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I asked if anyone knew of a connection between twisted bowel and celiac.  I
had just been told I had one after a colonoscopy.  Note:  I do think my insides
are working a little better since the procedure - hoping I got partially
untwisted.

Several people with celiac disease wrote to say they had both twisted bowel
and celiac.  Others knew of peoiple with twisted bowel that were not celiac.
Here are some of the responses.

-I too have a twisted colon and have Celiac.  I don't know if there is a
connection but I do know that it has made it hard to do the prep for the
colonoscopy.

-Funny you should mention the twisted bowel thing.  Before I was diagnosed
with celiac I had a major bowel blockage.  After the surgery the celiac disease
kicked in big time.  I've had 2-3 blockages since then but haven't required
surgery.  My GI doc told me that I have a "redundant" bowel (translation: longer
than the average bear) and and that it's "torturous" (translation:  twisty,
turny and he hates doing a colonoscopy on my colon).  He said in his research
he's found that celiacs frequently have kinky bowels whereby sections can even
converge on each other.

My daughter who has also been diagnosed as celiac has been told she has an
extra long bowel too.  I'm wondering if, when redundant bowels are discovered
during colonoscopies, testing for celiac disease should follow.  It might be an
indicator.

-Not sure if they are related, but I have both celiac and a twisted
bowel.  Prior to going gluten free, I had terrible constipation.  I was not
the so called typical celiac.

-I was told I had a kinked bowel.  I have also read where the celiac bowel
can also be longer then normal.

-Yes;  I can tell you my story, which wasn't pleasant at all. One morning 10
years ego I experienced incredible stomach pain, so I went to ER close by.
At first they treated me for food poisoning. By midnight I was passing out
on and off. Than I asked for exploratory surgery. The result was removing
18" of twisted and perforated; rotten small intestine. After one year I was
diagnosed for CD. Since that I gain back my health, but even trace of gluten
cause blockage of small intestine. Happen to me 3 times since that. In
hospital they insert vacuum tube into my stomach and get relief in 4-5
hours.

-I'm celiac as well as my four children and my sister.  My mother just had a
colonoscopy (and was tested for celiac which was negative) and they told her
she had a twisted colon.  I sometimes wonder if I do, too, as I feel that I'm
"pinched" up sometimes...I constipate very easily and feel that I have a kink
in my system.  I've never had a colonoscopy - was scheduled for one after last
gluten contamination left me really sick, low white blood cell count, low
platelettes, anemic, etc. and TONS of pain in my intestines that radiated into my
hip.  I did a good detox for a month and my symptoms resolved, but I wonder if
I'm "twisted".  I'll look for your summary!

-I have heard of twisted bowel with no relationship to Celiac. I have met
people who have children with it and they were having bowel problems related
to it, but they were not Celiac at all. The root of their problems seemed to
be somehow linked to other neurological based problems, perhaps. I say this
only because there was no explanation at all for it. The parents wondered if
it was linked to the fact that they had Spina Bifida somehow. This is the
parent's theory, not a medical theory. The parents, like you, were pondering
if there could be a connection to what their children already had been
diagnosed with.

-The small intestine is mobile on a connection to the lining of the abdomen.
Sometimes this connection (called mesentery) is loose allowing the bowel to
twist on itself. If the bowel untwists then no harm is done. Sometimes, however,
the bowel stays twisted for a prolonged time leading to compromise of the
blood supply which can cause infarction (dead bowel). If one has persistent pain
and may have a twist, then a visit to the ER for evaluation is needed. There
are no effective home remedies.

-I have had surgeries (2) for twisted bowel when blockages resulted and/or
hernias developed.  Surgeries were prior to diagnosis of Celiac though.
Related?  I wonder now.

* Visit the Celiac Web Page at www.enabling.org/ia/celiac/index.html *