Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group Dermatitis Herpetiformis

Thanks for the information Kat

"Dermatitis herpetiformis (DH) is a chronic disease of the skin marked by groups of watery, itchy blisters that may resemble pimples or blisters. I get these in my ears, behind my ear lobes, else where on my body The ingestion of gluten (from wheat, rye, and barley) triggers an immune system response that deposits a substance, lgA (Immunoglobulin A), under the top layer of skin. IgA is present in affected as well as unaffected skin. DH is a hereditary autoimmune gluten intolerance disease linked with celiac disease. If you have DH, you always have gluten intolerance. With DH, the primary lesion is on the skin (I guess that explain my gluten intolerance), whereas with celiac disease the lesions are in the small intestine. The degree of damage to the small intestine is often less severe or more patchy than those with celiac disease. Both diseases are permanent and symptoms/damage will occur after consuming gluten."

Thyroid disease is most commonly associated with DH. Other autoimmune disorders that people with CD are at greater risk to develop include Addison' s disease, autoimmune chronic active hepatitis, Alopecia Areata, Graves' disease, insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (type 1), myasthenia gravis, scleroderma, Sjogren's syndrome Already diagnosed with , systemic lupus erythematosus, and thyroid disease dr. looking into Lupus and thyroid disease . This is not a complete list. Thyroid diseases and diabetes I am diabetic are the two most commonly associated diseases. It is not uncommon to have other skin conditions as well. (Have Lupus rashes, psoriasis)

I found the first site to be very informative.

Hugs

Gerri

They can biopsy the skin lesions to confirm CD...but if I were you, I'd avoid eating more gluten. You have suffered enough!

Always happy to help if I can, Gerr.

I thought you might find that particular bit interesting.

Warm hugs,

Kat, that particular bit of information was very interesting.

Thanks and Hugs

Gerri

Molly, you are right - there is no way I am having any more gluten. Being labelled Gluten intolerant is enough for me.

Hugs

Gerri

Hello Gerri,
I wish you a speedy recovery.
My grandmother has this autoimmune disease. When she was diagnosed her body was covered in these watery, itchy red blisters so much so that they had to keep her in hospital until they found out what it was. And she could only get diagnosed in a teaching hospital (being not a known disease). She was just over 70 years of age when had it, now reached to 90. And since then she's been taking this drug called dapsone everyday to control it and doing well. Due to old age, unfortunately she is not very good at keeping gluten free so has to take dapsone everyday to control the blisters, but I must admit all her life besides her genetic markers she was a bread and pasta lover.

well to me the more alarming thing is, my Grandmother is the one who has spread the rheumatic problems in the family. All her 9 children show symptoms of various rheumatic conditions (but not in aggressive manner) As far as I am concerned she has AS like spondylarthropathy but hasn't been diagnosed as AS (shes been very active all her life being a farmer) however I know her still sitting in bed sleeping upright due to her body covered in pain. She also has mild bowl problems, operated on herniated disc, and had knee replacement due to inflammation damage.

Most dramatic one was my mother, she had constant migraine like headaches for years that went without diagnoses. Now I put it down to growing bone spurs (inflammation) in her inner ears (due to which she lost most of her hearing ability on one ear) around the tear ducts/nose canal (constant discharge).
At that time we didn't know why she had all the pain but only after having some serious of operation in her ears and nose that her headaches seized considerably. This was like 20 years ago.

So, if someone already has an autoimmune disease or have it run in the family then God knows what happens next. We are prone and don't know what we may have during our lifetime (so sorry about this..)All I know is knowledge is power and the more we know(aware), the more there is the chance of us protecting ourselves from severe damage.

Regards and best wishes,

Petra, there is an autoimmune disease of the inner ear. I so want to have my doctor check this out. I have had so much problems with my ears. I have severe auditory processing disorder. So many infections in my ears since I was a little child. Sinus headache more so when my environmental allergies acting up.

My doctor just sent me for 40 test, 9 tubes of blood. My face, eyes, arms, and hands are swollen. He is trying figure out what is causing that.

As for autoimmune disease they run rampant in my family as well. My boys are also showing symptoms of autoimmune (AS like mom) disease and other heritary diseases (like mom), but they are chosing to ignore and live their life to the fullest.

Petra my DH is not bad, only affects me when I eat glutten, or have too much sulfites in my system. Most pasta, and bread had sulfites in it that's why I associated it with my sulfite allergy. (Know better now)

Hugs

Gerri