Posts Tagged ‘celiac disease’
How To’s: The Gluten Free Cheat Sheet
I’ve gotten a number of requests from athletes and parent’s of athletes requesting information about going gluten free and wanting to know which books are good to start with. A really easy place to start is Living Gluten Free for Dummies. The Gluten Free Bible is another title that is a favorite with many celiacs. Elizabeth Hasselbeck from The View (former Survivor reality TV star) even has her own book out this week: The G-Free Diet. Everyone has probably noticed that the marketplace is exploding with GF products, mags, websites, and cookbooks.
It’s the easiest time in recent history to avoid gluten (at least in the last 50 years). One of my favorite allergy-friendly recipe sites has always been Karina’s Kitchen, aka the Gluten Free Goddess. She is an amazing artist who has luckily chosen food as one of her mediums.
Read more: “Karina’s Kitchen: Gluten-Free Recipes: The Gluten-Free Cheat-Sheet- How to Go G-Free” – http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2009/04/gluten-free-cheat-sheet-how-to-go-g.html#ixzz0FEuCFML1&A
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The Evils of Candy Corn… and more about HFCS
OK- so I’ve had a terrible stomach all week. It’s been debilitating. I’ve been rushing to the bathroom 4-5 X’s per day and I swear more is coming out then going in. ugh, too much information, I know (but not if you’re a runner, or if you’ve ever spent much time around me). I’ve been in limbo alternating between feeling completely bloated and totally depleted. Sitting here on my big blue ball, I just want to go and lie down. The worst is that today I’m really light-headed. At least I already did most of mileage this morning- (with only 1 emergency bathroom break en route)…
So what does this have to do with candy corn? It’s pretty much the only thing that I can pinpoint that I’ve eaten differently. (Well, I did have a glass of port and three little chocolates at Pix for Ian’s birthday on Tuesday…)
There is an EVIL bowel of candy corn that appeared out of no where this week right outside my office. Candy corn, plus those adorable little pumpkins, were my sweet-fix in college. The whole candy addiction thing was a new thing for me upon starting college cross country. I didn’t realize that people post-elementary school still had such strong connections with non-chocolate candy. Candy corn was the only thing I could get behind… I loved that honey-flavored sugar spike immediately after races. Their borderline obscurity plus the fact that I only see them for three weeks out of the year has continued to up their allure.
My parents didn’t make regular appearances at races in college (though they flew to Illinois last minute for Cross nationals my senior year), but someone else’s parents always brought me a bag of candy corn.
So- to get back to the subject- I’ve been researching whether candy corn could somehow contain gluten… and yes, I know about the cross-contamination issues (I just don’t know what exactly would be contaminating it? twizzlers? those fake-yogurt-covered pretzels? mystery to me)…
In my internet search I came across a blog post that I thought I would link to. The author discusses candy corn’s ingredients (basically different kinds of sugar & wax), as well as the harmful effects of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).
Check it out:
http://www.glutenfreeforgood.com/blog/?p=468
I think my gut needs a candy corn detox.
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You Are My Sunshine…. Vit D
This morning felt so cold, I couldn’t believe it. And all day has been cloudy so far. Just another reminder to swallow those Vitamin D pills when I get home tonight from my long day up on the hill.
Up until about a year ago, I never paid Vitamin D much attention. All I really knew was the basics:
- it works along with calcium and magnesium for bone health
- your body makes it from sunshine
- it’s added to pasteurized milk in this country
- it’s fat soluble like Vitamin A- which means you can overdose because your body stores it instead of excreting it through sweat/urine.
Pretty much all common knowledge. It wasn’t until I went down to see the Endo in Houston that I learned that I had a severe vitamin D deficiency. (I found this very ironic, since until I moved to the Pacific Northwest, I felt like I spent my life baking in the sun.) That news meant, of course, that I had to find out more. And much to my surprise, this is one fascinating nutrient.
