EASE Dis-ease - A support Program for Celiacs

Hello everyone, actually we are just waiting for people to join in. I would just like to thank all of you for being here, removing your precious time to join this very informative webinar for celiacs today. Just give me a few minutes, let the participants join so that we can begin. Um, how do you see the names here? Hi everyone, actually I just wanted to make a request. All the names that have come into the chat box are coming as showing up as Deepa Rajani. I think there's some issue with the link that was sent out to you all. Is it possible for you all to just edit your names and change the name from Deepa Rajani to your own names? That would be very helpful because we're going to be having an interactive webinar and I'll be trying to read the chat that you all are sending and I won't know your names. So if you all can just do me that little favor of changing the names in the chat box. If that's possible, and you all know how to do that. Thank you so much.

There is a small white box. If you take your mouse on the top of your name, which has three dots, just click that box and it will— and there will be an option saying rename. So please click that and then you can rename it. If you take your mouse over your name, there is a small blue box on the right Click that, then you will see rename on it. If you click rename, you can put your name there. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Abhimanyu, for that. So, you know, I'm not an expert at these Zoom webinars, so please, you know, accept my apologies in advance because of these small technical errors that are happening, and I may fumble during the webinar. Please do bear with me. So I have joined, uh, on my iPhone, but I don't know how to change the name. If somebody can explain it to me. I'm not on my desktop or laptop. Abhimanyu, is it possible for you to explain that?

Give me a second, I'll just figure this out and I'll come back. I'll put it on the chat box.

All right, thanks. Three dots. Okay, um, there must be a place where you can see me in the chat box or in the participants— in the participants list you might be able to see somewhere it's written as me and you may have to just change that. We're just waiting for a few minutes to let everyone join in, so just bear with me, please. In the meantime, if any of you all have some questions that you want answered during this webinar, please feel free to put it in the chat and we will try to answer it during the webinar, um, whenever it's possible. We are going to have a Q&A at the end of the webinar, so even over there, if we can answer your questions, we're going to take the time out to do that. Hi, uh, you just have to click on your name, that is, uh, where it is written 'Me.' Yes. And then, yeah, and then, uh, after clicking that, there will be option to rename. And then you can write your name there. Yeah. With so many Deepa Rajanis, I'm going to think I'm giving the webinar to myself. We'll just wait until 7:10 until everyone joins in because there are quite a few people joining in. So, uh, I hope that's okay with everyone. Good evening, Princey. I can see your name. Thank you for doing that. People who have joined a little later, uh, you know, your names are showing up as Deepa Rajani. If any of you all know how to do that, please do me the little favor of changing your name from Deepa Rajani, uh, to your own name, because due to the Due to some technical glitch, I think, you know, everyone's just being joined as Deepa Rajani. So please just do that favor for me.

Yeah, for the, for the lady who had asked about the iPhone, please go to participants, click on participants, and then click your name and it will give you the rename option. If you're on the iPhone.

Yeah, thanks a lot. I have been able to do it.

Thank you. Thanks for your patience.

