Can Supplements Help Fight Celiac Disease?

A World Journal of Gastroenterology study recently found that Celiac patients who regularly take B-vitamin supplements were able to reduce their homocysteine levels.

The study looked at the effects of taking daily vitamin B6, vitamin B9, and vitamin B12 supplements on the homocysteine levels of patients with Celiac disease or gluten intolerance. Homocysteine is a harmful amino acid associated with a higher risk of coronary heart disease and stroke. Newly diagnosed Celiac disease patients frequently experience hyperhomocysteinemia or abnormally high homocysteine levels in their blood.

Researchers also noted that B-vitamin supplements may help protect against the effects of villous atrophy or intestinal damage.

What is Celiac Disease?

Celiac disease or gluten intolerance is an autoimmune condition that attacks your intestines and entire digestive system. It occurs when a person is unable to digest gluten, a common protein found in barley, rye, wheat, and other grains.

The symptoms of Celiac disease are manifested differently in each individual. Abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea, malabsorption of nutrients, and nausea are some of the most common symptoms. Celiac disease can also cause non-gastrointestinal symptoms like anemia, depression, fatigue, infertility, and weight issues -- either weight gain or loss.

Malabsorption is often associated with Celiac disease. Those suffering from gluten intolerance may often struggle with several nutritional deficiencies, including lack of:

• Calcium
• Essential fatty acids
• Folic acid (folate or vitamin B9)
• Iron
• Magnesium
• Vitamin D
• Vitamin K

Fight Celiac Disease with the No-Grain Diet

Avoiding gluten in your diet is the most effective way to deal with Celiac disease. Not consuming gluten for a week or two typically results in significant improvement.

But it’s not enough for you to avoid grains if you are gluten-intolerant. It’s also important to pay attention to the quality of all the other foods you eat. You should also avoid processed foods, which often have hidden gluten.

Food manufacturers are not required by law to list all possible sources of gluten on their product labels. Gluten may be present in processed foods like candies, cold cuts, low-fat and zero-fat products, ready-made soups, and soy sauce, just to name a few, under labels such as hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP), malt, natural flavoring, starch, and texturized vegetable protein.

A gluten-free diet like Dr. Mercola’s No-Grain Diet helps keep Celiac disease under control. The No-Grain Diet will also help you avoid the other dangers of grains and sugars. Grain-based and sugar-rich foods are inherently pro-inflammatory and will worsen any condition that has chronic inflammation at its root--not just inflammation in your gut, but anywhere in your body.

How a Good Night’s Sleep Can Boost Your Weight Loss Efforts

Get enough sleep. This may be one of the easiest weight loss tips you’ll ever get.

A new University of Chicago study suggests that lack of sleep may reduce the effectiveness of typical dietary efforts for weight loss and against metabolic syndrome, a group of risk factors associated with obesity.

The study involved 10 sedentary non-smokers between the ages of 35 to 49. The participants had a body mass index of between 25-32 (overweight to obese). They stayed in a closed environment for two weeks. They ate the same diet, took multivitamins, and did the same type of work or leisure activities. Six were asked to sleep for 8.5 hours, while the other four slept for 5.5 hours.

Those who had more sleep lost more weight and were able to maintain a fat-free body mass. Compared to those who had less sleep, they also felt less hungry throughout the day.

Another 2010 study found that subjects who slept less than six hours had a 32 percent gain in visceral fat, compared to a 13 percent gain among those who slept six or seven hours and 22 percent among those who had at least eight hours of sleep.

Visceral fat is the type of fat linked to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and other chronic diseases.

While these two studies do not prove that lack of sleep directly results in fat gain, they support the proposed link between sleep duration and weight gain, as well as an increased risk of diabetes and heart disease.

Sleep deprivation decreases the production of leptin, the hormone that tells your brain when you’re full and signals you to stop eating. It also increases ghrelin, the hormone that triggers hunger. Additionally, lack of sleep appears to affect energy metabolism and how your body uses fat and glucose. All these factors decrease your ability to achieve weight loss.

But given the stress and pressures of everyday life, how will you manage to get enough sleep?

Use the basic tools of Dr. Joseph Mercola’s No-Grain Diet to establish a healthy sleep pattern. Regular exercise prepares your body for relaxation at bedtime, while the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) helps you address your tension, worries, and other discomforts that prevent you from getting restful sleep.