I’ve read that Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to iron deficiency. The reason may be that individuals who are iron deficient have trouble metabolizing Vitamin D…. but I think that it is likely more of a correlation than causal relationship. Persons with fat malabsorption often have Vitamin D deficiencies, meaning that it requires some dietary fat for absorption. Symptoms of fat malabsorption include diarrhea and oily stools… (sorry again to be graphic). Fat malabsorption is associated with a variety of medical conditions including… drum roll please: CELIAC DISEASE. And, like I mentioned before, people with celiac or other malabsorption problems (like Crohns, etc.) are also very likely to have iron deficiency.
On another point high caffeine intake (300mg/day, which is equivalent to 18 oz of regular coffee) inhibits both vitamin d and iron absorption from the diet. Just another reason for me to cut back… (it is just sooo hard! Starting tomorrow!)
BUT… diet is not the best way to get vitamin D anyways. Our bodies prefer to make it from the sun. 10 to 15 minutes of sun exposure at least two times per week to the face, arms, hands, or back without sunscreen is usually sufficient to provide adequate vitamin D. Of course, this news flies in the face of the recommendations of your dermatologist- all of whom push the sunscreen. Unfortunately, if you are slathering on the sunscreen (spf 8 and higher) you’re blocking the UV rays that your skin needs to produce the required amounts of Vitamin D.
Hmmmm…. skin cancer or rickets?
Just kidding.
What makes the sunlight issue more difficult is that many of us live in Northern latitudes where the angle of the sun and weather patterns hamper our best efforts to tan. Also playing a role are season, time of day, cloud cover, and smog, affect UV ray exposure and vitamin D synthesis. For example, sunlight exposure from November through February in Boston is insufficient to produce significant vitamin D synthesis in the skin. Complete cloud cover halves the energy of UV rays, and shade reduces it by 60%.
According to the National Weather Service’s data for the period between 1951-1995. There was an average of 67 clear days per year. That’s it. 71 days were partly cloudy and a whopping 227 days were ENTIRELY CLOUDY!!!!
I am severely deficient in Vitamin D and I get outside to run every day, and I’m fair-skinned (the more pigment in your skin, the more sun it takes to make adequate amounts of vit D). It is hard to imagine how anyone here could be high without a supplement.
So, why does any of this matter?
There have been hosts of more recent studies that have linked high levels of vitamin D in the body to much decreased incidences of cancer, autoimmune diseases, and Alzheimer’s, among others. What is very interesting is that the levels needed for this kind of disease prevention are far above those needed merely for optimal bone health. These findings have led to an increased awareness of the nutrient and talks to increase the federal government’s RDA, which is currently a pathetic 200 IUs for adults under 50.
One of the most interesting tidbits for me is that Vitamin D functions more like a hormone in your body than it does like an actual vitamin. It affects your calcium absorption, thyroid, and immune system.
There are two types of Vitamin D commonly available in pill form: D2 and D3. D3, or cholecalciferol, has been found to be up to 10 times more potent that equal amounts of D2. The problem for vegans is that D3 is made from an animal source (Lanolin, which is derived from sheep’s wool). D2, on the other hand, is made from yeast and perfectly suited to vegans.
The upper limit for consumption of Vitamin D (D3) is about 2,000 IUs per day for adults. If you are deficient, your doctor will probably tell you to take more, or prescribe a 25,000 IU tablet that you take once per week.
In order to achieve the full benefit of the nutrient, many experts are recommending supplementing with 1,000 IUs of D3 per day.
Just please don’t use it as an excuse to drink more gross cow’s milk. The benefits of your increased vitamin D intake would come no where near to outweighing the health risks…. not to mention the acne and phlegmy mucus… but that is another post entirely.
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Stoking the Fire…. Iron Scores
Today I got the results from the team blood test we had on Wednesday.