Um, okay, I think we can start. I mean, I was just waiting for everyone to join, and thank you all for your patience and, um, Well, hello everyone. A very, very good evening to all of you and a very warm welcome to all of you all. And thank you once more for removing your precious time to join this very informative webinar called Ease Disease, especially designed for celiacs. Um, being a celiac myself for the last nearly 15 years, I think I have gone through most of the pain and suffering that you may be suffering today And, you know, this pain and the suffering guided me to start learning more about what celiac disease is all about. So I dedicated my last few years to learning and understanding what this disease really means and how to empower it. So it became my life's purpose to understand this disease better. And today I stand before you to share my wisdom and knowledge with all of you. So during the, the, during COVID in fact, I got a chance to start actually getting certified for this, uh, for this disease. And I studied something called functional medicine from the Institute of Functional Medicine from USA, and I got certified as a health coach and a functional nutritionist. So that is where I understood how to handle this challenge much better. Um, during this webinar, what I am going to do is, uh, we share— I'm going to be sharing my experience with you and the knowledge that I have gained. And as we go through that, I'm going to be asking you a lot of questions. So please, uh, you know, keep your chat boxes open and do reply me with a yes or a no when I ask you certain questions, because I would love to know how much I— how much you guys know and how much is it that you would love to know more, you know. So That would be great if you could send your replies in. Okay, let me just move a little forward and begin to start sharing my screen. Okay, before I do that, I need to introduce a very important person actually to support us in our journey. I have a very, very special person with me. She is my mentor and an MBBS doctor with 30 years of experience. She's an expert at functional medicine, gut health, specializes in diabetes and thyroid care. We have with us Dr. Preeti Nanda Sibal, who is, who is here with us today supporting us in our journey through healing with this disease called celiac. Okay, now I think I've started sharing my slide. This is Ease Disease, a group support program for celiacs by me, Deepa Rajani, your most trusted and reliable health coach for celiacs. Okay, you know, when we went— when there was this moment in all our lives when we were told for the first time, you are a celiac, you know, when the doctor told you for the first time your diagnosis, you are a celiac, it shook us, I think, to our very core because, you know, suddenly foods that you thought were healthy for you, for foods that you thought were good for you were suddenly unhealthy for you. Suddenly they were harming you, they were bad for you, and suddenly, like, you know, things that you loved eating, you couldn't eat anymore. You know, how many of us here today have gone through that sinking feeling, that sinking feeling that what is happening to me now? What is right or wrong in my life right now? You know, please reply in the chat box with a yes or a no. If any of you have gone through this sinking feeling. I can see a couple of yes. Yes. Oh, it's great. I mean, it's not great, but of course it's good to know that I'm not alone in this because I know at that point I felt very, very alone. But it's good to know that, you know, so many of us have gone through that. But now it's time to make a change. So I think one of the first side effects of celiac for me was stress, confusion, helplessness, depression, and last but not the least, why me? I think most of us must have thought that. Please give me a loud yes, everyone out here, who felt like this at some point in their life. I can see, I can see a lot of yeses coming in. I completely feel your pain because I have been through that for years together. But now let's just make it easy for all of us. You know, we, we stand together to empower ourselves to overcome this challenge that is a part of our lives now. Well, I want to begin by telling you a story. There was this young girl who from a very young age felt very awkward in her skin. You know, she had weak eyesight, she couldn't see very clearly, but she refused to wear specs because she was very young and she, she was very shy about wearing her specs. So, you know, going through a young age with weak eyesight and suddenly she had these weird illnesses happening that she didn't know what was happening to her. She was very underconfident and fearful. You know, waking up one morning with pain in her fingers, skin rashes, dental issues. So going to doctors was a part of her growing up years. But she didn't know what was happening with her, so she didn't know how to heal herself. Well, a few years later, she got married, had her children, and that's when her real nightmare began. Because after the delivery of her second child, she suddenly had severe digestive disorders. She did not know what was wrong with her, so she went back to the doctor. And he put her on some prescriptions, some medications, which she started taking, but it just made matters worse. Her digestion just got even worse. Not knowing what was wrong with her, she was constantly eating the wrong things, and her digestion and her health was just getting even worse. In fact, it took a few months for her to go to the doctor because having a newborn baby, she was more distracted by taking care of her. And ultimately, her health was so poor that she did land up at a gastro specialist for an endoscopy. And after that uncomfortable procedure, sitting at the doctor's office, she was told for the first time in her life, "You have celiac." A word that she heard for the first time in her life. And not understanding that word, she asked the doctor, "What do you mean by that, doctor?" He said, "You have a gluten allergy. You cannot digest gluten and gluten-based foods." Again, a word she had heard for the first time in her life. So looking very confused, she asked the doctor, can you please explain what are you trying to say? I don't understand. So he went on to explain that celiac is an autoimmune disorder. Again, a word she heard for the first time. And he went on to explain that celiac is an autoimmune disorder that causes the small intestines in your body to get damaged, and you cannot digest wheat and wheat-based products. And so that is why You are facing digestive disorders and your body does not allow you to absorb nutrition. That is why you're feeling so weak. She was very happy finally to know what was wrong with her, but then she was in a state of shock. If I can't eat wheat and