Autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis can cause osteoporosis, so can gluten sensitivity. In a 2005 study, researchers evaluated 266 individuals with osteoporosis, along with 574 without the condition, to identify the prevalence of coeliac disease. They discovered that close to 5 % of people with osteoporosis had a positive blood test for coeliac disease, which is significantly higher then in the individuals without osteoporosis who only had 1% that tested positive for coeliac disease. These finding are clear enough that the researchers recommended blood tests for gluten anti-bodies in all patients with osteoporosis.

As amazingly high as this statistic is, we need to keep in mind that blood testing for coeliac disease misses a significant number of individuals who are gluten sensitive; it is these individuals that may already be on the way to losing bone density.

Osteopemia and osteoporosis can often be reversed, but the condition must be treated correctly. This does not always happen due to misdiagnosis, as the following case suggests.

Willow, a post menopausal woman had her first bon scan in 1991 because osteoporosis ran in her family and because she was thin and small boned. She was not surprised when she was diagnosed with osteoporosis. In an attempt to stop and reverse the disorder her rheumatologist tried the medications available at that time Fosamax and Actonel, both of which failed to help Willow.

Several years passed and the disease progressed. In 2003 Willows osteoporosis specialist prescribed a new medication. Despite her diligence in taking this course of treatment, it also failed to stop the degeneration of her bones. It was by either luck or instinct that Willow demanded to be tested for coeliac disease. Her husband had been diagnosed with coeliac disease in 1982, so she had kept up to date on coeliac disease research. Although she had not suffered from any symptoms of coeliac disease, she did not have diarrhoea, weight loss, anaemia or other symptoms, she asked her doctor to run a tissue transglutaminase blood test (a test for gluten sensitivity). The doctor and laboratory were unfamiliar with the blood test, but they learned how to do it. To everyone’s surprise, except possibly Willow’s, the tests came back positive. She went on a gluten free diet, gained over 6kg and has continued to see an improvement in her bone density. A gluten free diet came to her rescue.

Willow’s experience is not an anomaly. As far back as 1996, research has shown that going on a gluten free diet would reverse bone density loss, even in patients who showed no symptoms of malabsorption, normally the primary reason why osteoporosis occurs in people with coeliac disease ( In cases of malabsorption, the body does not absorb minerals and other nutrients necessary for bone growth. Porosity then results). In that study of 63 patients, every patient improved when they followed a gluten free diet.

These improvements are not short term only. Authors of a 5 year follow up study of coeliac disease patients who adhered to a gluten free diet said, “According to our results, bone disease in coeliac patients is cured in most patients during 5 years on a gluten free diet. The improvement in BMD (bone mineral density) mostly occurred already within the first year after the establishment of a gluten free diet”.

The lesson to be learned: if you have been diagnosed with osteopemia or osteoporosis and you haven’t seen improvement with all you have tried, go gluten free. The diet may save you from pain and suffering.

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Thank you for your feedback on the stories in my last post.  This post continues the stories of different ways gluten sensitivity can manifest itself.

Overcome developmental delay.

A 4-year-old boy was not developing mentally or physically in a normal manner. He could not talk, but screamed incessantly as his only way to communicate.

Within 2 weeks of being put on a gluten-free and dairy-free diet his behaviour had improved and he had spoken his first words!

Furthermore he was also gaining weight.

An interesting note was that it was evident the boy became jealous of anyone who approached his “special” food. He knew it was making him normal, and he didn’t want it to go away.

That case was 25 years ago and the boy remains gluten free and is now a normal young man.

Wolf mask.

A 30-year-old lady suffering from early-stage lupus with notable discolouration on the face started on a gluten free diet.

Within a month her skin had cleared up and she was in full clinical remission.

Halted Multiple Sclerosis.

A woman had late-stage Multiple Sclerosis ( MS) with neurological damage and an impaired left leg. Even though she continued to exercise daily the disease kept progressing.

When she went on a gluten-free diet, the neurological progression stopped. Her damaged left leg regained some of its feeling and her right leg returned to normal function. Even more important, her vision was restored! The diet appeared to stop the MS progression.

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Coeliac Disease and Gluten Sensitivity may come from genetic pre-disposition, long term deterioration of the digestive system and general ageing.

Sometimes a severe viral infection and /or its treatment may trigger the condition.

People often mention a severe illness and anti-biotics in association with the onset of their condition: that their immune system has been severely stressed in some way.

I do not know whether this is coincidental or not.

I often meet mature people who are unhappy, aggrieved, confused and sorely challenged about the fact that ‘suddenly’ they can no longer eat wheat or dairy products or whatever.

Their view is that they have been eating them all their life without a problem – why do or should they have a problem now? They just don’t want to know about or have to deal with it.

Celiac on mature people

There are others who are thrilled to have found a solution to their debilitating health problems.

Some parents reported they had gone on a gluten free diet in support of two of their four children who were coeliac.

Although not coeliac themselves they had, in the process, discovered they were both gluten sensitive and were in raptures about the benefits of their newly adopted gluten free diets: both had lost weight, had more energy and the mother’s chronic conjunctivitis problem had cleared up without any treatment or medication.

Previously, the conjunctivitis had not responded to treatment.

Another young man in his mid thirties had suffered from undiagnosed coeliac disease, severe depression, psychotic episodes and mild eczema from the age of nine.

On a gluten free diet since he was thirty-two, his gut had healed, his depression lifted and he was enjoying life and cooking: it was good to be alive and he was glad to have found a solution in gluten free food and our products.

Unfortunately, whether you want to know about it or not, once you’ve become a coeliac or gluten sensitive the only sensible answer is to totally exclude gluten from your diet.

There is no option to this lifetime commitment: you have to come to terms with your health condition. If you don’t, you risk, at best, continually feeling slightly off colour or, in a worst case scenario, becoming seriously and, perhaps, life threateningly ill.

There is a danger of serious weight loss, lack of energy, osteoporosis, depression, various immuno and nutrition deficiency issues and the risk of contracting various cancers of the bowel, lymph system and/or of the throat at much higher rates than for the general community.

As a mature person, you may have been mildly gluten sensitive or Coeliac and felt vaguely uncomfortable and think that is how life is.

You get used to it, you live with it and soldier on regardless. But in other instances you can be or become chronically ill.

The good news is, that if you adopt a strictly gluten free diet your health and quality of life will often improve dramatically and your general risks of illness will match those of the broader community.

While at first the change to gluten free foods and meal preparation may seem a bit daunting it soon becomes second nature.

It is fairly simple and, if approached in the right manner, even fun and creative: all that is required is a sense of humour, patience,curiosity and some persistence.

A small price to pay to be free of any chronic or debilitating illness.

Regards

Paul Smith

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