<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> Sender: Celiac/Coeliac Wheat/Gluten-Free List <[log in to unmask]> Poster: Frances Johnson <[log in to unmask]> Subject: ?MS A relative has been diagnosed with MS. I read something a while back about MS being associated with Celiac. I am unable to access the Archives. Has anyone any information about this subject? Thanks FJ Canada Hi there, the connection is that both diseases are auto-immune and once you have one you seem prone to get more or already has. I have three of them so far and hope there won't be any other coming! Anna Sweden I would recommend checking out information on this web site providing a lot of data to suggest that MS may be related to diet - specifically food proteins such as from grains: http://www.direct-ms.org/ Also, celiac disease can manifest with neurological symptoms that can mimic MS. If it were me, I would do a blood panel for celiac disease and gliadin antibodies (I think that's the one). I have had symptoms typical of MS and I had the celiac panel. Although it was negative for me. A friend of mine with MS was telling me she went to a workshop that was teaching that many folks with MS don't tolerate gluten well. Hope this helps,Shawna This is very interesting, thank you. My mom and my aunt both have charcot-marie-tooth disease also known as hereditary motor sennsory neuropathy. They thought my aunt had MS at first and then found it was this. Have you heard a lot of celiacs having this? www.charcot-marie-tooth.org Thanks, wendy Just another co-incidence. I've been on the GF diet for almost 50 years! My son was diagnosed with MS his senior year at college.. When he came home, he was here with us so was gluten free for abou a year. Then he moved to an appartment and did his own cooking. He seemed pretty well while here, but got worse when living on his own. Not enough evidence to stay on the GF diet. He diied in 2003. I hope some research will show the connection. Thank you for posting about it! It helps us all! Janet MS is an auto-immune disease, like celiac disease. Having CD means that you have an 11% chance of developing another auto-immune disease IF YOU ARE ON A STRICT GF DIET. If you are not on the diet, your chances of developing other auto-immune diseases is about 34%. To me, that statistic alone is enough reason to stay on the diet! Katharine Philadelphia You can go to the web site: www.celiac.com There is information on this site about MS. Mitzi from Michigan Our daughter is a biopsied celiac. Her father had borderline blood tests. They both had some neurological improvements when going gluten free. (concentration, hyperactivity, parasthesia-pins and needles, ataxia-coordination). Shortly before she died from MS, we had his mother tested for celiac and all the blood tests were high positive . She was MRI'd so it was a firm diagnosis. I am borderline positive for celiac and got rid of 30 yrs irritable bowel and had 40 point improvement in my cholesterol readings, and mostly got rid of fibromyalgia/arthritis type pain. My grandfather was diagnosed in the late 60s with MS (foot drop, progressive deterioration of his ability to walk) before he died of gallbladder&pancreatic cancer. Diagnosis then was less definitive but it still makes you wonder. Our daughter has two genes for celiac. Makes you wonder doesn't it -- is it the gene or is the malabsorption? Many people treat MS successfully with a highly nutritious juicing diet with high omega 3 fats and other super nutrition components. Chris Klicka, an attorney with www.hslda.org was able to get out a wheel chair and continue practicing law because of serious diet chances for MS Hope this helps Paula in Pa. In The Gluten File there are some articles about MS and gluten and a link to MS Direct. http://jccglutenfree.googlepages.com/ Another thing to check is B12. I had a friend who was diagnosed with MS and it turned out what she really has was no B12. The tests for B12 are a serum B12, methylmalonic acid and homocystine. There is no perfect test and a recent article recommends anyone with a neurological disease to take B12. There is good information on B12 in The Gluten File. Anne That's a good question. A few people on this listserv have asked this before, but I haven't heard of anything definitive. We have been interested in this as well as my husband has CD and his mom died from complications of a 30 battle with MS. At one point they put her on a GF diet (although I question whether they knew what they were doing), but they thought it didn't work and then moved on to other treatments. Her mother (my husband's maternal grandmother) suffered from terrible intestinal problems, which we now wonder if that could have been attributed to CD, but I guess we'll never know. hi Frances. Recently I was diagnosed with optic neuritis which is often a marker for ms. I have had at least two major episodes. My eye dr said that in my case the cause was more likely a result of a brain tumor that I had had than ms, despite my celiac. I had enough signs of ms to make them run a battery of tests but ie end my myelin was fine. But given all of my risk factors, I will have to have mris every 4 months. I hear anecdotally relationships between ms and celiac but I think that it comes more from the propensity of someone to have more than one autoimmune disease than these two in particular. Be vigilant about being checked- don't let things go the way that I did!!! I put more energy into finding the correlation than I did the actual diagnosis! Amy There is an association. Here is one link: http://www.celiac.com/st_main.html?p_catid=7. Scroll down till you see "Multiple Sclerosis".Kind regards,Lisa Colleyville, TX Yes - they are both auto-immune diseases. Some people control their MS with diet - no wheat, milk, legumes. http://www.direct-ms.org/ Janice in Alberta Yes there is an association between celiac and most auto-immune diseases. I don't have the exact numbers on MS, but I know celiac can lead to MS. According to the criteria of the WHO, celiac disease should qualify for general screening of the population. In my opinion having MS (or even a relative with an auto-immune disease) is all the more reason to get tested. Cathleen Sutherland <[log in to unmask]> This MS site covers nutritional supplements including vitamin D, nutritional stategies (gf/milk-free diet), autoimmune disease, leaky gut, etc: http://www.direct-ms.org/ The research I've done suggests that Vitamin D in the cholecalciferol form is best utilized. I found a 1000iu Vitamin D by NOW in a gel cap form (www.iherb.com ) that would seem to be more easily absorbed than the hard Vit D tablets. Bev in Milwaukee I would recommend checking out information on this web site providing a lot of data to suggest that MS may be related to diet - specifically food proteins such as from grains: http://www.direct-ms.org/ Also, celiac disease can manifest with neurological symptoms that can mimic MS. If it were me, I would do a blood panel for celiac disease and gliadin antibodies (I think that's the one). I have had symptoms typical of MS and I had the celiac panel. Although it was negative for me. A friend of mine with MS was telling me she went to a workshop that was teaching that many folks with MS don't tolerate gluten well. Hope this helps, Shawna _________________________________________________________________ Check Out Our List Of Trendy Restaurants. 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