wheat-based products, then what can I eat? Because mostly everything that we eat has gluten in it. So obviously she went home very, very, very distressed. And she had all of these questions running through her mind. You know, if I don't eat gluten, will I be completely healed? If my gut lining is severely damaged, how can I repair it? If right now my digestion is so poor that I am suffering from bloating, gas, acidity, how do I heal myself? If there is malabsorption of nutrition from the food that I'm eating, how do I nourish myself? These were the questions she never got answers to. My question to you is, are these questions that you really want answers to? Please reply with— reply to this in the chat box. Are these questions that you really want answers to? You know, please do reply in the chat box. Yes, I can see a super yes out there. I know how it feels because I went through years with this suspense of not knowing. Ah, well, we all learn things the hard way, and that is life. Um, well, that girl, that little young girl, was none other than me. You know, today, after nearly 15 years of suffering, learning, and finally understanding how to deal with this challenge called celiac, I decided to empower myself with all the knowledge I could have— I could get to understand how to live healthy. So today I stand before you to make it easy for you. You know, a doctor can only prescribe a medicine, but only you can heal yourself. And that is what I am going to do today— guide you with the right knowledge and the right wisdom so that we can all heal ourselves. So during those years, I tried my best to not eat gluten, to be gluten-free, because my digestive health was so poor I didn't have a choice. But with not enough knowledge, with not enough information, I kept eating gluten, you know, in, in the wrong foods, cross-contamination, and never realized the importance of not doing these things. So obviously my health kept suffering, and for years together, until God decided to give me a wake-up call. At the age of 7 years, my younger daughter Diara was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis and celiac. Suddenly out of nowhere, a hale and hearty child was extremely unwell, and when I went to the doctors, the only medicine prescribed for her was steroids and immunosuppressants. As most of you all know that these medicines have some serious side effects. And for me to give her those medicines, I got extremely worried and extremely fearful. In fact, I feared the medicine so much that once I started giving her the medicine, within 3 days my daughter landed up at the ICU and I did not know what to do at that point. At that point, I literally prayed because I had no other way left. I literally prayed to God that there has to be another way. There has to be an alternative way to heal my daughter. And at that point, a friend of mine from the US guided me to something called functional medicine. I'm going to talk about functional medicine a little, a little bit over here. Functional medicine is a science-based approach to healing from the root cause. You know, when a patient goes to a functional medicine doctor for the first time and talks about his symptoms or the challenges he's facing, he's not prescribed the medicine. He is Sorry, I just wanted to mute that participant. Okay, so when a functional medicine doctor— when a patient goes to a functional medicine doctor for the first time and talks about his health issues, the doctor doesn't just prescribe a medicine. In fact, he looks for a reason. He looks for a cause. Why are these symptoms there? What are you doing wrong? You know, Um, you know, why do we have these symptoms? And there can be a number of causes for the symptoms that you're facing today. You know, being a celiac, um, the symptoms that you may be facing could be to a number of reasons. I've listed out some of the reasons over here. It could be viruses, diet, lifestyle, stress, nutritional deficiencies, environment, toxins. There could be so many reasons as to why are these challenges happening in your life. And every person is unique, and every individual may have different reasons or underlying causes for what— why are these symptoms showing up. You know, for example, if I am having gas or acidity, or I'm facing food allergies or skin issues, what is causing these challenges? There is a cause for it. And what am I doing wrong to make these things happen in my body? I'm going to tell you 5 important aspects of celiac conditions that you may have not known, or maybe some of you know, you know, things that no one ever told us. Did you know that in 40 to 50% cases, acid reflux is not due to an acid— it's not due to an acidic stomach? In fact, it could be due to low stomach acid, or it could be due to low digestive enzymes. Did you know a damaged gut lining should be corrected ASAP, as it means poor absorption of nutrition from the food that you're eating. That means anemia, osteoporosis, brain fog. There could be so many side effects of, you know, a damaged gut lining and your food not being absorbed perfectly. Did you also know that a leaky gut allows toxins— sorry, I'm just muting that participant. Um, did you also know a leaky gut allows toxins to flow into your bloodstream, leading to joint pains, other autoimmune issues, skin allergies, food allergies. Did you know that one week of antibiotics can wipe out the good gut bacteria in your body and it can take years to balance your gut microbiome? Did you also know that SIBO and SIFO are generally present in patients with celiac? Well, some of these words you may be hearing for the first time, but I am going to be explaining these words later on in the webinar, during the webinar. So just bear with me for those who don't know what some of these things mean. Well, after years of suffering, I finally had answers to the questions I was looking for. So I kept studying the subject over the years and finally got certified as a health coach and a functional nutritionist. So let me say, now I would like to share some of the science which I have learned over the last few years. Okay, what is celiac disease? We all know celiac is a lifelong autoimmune condition. It is not a food allergy as some people think it is. It is an autoimmune condition. What happens in autoimmunity? You know, when your own immune system starts attacking your own cells, organs, and tissues, and misinterprets as part of your own body as being a foreign invader, that is what autoimmunity is all about. In celiac, the autoimmune response is triggered by the grain gluten, which is found by the protein gluten, which is found in various grains like wheat, barley, and rye. I'm just trying to explain a few of these things that some of them might not be aware of all this. And how does celiac disease affect the body?

