food allergies

[Guest guest]

Does anyone know how the link works between food allergies and PSC? My

husband has PSC and I have an 11-month old boy that seems to have mild

allergies to wheat and oat products. The allergies only create mild

eczema, however, so I can't decide if I should keep him away from this

stuff (that's more challenging than you might think) so as not to

provoke his immune system, or if, because he is already predisposed to

having immune-system-issues, i should try to get him used to tolerating

allergens, hopefully teaching his immune system over time so he doesn't

develop something as serious as PSC. His immune reaction is really

quite mild - i don't even think i can really call it celiac disease

since he does not have any of the other associated symptoms, just the

very mild eczema.

Any thoughts, anyone? Any suggestions for where I should begin to look

to research this?

Thanks,

Nina

[Guest guest]

Dear Nina;

If you suspect that your son has wheat allergies, this could be the

beginning of celiac disease, and I would like to suggest that you

talk to his doctor about this. There are simple blood tests that can

identify celiac disease ... anti-transglutaminase antibodies. From

what I have read, a gluten-free diet can be very helpful in these

patients. Re-introducing wheat products does not " teach the immune

system " , but rather tends to re-initiates the disease. There are

reports that celiac disease is associated with PSC. We attempted to

discuss celiac disease in a couple of our newsletters:

http://www.pscpartners.org/NewsVol-1-10.pdf

http://www.pscpartners.org/NewsVol-2-1.pdf

Best regards,

Dave

(father of (21); PSC 07/03; UC 08/03)

> Does anyone know how the link works between food allergies and

PSC?