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Hi Everyone!
  I want to thank everyone who responded to my posting regarding my husband
Greg's insulin reaction and possible connections with celiac disease.  The
support is wonderful and the information invaluable....finally--a brief
summary:

Several people responded that they had observed a connection between
injestion of gluten and low blood sugars--below are a few excerpts:

--We have had numerous occasions such as the one you described with your
husband.  If our daughter digests food that is not gluten free she will not
absorb properly for the next day to two days.  However, if you do not know
that she has digested the food and you adminster the normal amounts of
insulin then there is no way that any amount of food you eat will work to
offset the low.  Juice does not work either.  In fact we have found that we
will over feed her and all of the sweet liquid juices and food will just
cause her to throw up after a while.  The only way to get around the
absorption/dehydration problem for the two or three days is to administer an
I-V at the hospital (not our 1st choice at all) or to administer glucagon.

--I am not surprised that your husband has been having difficulties with
low blood sugar reactions.  I am a diabetes educator, have in my practice
seen @ 6 people with the dual diagnosis professionally, and my son has IDDM
and CD.  Once your husband's absorbtion smooths out, he probably will have
less difficulty.  If my son, David, has any CD reaction or GI tract
illness, it wreaks havoc with his blood sugar control

--My own experience has been that the absorption of food varies greatly
from day to day because of the damage done to the intestines.  Until I
diagnosed celiac sprue, I was unable to regulate my blood sugars even when
measuring every morsal I put into my mouth!

--In general, I found that I tended to have more bouncing sugars (high to low)
and rebounds when I ingested gluten.  The gluten passed through my system
(diarhea included) and no calories were absorbed or utilized by the insulin
I took. This caused reactions even when I stuck to my diet faithfully.

Several people observed that eventually a gluten free diet made their
diabetes control easier, possibly due to more even absorption of nutrients
after the intestine heals; A few people reported a need for an increased
dose of insulin as absorption improved, however, at least one person
reported a decreased need for insulin on a gluten free diet--the take home
message for me is that careful monitoring and recordkeeping are key to
making the shift to a gluten free diet so that changes are observed and
responded to appropriately.

Other possibilities were suggested:
    1) gastroparesis (nerve damage in the GI tract, whether in the stomach
(delayed emptying and less digestion) or in the intestine (decreased
absorption since microvilli don't wave).
    2) gluten allergy (IgE not the celiac IgG, IgA and the intestinal ones)
-- a short term, violent reaction by the intestine with nausea and or
vomiting, cramps, etc. - less food of all kinds may get absorbed. Histamine
the culprit, just as it is for nasal allergies. Occurs now because the
memory of previous gluten builds up in immune cells during the GF period.
    3) celiac disease --if enough of the small intestine has been affected
then you can get these short term effects from a single exposure. Same
comment about effects on food absorption.
    4)  other factors such as food allergies, other autoimmune diseases

Finally, at least one person mentioned that severe insulin reactions can
also be caused by the after affects of exercise (something that my husband
had also mentioned :-) -->he is an avid volleyball player) or the
flu/viruses--two factors unrelated to celiac disease.

I also received some information about a group studying celiac diabetics
that I would like to pass on:

"our board member Sara Jones is compiling a list of celiac diabetics to
assist and receive coping strategy material being developed by our chapter
and now within CSA/USA.  A survey is now with a CSA Med.  Advisor to review.
We hope to send it out to the more than 70 responders who are interested in
both diseases.  All responders will receive a copy of our chapter newsletter
in April devoted entirely to the two diseases as a first part of our
"research."  Please send a self-addressed envelope to Sara Jones, 11011 Chevy
Chase, Houston, TX 77042.  Or give me your name & address by E-mail.  Sara is
not on E-mail as yet.  I hope to hear from you.  (this info was from:  Janet
Rinehart, Houston Celiac-Sprue Support Group and CSA President.  her email:
[log in to unmask] )

I hope that other people find this all helpful!  Thanks again--we are
learning so much from the members of this list!

--Sherri Christianson
  Seal Cove, ME