You know, let's take a look at an example of how certain foods can affect our digestive health. In a healthy gut, nutrients are absorbed by small structures called villi, which line the intestines. In celiac disease, gluten, which is a protein present in wheat, triggers an immune response causing inflammation and damage to the villi. This means that the villi can no longer absorb nutrients properly, which can result in bloating, weight loss and diarrhea.

Okay, sorry, that was a short video to just explain what celiac disease does to your body. Just to explain the video a little bit, in celiac disease, the lining of the small intestine gets damaged. You know, there are these finger-like projections on our villi, there are these finger-like projections on our small intestines called villi, and you know, these villi have a very, very important role to play. Basically, this villi is the place where our food gets digested and absorbed. The nutrition from the food we eat gets absorbed into our body. So if these villi are damaged, then your body is not able to absorb the nutrition from the food that you're eating. Imagine what an important role these villi play in our body, and that is what is affected due to celiac disease. Also, these villi have very tight gut junctions. Due to damage, these gut junctions get loosened. Once these gut junctions get loosened, the second most important job of the villi is to stop the toxins, bad bacteria, and the viruses from flowing into the blood. But now that the gut lining is damaged and the gut junctions have loosened, the toxins and the viruses and the bacteria now can flow into the bloodstream, which lead to a lot of the symptoms that you may face. It could be food allergies, it could be joint pain, and lots more that we're going to be seeing the list coming up. So the various symptoms that you may face as a result of your villi being damaged could be gas, bloating, indigestion, diarrhea, constipation, vomiting, also non-gut-related issues. You know, you may not realize that some of that that all of this is a side effect of you being celiac or you having some other autoimmune condition. Weaker bones, migraines, severe fatigue, mouth ulcers, skin allergies, food allergies, joint pains, type 1 and type 2 diabetes are also linked to something called the leaky gut. Infertility, brain fog, neurological issues, all of these are related to having a leaky gut. Non-gastric. Okay, what if your diagnosis is— supposing you are not diagnosed with celiac, supposing the diagnosis, uh, supposing you are not diagnosed with celiac and complications of untreated celiac disease, you know, if you are unaware that you have celiac, you know, you go through life being unaware. Well, one of the first and the most important challenges that you face is malabsorption. You know, a child who is not absorbing nutrition properly, who is not growing up properly, you should get them checked because there could be underlying causes for that happening. If, if somebody is not conceiving, infertility, you must check whether celiac is an issue, whether, uh, you know, the foods they are eating is causing inflammation in their body, bone weakening, lactose intolerance, cancer, nervous system problems. Can all be a result of untreated celiac. So you must pay attention, and a diagnosis is a must, you know. I want to ask, how many of you are facing one or more of these symptoms? How many of you? Please, if anyone could just give— if some of you could give me a few replies. How many of you don't know what to do about these symptoms? How many of you don't know? Say, I don't— say don't know. I want just you to reply saying don't know what to do about these symptoms. So just say don't know. You know, how many of you don't know what to do about these symptoms? Well, that is what I am here for. So it's great. I mean, don't worry, you are in the right place. So do you believe— but do you believe that these symptoms can be taken care of? Well, the answer is yes. To heal your many, many symptoms that is out there. There is a cure. There is a cure to heal your symptoms, and that cure is called heal the gut. You know, I don't know if you have heard this in the past. I don't know if you've heard this in the past, but healing your gut is one of the first and foremost things that as a celiac you need to do to begin your journey towards better health. To understand what does healing your gut mean, I'm going to be explaining that a little later, but before that, I want you to understand what exactly is a leaky gut. I'll be sharing a video with you over here, what leaky gut means, and then I'll explain a little further.

