Anemia and Celiac Disease
Anyone out there enjoy crunching on ice? I remember as teenager I liked to do that. I think it was the sound it made that appealed to me in some inexplicable way. I also liked the cool sensation going down my throat. But after a few months of it I gave it up. A friend told me that it was very bad for my teeth. I recently read that there are people who are unable to give up the ice-crunching habit. They are simply addicted to it. It has caused teeth and jaw problems, but they relent. If you know someone like that, take her or him to get blood tests. This is one of the classic symptoms of anemia. And anemia can be caused by celiac disease.
According to the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) up to 9% of people with iron deficiency anemia and no gastrointestinal symptoms will have celiac disease. And among the iron deficient anemics who have gastro-intestinal symptoms 10-15% will have celiac disease. According to the AGA anyone with unexplained anemia should be tested for celiac disease.
Anemia is the body’s inability to carry oxygen to it’s organs due to lack of hemoglobin in the red blood cells. Iron is an important component of hemoglobin and celiac disease can cause iron deficiency. In the general population, iron deficiency is caused by blood loss from things like a trauma, a bleeding ulcer, or even a heavy menstrual cycle. But in many unexplained cases of anemia, celiac disease is the culprit.
The symptoms of anemia can be intuitive, like fatigue, shortness of breath, dizziness, being cold all the time, headaches, and heart palpitations. But they can also be surprising like the need to crunch on ice and foot or leg pain.
Folate and vitamin B12 deficiencies also cause anemia because they are responsible for formation of hemoglobin and formation and growth of red blood cells. Both can be caused by the intestine’s inability to absorb these nutrients due to celiac disease. Folate deficiencies can cause ringing in the ears, cracked lips, and a sore tongue, as well as the more standard symptoms of anemia. Vitamin 12 deficiencies can cause numbness in fingers and toes, feelings of imbalance, depression, and even dementia, but these symptoms appear if you have had the deficiency for a long period of time. If you experience any of these symptoms see a doctor. And make sure one of the things he checks for is celiac disease.
Jens Gluten Free Website Update…
My husband and I have been working very hard to try to get our new GF website up and running so that we can bring you great GFree products at better prices, and…let’s just say we have had a few glitches.
We started by looking for products. That was the easy part. There are more gluten-free products out there than you could possibly imagine! We have nearly 1,000 products, so far, on our spreadsheet! We also found a really talented web designer who is laying out what I think is going to be the most beautiful and user friendly gluten-free site on the web. There is nothing more frustrating to me than a website that takes over an hour to figure out!
The back-end programming has proved itself to be our Achilles heal. We hired an amazing guy who we were convinced was talented, knowledgeable, creative and really understood what we wanted. Best of all he promised a very reasonable turnaround time by which he would finish the job. Unfortunately, however, he turned out to be full of hot air. Surprise!!! Has that ever happened to one of you? Eventually we gave up and fired him. Now we are in the process of locating a really talented programmer who will do the work in as short a time as possible.
So, that is where we stand now. There has been a brief delay in our plans to get the site up. But it will go up, I promise you.
Anybody got a Tylenol?
3 Responsesto “Anemia and Celiac Disease”
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I love your website, Jen. It’s been awhile since we have seen each other, and I can’t believe you have been going through the same GF struggles I have!
I want to comment on the anemia topic, as this is how we found out my daughter (then 22) had Celiac. She began losing weight quite rapidly and then we found that she was anemic. Iron supplements didn’t solve the problem. Since her father had been diagnosed with lymphoma (which he became aware of because of anemia), the gastrointestinal doctor sent her for a colonoscopy, even though he was quite sure he would find nothing. Surprise! Celiac disease was found through the colonoscopy, the “gold standard” for diagnosing CD.
Since that fateful day, I have also been diagnosed (also by a colonoscopy) with Celiac, as have two of my other children. So we are pretty much living in a gluten-free world these days!
I have been addicted to ice for a long time!!!!!! I eat an excessive amount of it- close to a gallon’s worth of water each day! I’m aware that it can destroy my teeth. However, it hasn’t done so. I hear that dentists can spot someone who is an ice eater by the fissures in the teeth. When I mentioned to my dentist that I’m an excessive ice eater, she said couldn’t tell by my looking at my teeth. She then told me to stop. But, I just can’t stop! I crave the ice!
Jennifer,
Thanks for sharing the article and I hope you had a wonderful holiday! Remember, the best way for a person with Celiac Disease to keep anemia under control is through diet. Don’t forget to includes clean grass fed beef, preferably organic, that has not been given growth hormones or antibiotics. Green Leafy Vegetables also contain lots of iron so foods like Spinach, Asparagus, Broccoli, Collard Greens, Mustard Greens, Kale, Turnip Greens, and Parsley should be added to your diet. Ice crunching can become addictive, so if you still have that urge to crunch, try a handful of Almonds, Cashews, or Walnuts which are also happen to be high in iron.