Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Gluten and cardiomyopathy

Again, just a brief note. You want cardiomyopathy? Eat your healthy whole grains and start saving for that heart transplant! Or crossing your fingers if you're in the NHS.

Bear in mind that antibody production is far from necessary for gluten damage, so there is no reason why the two antibody negative patients might not have gluten related damage. Also many "non" coeliac people could equally have gluten damage without gut signs.

Peter

2 comments:

Tracy said...

I wish more people (doctors especially) knew this. I did have gut symptoms, but my sister and other relatives of mine don't, even though their health improved on a gluten-free diet.

And now another gluten-related problem! People think I'm paranoid when I say gluten is the root of all evil.

Peter said...

I was thinking you were being a bit unfair to fructose, but no, some fructose is fine, so it really can't compete. So I think you're right, gluten may be that root, even if it comes from a seed...

Peter

PS I was looking for a paper (never relocated it) which found that effectively managed coeliacs were LESS prone to heart disease. That is, if your gut absolutely forbids you to eat as little as 1mg of gluten per day, your heart is protected... Coeliacs are lucky, provided they're well managed. But if they're occult or poorly managed... Back to that root!