Pancreas and Celiac Disease Link?

Trish - noticed you were also in Sturbridge, MA. Checking to see if you are interested in connecting re: celiac.

Please post your findings about the pancreas link. Before we found out my husband could not tolerate gluten or corn, I always thought he had liver or pancreas issues. I thought so because he could never process alcohol.

I was told that eating four raw ochros a day will help with the pancreas. I eat a lot of raw foods and drink green juice occasionally. I do not have a problem with my pancreas but I love raw ochro and someone made the comment to me in passing.

I'm happy to connect with you. I'm on new boston rd. in Sturbridge my email is trisheebabe@msn.com

Sorry for the delay in responding to this. My doctor who diagnosed Pancreatic issues does attribute the damage to Celiac Spru. My lyme doctors attribute it to damage from Chronic Lyme disease that went undiagnosed for many years and nearly took my life.

Sorry for delay in responding. The ochra is good information and news to me. My Pancreatic specialist seems to think my problem with Pancreas is from Celiac Spru. My lyme doctors blame the damage from Lyme that went undiagnosed for many years and almost took my life. I know of many with Celiac disease that also have Lyme disease and thyroid issues.

I too am interested in the link between celiac sprue and pancreas damage. Wondering if this damage to the pancreas can cause diabetes....

Happy to connect. Not sure why responses are so delayed here. Contact me through my website at www.S-L-A-M.org which is our Sturbrige Lyme Awareness of Massachusetts.

I am also looking for information about this connection. My 14 year old daughter has a gluten intolerance - not celiac - but before we found this out she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Strangely, she has none of the antibodies that are normally found in type 1 diabetics. Doctors are not sure why her pancreas won't work, and frankly, they don't seem to care much. They are not even really interested in the gluten sensitivity.

Thrish, dıd you get any explanation about your pancreatic insufficiency. I do probably have Lyme disease and also anti-glutaminase IgA antibodies and recently diagnosed as having pancreatic insufficiency.

my son, age 11 was diagnosed with diabetes and then with celiac. Dr thinks the gluten attacked his pancreas and destroyed it, causing the diabetes.

34 minutes ago, lizzynmorgan said:

my son, age 11 was diagnosed with diabetes and then with celiac. Dr thinks the gluten attacked his pancreas and destroyed it, causing the diabetes.

Gluten did not destroy his pancreas.  Both Type 1 Diabetes and celiac disease are autoimmune diseases.  The immune system, designed to attack bad bacteria and viral infections, instead attacks the body.  Learn more (and share with your doctor):

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

Some untreated celiacs can have other damage to their pancreas.  They produce insulin but do not make enough enzymes to help digest foods.  This often resolves once a celiac heals (actually never goes away but can heal with a gluten free diet).    But Type 1 diabetes does not heal but can be managed with diet and insulin.  

Consider Tu Diabetes as a forum to help you with your diabetic child.  There are lots of parents on that forum who are managing their child’s diabetes while working with their doctors.  

5 hours ago, lizzynmorgan said:

my son, age 11 was diagnosed with diabetes and then with celiac. Dr thinks the gluten attacked his pancreas and destroyed it, causing the diabetes.

I once assumed this, sort of had the enzyme issues before the blood sugar issues. Thinking it might be more along the lines of what cycling lady said. Another thing to consider is that the genes for diabetes and celiac are often linked or share common ones. As the years have shown on this forum Diabetes and Celiac go hand in hand very often.

If it attacked and destroyed his pancreas completely, he would not be able to eat tough foods, he would always have food undigested in his stool, vomiting would be daily, hard foods would be noticeable in vomit and stool along with floating oil from fatty foods. In my opinion and what I learned is meats were the worst with these and animal fats were VERY hard to break down. I have to take supplemental enzymes, with each meal, some from porcine (pig) pancreas along with supplemental ones in ratio to what I eat. I also have to blend my food to make it easier to digest and be careful limiting animal based fats, and going with soft super cooked ones so they are easy to break down.