Gluten Sensitivity and Miscarriages

by Amy
(Kansas)

I had always gotten pregnant easily, had easy pregnancies and deliveries and perfectly healthy children. You'll notice the word 'had'. I only wish all of those things still described me. I have since lost 4 babies.

The first was a stillborn at 29 weeks. Then 3 more losses at 15, 18, and 17 weeks. Between my 3rd and 4th losses I was even tested for celiac disease. I told my doctor I wanted to be tested and his response was, "Do you have diarrhea frequently?" when I said no he said, "you don't have it then."

But he tested me and the results were negative.

When I lost the last one, I waited a year and asked to be tested again. This blood test was also negative. I decided to have my stools tested with Enterolabs and I just got the results back--I have gluten sensitivity.

And my malabsorption test showed mild malabsorption levels. My question is this: What is it about gluten sensitivity that causes the miscarriages? I have read that it can be due to malabsorption but if my malabsorption levels are mild that doesn't seem enough to kill babies.

Could you explain the connection between gluten sensitivity and miscarriage? By the way, all of my losses were intrauterine fetal demises. I would really like to be connected with anyone that can relate to me on this. Thank you for your time.

Amy

Comments for Gluten Sensitivity and Miscarriages

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You Are Operating Under Several Fallacies...
by: Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Queen!

Hi Amy,

I'm sorry that you have gone through all that, but that you have now found out something that could have affected you negatively for the rest of your life with chronic illnesses had you not found out.

But I do believe that you are operating under two fallacies.

First: You believe that because you don't have Celiac Disease that your malabsorption is 'mild'. There are people without gluten sensitivity at all who have severe malabsorption for many different reasons.

Celiac Disease is not a measure of malabsorption, but a measure of how many antibodies you have in your blood to gluten. Malabsorption and high antibody levels may not have any relationship to each other whatsoever.

Second: You are assuming that mild nutrient deficiencies shouldn't cause fetal demise. But why shouldn't they? Adequate levels of folic acid and vitamin B12 are absolutely imperative for the neural tube formation of your baby. If you are not absorbing B12 or folate then your baby might have had a neural tube defect and your body decided that this was a problem and better to lose the baby.

Nature is very wise and generally knows what is best for us in the long run.

But as far as nutrient deficiencies are concerned, if you are eating gluten-containing foods even if you AREN'T gluten sensitive, these have little to no nutritional value- and so you would already be depleted of vital nutrients just from eating a 'standard' western diet that contains white flour, white sugar and processed foods in HUGE quantities- along with the few vegetables and fruits that we eat being nutrient depleted from terrible growing conditions.

If you want to see what western diets do to society and the health of it's children, then I urge you to get the book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration before you try to get pregnant again.

Dr. Weston Price traveled around the world in the 1930's to study isolated villages who had no access to processed foods- and his observations of the health of THEIR children vs children today will likely ASTOUND you!!

i agree
by: Anonymous

I agree with you, i had 5 miscarriages with no apparent medical reason. After reading some articles on celiac's miscarrying i decided to go gluten free for 9 months before trying ivf again. I became pregnant straight away with triplets (lost one baby) but gave birth to two healthy boy/girl twins. Coincidence or not i believe the gluten free diet improved my general immune system and i also feel 100% better now. I was not diagnosed with celiac when tested perhaps i am gluten sensitive?!

Doctors know nothing
by: Brad

We had five miscarriages with all occurring at around the ten to twelve week mark. My wife was designated a high risk pregnancy candidate and underwent treatment with Prednisone to suppress her immune system for the duration of our fifth failed pregnancy. The specialists we spoke to all cited the same rubbish that the embryos were most likely defective somehow and that it was just nature's way of cleaning shop.

As an aside we live next to two GPs who speculated that at thirty three, my wife was probably too old to have kids. Anyways after our most recent pregnancy was surgically removed from my wife's body, we have gone on a gluten free diet.

For the first time our foetus has a strong heartbeat and there are no apparent problems we encountered in the early stages of our other pregnancies. The foetus is growing normally and everything seems to be going ok. HCG levels which in previous pregnancies plateaued early before declining are now normal and we are doing it all without any harmful drugs or steroids.

We are at ten weeks now and fingers and toes fully crossed, we will be passing out cigars in about June 18. Wish us luck. Brad.

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