osteoporosis, hyperthyroidism, menopause and possibly celiac disease?

Hi Gaby,

I’m glad so you’ve written to me, both for you and your Mom.

Your Mom’s symptoms of thyroid dysfunction, osteoporosis and menopause could be related to celiac disease. Her issues are hormone-related, and hormones are made from foods and nutrients that are supposed to be absorbed from the diet through her intestine. Celiac disease results in faulty absorption of nutrients, among other challenges that you know well! Additionally, there is a well-documented relationship between autoimmune thyroid disease and celiac. If you’d like to contact my assistant, jsinclaire@renewlife.com, she can send you the chapter on Gluten Sensitivity/Celiac from my new book.

Just because a blood test comes back negative for celiac doesn’t mean that your Mom doesn’t have a gluten sensitivity at all. Many traditional practitioners don't realize this. 

A great idea would be to find an Integrative Doctor in your area. Go to http://www.acam.org or http://www.functionalmedicine.org for doctors near you. They could help your Mom with both hormonal and nutritional testing and hopefully get to the root of her issues. She’s so young for the issues you’re describing. If you would like to send your zipcode to my assistant, we can see if we know of anyone in your area.

Regarding testing, I would recommend a Comprehensive Stool Analysis + Parisitology x3 and a Gluten Sensitivity test, both described in the first post in this forum. Personally, I like to really know what’s going on in the gut! If your Mom (and/or you) have these tests done, we can help to understand the results. Just let us know when the tests are ordered, if you choose. Very possibly these would be the same tests the Integrative Doctor would order.

Of course, you MUST take gluten out of your diet – both of you. I’m sure you realize that already.

I hope this helps.

Brenda Watson