Barrier cells called epithelial cells that transport nutrients from food into our bloodstream. These epithelial cells have tight junctions between them to ensure that no undigested food particles, digestive waste, or toxins escape into our blood and create health complications. The epithelial cells are supported by a balanced microbiome of good and bad bacteria, which is supported by a nutrient-rich intestinal environment. Stress, poor diet, lack of exercise, and use of antibiotics can disrupt our microbiome and intestinal environment. These disruptions can lead to weak epithelial cells and loose epithelial junctions. Without tight junctions, undigested food particles, digestive waste, and toxins can leak out of our intestines and into our bloodstream, causing inflammatory immune responses, various digestive disorders, and digestive tract is often called leaky gut.

I hope the video was quite self-explanatory, but let me just describe to you what a leaky gut means. You know, when you eat, and whatever you eat has to pass through your digestive tract and through your small intestines. Now, like I told you earlier, that your small intestines has the job of absorbing nutrients from the food you eat and also to not allow toxins and bacteria to pass through. Now imagine this, the small intestine is like a sewage pipe. Imagine if you have a sewage pipe in your house and suddenly develops a leak and all the dirt is flowing into your house, all the garbage is coming out into your house. What are you going to do about it? You're going to immediately repair the leakage. You're going to take— make sure that you repair the sewage pipe as soon as possible because you do not want that dirt and garbage flowing into your house. The same way, our small intestines is like a sewage channi. You know, it literally channels the bad toxins, keeps it out, absorbs the nutrition, and takes it into the body. Now imagine that this channi has holes in it. And suddenly things that you don't want going into your body are flowing into your body. Toxins, viruses, bad bacteria. Imagine what it is going to do to your body. Imagine what is going to happen inside you. Well, that is exactly what celiac does to you. It creates holes and allows— and it creates holes and creates what we call as a leaky gut. You know, that is what a leaky gut is. I hope you understand, understood the meaning of this very important word. Because we have to begin the journey. The journey to begin— sorry, okay. The journey to begin your healing begins with healing the gut. And you know, it is a step-by-step process. It, you know, we have been harming our gut for so many years, you know, for years together. We haven't understood how to heal ourselves. So it is a long journey. It is a step-by-step process where which I'm going to be explaining to you a little more in detail a little later. But, you know, the first step is, you know, removing the trigger foods, adding the right nourishing foods, healing your infections, allergies. You have to fix a lot of nutrition issues and deficiencies that will help you heal the gut. You know, your body is always giving you signs that something is wrong, but you do not understand what is wrong with your body, and hence you are unable to heal it. It took me years to understand these signs and what my body was trying to tell me. But finally, after years of suffering, when I came across functional medicine, I finally understood the signs that my body was giving me, you know. So today I want to do the same for you. I want to guide you, and I want you to understand what your body is trying to tell you. So tell me, how many of you know how to heal the gut? You know, give me a yes or a no. How many of you know how to heal the gut? I can see some really nice answers. Yes, eating gluten-free is going to help you, and yes, taking probiotics is going to help you for sure, no doubt about that. But again, you know, to heal ourselves completely, we need to look at many different— we need to do, do it step by step, which I'm going to guide you through it later on. But it's good to know that some of you know certain ways that can help you to healing. And yes, the first step to healing your gut is following a lifelong gluten-free diet. Yes, that is one of the most important things that you need to do, is follow a lifelong gluten-free diet to begin your journey of healing. And why is it important to follow a lifelong gluten-free diet? Because the gluten-free diet allows the gut lining to heal. You know, if you eat gluten or if you eat the trigger foods, obviously your lining is going to get damaged on a daily basis, and then you will not heal. So eating a gluten-free diet is very important. It improves your feeling of well-being. Also, you know, gluten-free diet reduces further risks of other complications that we spoke about earlier, you know, migraines and weaker bones and fatigue, which we mentioned earlier. Also, let us understand causes of celiac. You know, what have we done wrong? Suddenly we have this challenge that we are facing called celiac, you know. Yes, one, the number one cause is that we may be, you know, genetically predisposed to it. Yes, that could be one reason that we're facing celiac, but other than that, you know, there are so many other factors that could be triggers, you know. The way we live our lives, our diet, our stress factors, the toxins in the environment. If we take too many antibiotics, So all of these can be triggers that can trigger gluten, trigger celiac to us later on in life. You know, many of us may have eaten gluten for the first 20-30 years of our life and suddenly it got triggered later. Like in my case, my gluten allergy— sorry, my celiac was triggered after the delivery of my second baby. So the stress that the body went through during delivery may have triggered this. So we could all have our various different reasons for celiac being triggered. Okay, a little data that I'm sharing with you. Did you know that 6 to 8 million Indians suffer from celiac disease? Did you know that it is more prevalent in North India than South India? We obviously all know why that is, because, you know, North Indians tend to eat more of wheat and maida, because South Indians are more of rice eaters. So the disease is less prevalent out there. And of course, the prevalence has been doubling over the last 20 years. Now you can see how many more people are getting diagnosed or understanding what is the challenge that they're facing. Around 20, 30 years back, people didn't understand what was wrong with them. But now people out there are understanding what is happening to their body. And do you know that 1 in 100 people actually may be having celiac, but only 30% get diagnosed. 