Miscarriages may be due to undiagnosed celiac disease, and may resolve after a gluten free diet.
Could your miscarriages be the result of an undiagnosed autoimmune condition?
The answer is clearly yes.
What’s more, it may be that a simple dietary change could prevent a miscarriage in susceptible women.
A few things you should know.
Autoimmune conditions are very common.
Many of these autoimmune conditions are undiagnosed.
Taking it a step further, Celiac disease is one of the most common autoimmune conditions.
Celiacs do not always cause the symptoms of abdominal cramping and digestive problems often thought of as the hallmark of the disease.
In fact, commonly they may experience non stomach related symptoms like fatigue, headaches, skin problems, or other symptoms including no symptoms at all.
There are very substantial reasons to suggest that all people suffering from an autoimmune condition could benefit from adopting a gluten free diet (and some other dietary changes, but this one is exceptionally important).
Celiac Disease and Miscarriages
Women with undiagnosed celiac disease are about twice as likely to have repeated miscarriages. Removing gluten from their diets dramatically improves their odds of having a baby.
Most doctors do not test for celiac disease ever and especially if the individual does not have the characteristic stomach problems that most people and doctors associate with celiac disease.
Celiac Disease Causes Miscarriages and Stillbirths
Medical researchers are only now beginning to realize that undiagnosed celiac disease could cause infertility in many women.
In a large study looking at the reproductive life cycle of Italian celiac women, the researchers found nearly twice as many miscarriages in women with celiac disease as they did in women without celiac disease.
Other studies have confirmed that finding, with one team of medical researchers reporting the rate of ‘spontaneous abortions‘ (miscarriages) among untreated celiac women is nearly 9X higher!
The real issue in health is that we often don’t know what is really wrong.
If you have an autoimmune condition, we can make a strong case for getting rid of gluten. In fact eliminating ALL grains and dairy is very likely necessary.
Within the context of miscarriages though if you have suffered from one or more miscarriages, you have to suspect an autoimmune condition.
Unfortunately, most doctors will not think about this as a potential cause of your miscarriage and still births.
Celiac disease and reproductive disorders: meta-analysis of epidemiologic associations and potential pathogenic mechanisms.
Hum Reprod Update. 2014 Jul-Aug;20(4):582-93. doi: 10.1093/humupd/dmu007. Epub 2014 Mar 11. Tersigni C1, Castellani R1, de Waure C2, Fattorossi A1, De Spirito M3, Gasbarrini A4, Scambia G1, Di Simone N5.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24619876
Effect of gluten-free diet on pregnancy outcome in celiac disease patients with recurrent miscarriages.
Dig Dis Sci. 2008 Nov;53(11):2925-8. Epub 2008 Mar 27. PMID: 18368491.Antonio Tursi, Gianmarco Giorgetti, Giovanni Brandimarte, Walter Elisei.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18368491
Celiac disease: an underappreciated issue in women’s health
Womens Health (Lond Engl). 2010 Sep; 6(5): 753–766. doi: 10.2217/whe.10.57. Sveta Shah and Daniel Leffler
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3046043/
Celiac Disease and Reproductive Problems
National Institute Of Health
https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/digestive-diseases/celiac-disease-reproductive-problems
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