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I wanted to know if anyone has been diagnosed with HCM and celiac disease. My brother passed away from HCM in 1997 at the age of 34 and both my mother and two sisters have HCM. I do not have HCM but last year was diagnosed with celiac disease. Celiac disease is also a genetic disease but even if you carry the celiac genes doesn't mean you will develop the disease. Celiac Disease is also an auto-immune disease which can develop at any time in your life -with ingestion of gluten, a protein in wheat, rye, and barley, your own immune system attacks and destroys the lining of your intestines. With the intestinal damage, your body loses the ability to digest and absorb the necessary nutrients and vitamins including proteins, carbohydrates, and fats necessary to sustain life. The symptoms of celiac disease can vary tremendously from one person to another such as chronic fatigue, stomach pain, constipation, diarrhea, bloating, gas, joint pain, bone pain, weight loss, numbness in the extremities (peripheral neuropathy), mouth ulcers, psoriasis, night blindness (vitamin A deficiency), and etc. I now write and publish articles on celiac disease. With better blood tests, even asymptomatic celiac patients are being discovered. Celiac disease has been associated with dilated cardiomyopathy (Source: New Eng. J) and I've been told that end-stage HCM can look like DCM. A study of 642 patients who were candidates for heart transplant in Italy found that 1.9% had the celiac disease blood antibodies (compared to 0.35% of 720 healthy controls) and that 2.2% of 275 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy were celiac antibody positive (compared to 1.6% in the remaining transplant candidates) (Prati D, et al, 2002, Am J Gastroenterol 97:218; Prati D, et al, 2002, Dig Liver Dis 34:39). Although an association was found, there was no way to assess cause and affect. The authors suggest a study of whether a gluten-free diet improves cardiac function in such patients.
I lost much weight from my failure to digest fats and other foods and had much of the symptoms I already described in addition to heart palpitations/ fluttering while the Gastroenterologist (specialist in digestive diseases) challenged me with ingestion of wheat in order to test and diagnose me; My primary doctor ordered a echocardiogram and I was also found to have mitral valve regurgitation due to loss of blood flow to the heart. Other celiac patients have been found to have mitral valve prolapse or dilated cardiomyopathy.
Current medical research on celiac disease is now finding that the prevalence of the disease in the United States can be as high as 1 in 130 people and Dr. Alessio Fasano, a specialist on celiac disease at the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research, calls it the most frequent genetic disease of human kind since the worldwide prevalence is now thought to be 1 in 266 people. Rich Gannon, a quarterback for the Oakland Raiders football team, has a daughter who almost died from celiac disease several years ago. For every touchdown pass this past football season, he donated funds to the Center for Celiac Research. Celiac Disease is most frequently found in people of Northern European descent but has been found in India, North Africa, and more rarely in Asians although I am Asian. A recent study found the rate of Hispanics in Southern California with celiac disease to be 8 percent. Specialists believe that celiac disease is grossly underdiagnosed in the United States because patients present with no symptoms or non-specific, or non-intestinal symptoms, or are diagnosed previously with associated diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes type I, or thyroid disease.
I am concerned for members of my family as none of them have yet been screened for celiac disease which is also genetic like HCM. And since some of the symptoms can be overlapping, it's difficult to differentiate so I would like to know of someone who can speak about their experiences with both celiac and HCM.
Laura
I wanted to know if anyone has been diagnosed with HCM and celiac disease. My brother passed away from HCM in 1997 at the age of 34 and both my mother and two sisters have HCM. I do not have HCM but last year was diagnosed with celiac disease. Celiac disease is also a genetic disease but even if you carry the celiac genes doesn't mean you will develop the disease. Celiac Disease is also an auto-immune disease which can develop at any time in your life -with ingestion of gluten, a protein in wheat, rye, and barley, your own immune system attacks and destroys the lining of your intestines. With the intestinal damage, your body loses the ability to digest and absorb the necessary nutrients and vitamins including proteins, carbohydrates, and fats necessary to sustain life. The symptoms of celiac disease can vary tremendously from one person to another such as chronic fatigue, stomach pain, constipation, diarrhea, bloating, gas, joint pain, bone pain, weight loss, numbness in the extremities (peripheral neuropathy), mouth ulcers, psoriasis, night blindness (vitamin A deficiency), and etc. I now write and publish articles on celiac disease. With better blood tests, even asymptomatic celiac patients are being discovered. Celiac disease has been associated with dilated cardiomyopathy (Source: New Eng. J) and I've been told that end-stage HCM can look like DCM. A study of 642 patients who were candidates for heart transplant in Italy found that 1.9% had the celiac disease blood antibodies (compared to 0.35% of 720 healthy controls) and that 2.2% of 275 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy were celiac antibody positive (compared to 1.6% in the remaining transplant candidates) (Prati D, et al, 2002, Am J Gastroenterol 97:218; Prati D, et al, 2002, Dig Liver Dis 34:39). Although an association was found, there was no way to assess cause and affect. The authors suggest a study of whether a gluten-free diet improves cardiac function in such patients.
I lost much weight from my failure to digest fats and other foods and had much of the symptoms I already described in addition to heart palpitations/ fluttering while the Gastroenterologist (specialist in digestive diseases) challenged me with ingestion of wheat in order to test and diagnose me; My primary doctor ordered a echocardiogram and I was also found to have mitral valve regurgitation due to loss of blood flow to the heart. Other celiac patients have been found to have mitral valve prolapse or dilated cardiomyopathy.
Current medical research on celiac disease is now finding that the prevalence of the disease in the United States can be as high as 1 in 130 people and Dr. Alessio Fasano, a specialist on celiac disease at the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research, calls it the most frequent genetic disease of human kind since the worldwide prevalence is now thought to be 1 in 266 people. Rich Gannon, a quarterback for the Oakland Raiders football team, has a daughter who almost died from celiac disease several years ago. For every touchdown pass this past football season, he donated funds to the Center for Celiac Research. Celiac Disease is most frequently found in people of Northern European descent but has been found in India, North Africa, and more rarely in Asians although I am Asian. A recent study found the rate of Hispanics in Southern California with celiac disease to be 8 percent. Specialists believe that celiac disease is grossly underdiagnosed in the United States because patients present with no symptoms or non-specific, or non-intestinal symptoms, or are diagnosed previously with associated diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes type I, or thyroid disease.
I am concerned for members of my family as none of them have yet been screened for celiac disease which is also genetic like HCM. And since some of the symptoms can be overlapping, it's difficult to differentiate so I would like to know of someone who can speak about their experiences with both celiac and HCM.
Laura
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