60 to 70% go undiagnosed because that is due to lack of knowledge and lack of information. But we are trying to get there. We are trying to spread the knowledge so that we can help more and more people to get healthier. Okay, let us understand a little bit what gluten is. I'm sure most of you over here know and understand what gluten is. Gluten is a protein found in various grains like wheat, barley, and rye. And I'm just sharing with you a few slides on grains that contain gluten because many of us don't know what grains contain gluten, like semolina. We may eat sooji thinking it's gluten-free. No, it isn't gluten-free. Couscous, bulgur wheat, durum wheat, many of these grains, all of these grains have to be avoided if we are celiac. Foods which are naturally gluten-free. So obviously, meat is gluten-free, but of course, it shouldn't be cross-contaminated. Fruits and vegetables, fats and oils, milk, all vegetables and rice, pulses, dals, lentils are all naturally gluten-free foods, but we have to make sure there's no cross-contamination. There are a lot of natural gluten-free grains, So we think we are starved for choice, but wheat is not available, but there are so many other amazing healthy things that we can eat. And most of these, I believe that most of these grains taste even better than wheat. I mean, a rajgira roti or a jowar roti or a paratha tastes amazing. So you must try out some of these naturally gluten-free grains. Gluten-containing drinks. So these are some drinks that contain gluten, so they should be avoided at all costs. Then gluten-free drinks. These are few gluten-free drinks that one can have. Now, how many of us think we are 100% gluten-free? Due to cross-contamination, we may not realize that we are eating gluten in some way or the other, and we may not understand that we're causing an autoimmune reaction in our body due to cross-contamination. So it is very important to be careful when it comes to cross-contamination. There could be many ways that there is cross-contamination depending on the chips you're eating. Sometimes you assume it doesn't have gluten in it, but if it's made in a facility that may have gluten, then there are chances that, you know, you are eating gluten in some form. You know, at home we cook in the same kadhai or use the same frying pan, or we may be using the same toaster. So there are many, many ways that we need to be very careful when it comes to cross-contamination. So please do take care so that you do avoid gluten in every way. Another reason, I mean, I want to ask, why are gut-related issues suddenly so widespread? You know, 20, 30, 40 years down the line, we never had these gut-related issues. Suddenly, why have they, you know, cropped up? So what has changed? You know, our genetics haven't changed. What has changed? Well, our environment has changed. Our diet has changed drastically. You know, earlier we used to, you know, be out in nature. We used to play out in the dirt. I mean, as children, I remember being out in the garden or being outdoors in the building, running around, playing in the mud, getting dirty, that really helped us to be healthy because our immune system was constantly connecting with the environment and creating resistance and becoming resistant to the bad bacteria around us. But now we all keep living in an unhealthy environment. Our immune system is not used to interacting with bacteria and viruses. And due to extreme hygiene, our immune system has forgotten how to become resistant to these bacteria. Even the food choices— earlier we ate so much of whole foods, we ate more of fruits, more of vegetables, more of fresh foods. Nowadays everything comes out of a package. I mean, we're eating so much of processed foods, so much of sugar. I mean, every second store is a dessert parlor out there, you know, the amount of ice creams and the cookies and the cupcakes that are available out there is obviously not good for us and is harming our gut microbiome. Also, the meat that we eat today has a lot of antibiotics which goes into our system and is going to cause us harm. So we need to understand that food— we, we need to treat food as medicine and start eating a little healthier. So, um, After all the data that I shared with you and the understanding that you have had so far, I hope I am not going too fast and I hope I'm not getting too detailed. So please bear with me. I'm trying to share the knowledge that I can so far. And just again to reiterate myself, what happens when one is diagnosed with celiac? Well, the first thing is we know that the gut lining is damaged. Right now, we're going to ask the next question. Is it possible to heal celiac? Well, no, I don't have some magical cure that is going to heal your celiac, but is it possible to heal the symptoms you are facing as a result of being celiac? Well, the answer is yes. And is it possible to heal your damaged gut lining? Well, yes, it is very much possible to heal your damaged gut lining. So what do you need to do in order to heal yourself, to be symptom-free? What do we need to do? The most obvious thing, you know, what do we need to do? We need to heal our gut. We need to heal our gut, but first we need to understand what is our gut made up of. You know, what exactly is the gut microbiome? I think I've mentioned this word a couple of times, so now I want to help you understand what exactly is our gut made up of. Our gut is made up of our gut microbiome. First the video and then maybe a little explanation from me.