Drum roll please…..Ferritin is 16!*
Because low iron is so prevalent in distance runners, (why? see my post entitled Running Into the Ground) we screen our athletes twice a year with blood work from the health center. The woman who stuck me with the needle asked me what year I was when I got on the table. She was embarrassed when I told her my age and that I’m a coach. At least she complemented my veins.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t wait that long to get tested. At the end of June I began a pretty steep decline. I went from feeling somewhat decent on runs, to starting to get tired, to having an allergy induced asthma attack while running on Wildwood. That hasn’t happened to me in a few years- and it has only happened 4 or 5 times in my life. I do know from experience (and the allergist) that it is brought on by exposure to the allergen AND severe fatigue. Since the allergy tests revealed that I am basically allergic to Oregon, or at least all of its trees and grasses, I knew that fatigue was the main culprit.
The heat over the fourth of July in Ashland only made me feel worse, so I emailed my Endo in Houston to ask for some blood work. I was overdue in checking my thyroid’s status anyways. The only red flag from the results was, of course, my iron. Ferritin was 6. Again. Again! I thought the gluten-free diet was supposed to be helping, but apparently my intestines are still not in shape.
So it has been 5 or 6 weeks of stomachaches now. 5 or 6 weeks of reading gluten-free forums and message boards in search of some kind of help from the celiac community about how to overcome the chronic anemia. I have known about my iron issues since college. I was even sidelined my sophomore track season with chronic anemia. At least now the malabsorption problems have been somewhat explained. (i.e. in people with celiac, gluten destroys the microvilli which line the intestine to aid in capturing nutrients).
I’m trying to figure out how to go about getting a drip or even injections, but I am without insurance…. so who knows. I am just anxious to get rid of the stomach pain and GI problems again. I can only liken it to eating a steaming bowel of hot buckwheat**….EVERYDAY!!!
* The level of ferritin in your blood is a measure of your body’s iron stores. Ferritin is a protein containing iron stored in your bone marrow and liver. My highest recorded ferritin has been 18, the lowest was 5. Under 30 is a red flag. Ideally, much higher is better for performance.
**I actually did this by accident 3 weeks into my gf life- thought it was the cream o’rice cereal. Paid for dearly for it for three days afterwards.
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Summer’s End & Thyroid
On the bright side, the rain does make it much more pleasant to bake. It is hard to believe that we’ve had such a dreary August. It is usually the only consistently nice month in the Northwest. Classes start on Monday and most of the team is back already. They had their camp over the weekend and we have our first practice on Friday. And just like that *** my weekends are booked until Christmas break.
Yesterday we went out to Sauvie Island to run the loop, to celebrate the end of our Sunday running freedom. It was beautiful, but it actually sprinkled on us for a little while. To be honest, I love the sun- but I don’t live in Oregon to put up with 90 or 100 degree weather like we had last summer. Ian often laughs and says that I “have the narrowest temperature range he’s ever seen.” It’s true. I HATE being hot- I absolutely wilt- and I get cold easily.
My tolerance, however, has been so much better since starting the thyroid medication. The difference was dramatic and the first thing I noticed. I used to get COLD. REALLY COLD. It would seep in and settle deep inside and I would feel like I was going to die. I know that sounds terribly over dramatic, but I did actually feel like I would die. The only way to warm up was to submerge myself in a boiling hot bath.
I’m not saying that the thyroid meds turned me into a Polar Bear. I’m still not like one of those middle aged men who wear t-shirts when it’s 40 degrees and refuses to don close-toed shoes. The pills just took the edge off. I still get cold (more easily than most), but I don’t feel like it will kill me. 
Actually, I’ve been lucky with the thyroid medication- I haven’t had to tinker with the dosage at all since starting it last November. I know that is pretty rare and my good friend has had a much harder time. I’m still holding out hope that the Celiac caused the elevated thyroid antibodies and if I remain gluten free for long enough, maybe my thyroid will self correct. I know it is a long shot and I’m not into the idea of going off the thyroid medication in the mean time, so I’m not sure if it would know to correct if I’m medicating it? Maybe that is faulty logic?
There seems to be a growing number of people who think that athletes may, in part, cause the thyroid disorder from overtraining and undereating. It is an interesting theory.
I’m also holding out hope that my long time battles with anemia will go away with my gluten free lifestyle. So far, it’s a no go…. but iron is another story altogether…
