>and my wife who broke thru the ice, mainly via to Don Wiss and this list).
>But the doctors are not alone, as I am about to demonstrate, in attempting
>to change your hard won opinion about the immune system.  You will see how
>hard it is to discard a pre-conception.

>Your preconception is that celiacs have an "over-active" immune system.
>They don't.  Your immune system is doing its job, fighting off enemies of
>your body.  The problem is that your intestine recognizes gluten as an
>"enemy" and attacks gluten.  The subsequent "battle" damages your intestinal
>lining.  In time, that damage leads to faulty digestion (a "leaky gut")
>which allows incompletely digested protein to "leak" through into your blood
>stream where it also is recognised as an enemy, and attacked by your
>perfectly normal immune system.  Unfortunately some other tissues are
>damaged in this battle (thyroid, kidneys, brain, blood, pancreas, skin,
>joints, etc).  The name "auto immune disease" is given to the ensuing damage
>and probably resulted in your idea that your immune system is over active.
>On the contrary, if you do have breast cancer, you need every bit of
>immunity you've got- cancer being a foriegn tissue also.  I don't know about
>the herbal boosters of immunity, but there is no doubt that there are many
>boosters, including faith, hope and love.  And don't lose faith in the
>doctors- we will get there eventually.  Best regards Jack Maines.  (you can
>publish to the list if you choose).

Thanks, Doctor Jack.  We all appreciate your taking time to give us this
valuable information.
Diane