From: kja@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (krista.j.anderson)
Subject: Re: Food allergies...in celiacs.
Organization: AT&T
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 17:33:58 GMT

In article <1992Nov4.172042.17024@goya.uu.es>, rmorales@dit.upm.es (Rodolfo M. Gonzalez) writes:
> 
> 	I've read an article in the Lifeline magazine of the CSA/USA.
> 	Her author is Diane Craig. It's title *Allergies and Celiacs*.
> 	She refers to the book:
> 
> 			An Alternative Approach to Allergies
> 			by Theorn Randolph.
> 
> 	As the celiac I'm, I'd like more info about the named book.
> 	I need to know if I suffer of associated allergies to my 
> 	celiac disease. Any help is welcome.
Disclaimer:  I'm no doctor.

People who have celiac disease do seem to have a greater chance of
developing other intolerances or allergies.  An intolerance to milk
sometimes accompanies gluten intolerance, but often when gluten is
removed from the diet, the milk intolerance clears up by itself.
(There is a non-celiac gluten intolerance, but for this article I'm
using the terms interchangeably.)

About 10-15% of people with celiac disease become hypersensitive to
soya, some proteins of which seem to be acting as a lectin in such
people.  In general, it sometimes happens that celiac patients
build up hypersensitivities to the foods they use to replace wheat.

So, it may help to try to vary the replacement foods as much as
possible.  In the U.S. there are some unusual grains available such
as amaranth, quinoa and teff*, that could be used in addition to
corn(maize), rice, potato, chick pea and soy flour.  I have a
friend with gluten intolerance who says she is able to eat oats
even though they have a small amount of gluten.  She also
recommends combining chick pea flour with rice flour for a less
grainy texture than rice flour alone.

In addition to gluten, cow's milk and soya, other foods that can
cause jejunal villus atrophy are rice, fish and chicken.

*Special Native American or African grains can be obtained from
     Arrowhead Mills
     P. O. Box 2059
     Hereford, Texas  79045 USA

On Dr. Theron Randolph, I can say that his methods of clinical
ecology are not generally accepted by the mainstream medical
community and some allergists seem to resent the fact that his
"far-out" reputation has made the field of allergy in general
subject to gratuitous skepticism.

According to the introduction of his book, _An Alternative Approach
to Allergies_, Randolph's life changed when, as a professor at
Northwestern's medical school, he spoke out in favor of making food
companies label their foods with all ingredients so that atopic
people would know whether the foods contained corn, wheat and so on.

We labeling for granted today, but in 1949, Randolph was relieved
of his position at Northwestern, lost his hospital privileges and
was basically shunned by most of his colleagues.  I can see why he
subsequently departed from traditional views on other things,
although he apparently had his own ideas even before things came to
a head in 1949.

The problem I have with his methods and those of his ardent
followers, like Dr. Doris Rapp, is that they seem to have abandoned
the scientific method along with the traditional viewpoint.  Also,
when Randolph is criticized for the reason that his methods have
been shown to be unproven in controlled settings, he fails to
address the criticism directly.  He also fails to address the
criticism that the reason his methods *seem* to work is that his
patients may be suggestible.

So, what I'm trying to say, is that Randolph's diagnostic methods,
such as sublingual testing, are unproven and in fact have failed in
controlled experiments by others.  The sad part about it is that
there are some patients out there whose lives have been changed by
the belief that they are allergic to far more things than
established diagnostic methods would show.  Also, some people are
eating meats of species that are not raised for food, such as lion
meat, when such a potentially endangering practice (for the lions)
is not necessary.

One of my methods for choosing which allergy books to check out
from the library is to make sure they oppose Randolph's methods,
or at least present the criticisms against them.

Reference
1. Brostoff, Jonathan and Challacombe, Stephen, J. _Food Allergy
   and Intolerance_, London: Bailliere Tindall, 1987.
-- 
Krista Anderson
krista@ihlpf.att.com  or  ihlpf!krista@att.att.com  or  att!ihlpf!krista
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