Bodies are home to over 100 trillion microorganisms. These microorganisms are found everywhere and make up microbiomes. Over the course of evolution, microbes have evolved with us and have an important role in the human body. Without our microbiome, we wouldn't be able to survive. Microorganisms live all over the body but have the highest density and diversity within the gastrointestinal tract. The gut microbiome is vital for digestion and helps us break down complex carbohydrates such as starch from potatoes and cereals and fiber from fruits and vegetables. The microbiome also helps provide vitamins and minerals needed to survive. As well as aiding in digestion, the gut microbiome is thought to play an important role in protecting against disease. Stomachs with a healthy microbiome are thought to be so diverse that when pathogenic bacteria are present, such as Helicobacter pylori, which causes stomach ulcers, they aren't able to thrive and cause disease. Studies have also linked a diverse microbiome to improved heart and brain health, weight control, reduced blood sugar levels, and a lower risk of diabetes. An imbalance of microorganisms in the gut is known as microbial dysbiosis. A gut with reduced microbial diversity may make it more susceptible to infection. Microbiome has also been linked to the nervous system and mental health. An inefficient digestive system has been associated with an over or under stimulation of nerves, very common in depression and anxiety. It is thought that the microbiome is essential to your well-being, and there are ways to promote a diverse gut microbiota. Eating a varied diet, using unnecessary antibiotics, and spending more time outdoors are a few ways to promote and maintain a healthy gut.

Well, I hope you guys could hear that video, uh, because it was a very, very informative video, you know. Just to explain it in short again, our body is home to 1 trillion microorganisms and they live all over our body. These bacteria, the microbiome is made up of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and they live all over us. But the most diversity and the most density of the microorganisms lives in our gut. Without these microbiome, we wouldn't be able to survive. If you heard the video, it said that If these microorganisms didn't exist, we wouldn't be able to survive. They have such an important role to play because they help us with our digestion. They are concerned with the brain and nervous system health. They're concerned with our immune system, how it behaves depends on the diversity of the gut microbiome we have. They are important. A good diversity of gut bacteria is important for us to be able to absorb vitamins and minerals. I mean, the role that the gut microbiome plays in our body is endless. So we will— I mean, during my program, I am going to be sharing a lot more information about the gut microbiome. You're going to understand how different bacteria help you in your health or harm you in your health. So right now, I just want you to understand that having a good diversity of good bacteria in your gut is very, very vital for your health. You know what affects our gut microbiome? You know what affects our gut microbiome in a good or a bad way? You know, everything affects our gut microbiome. The way we think, what we eat, whether we exercise, what kind of food we eat, you know, whether we feel loved, whether we are happy or stressed or anxious, whether we play out in nature, whether, you know, we were breastfed as babies. I mean, there are so many things that affect our gut microbiome. I think everything that we do either builds or kills our microbiome. So that is how important our gut microbiome is. Also, what heals the gut microbiome? Just giving you a little information on this so that you understand how you can live a little healthier. Spending more time in nature is always good for our gut microbiome. Eating a varied diet, eating a diet rich in plant proteins, in vitamins and minerals, you know, eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, eating whole foods, freshly cooked foods, herbs, good fat, protein, all of that can help you to heal your gut microbiome. Of course, I will be explaining all this in my program in a lot more detail. I'm just trying to give you a few pointers out here. Food and the gut microbiome. So as you know, what we eat has a huge impact on our gut microbiome, on our gut bacteria. It can help increase or decrease inflammation in the body. So please make wise choices. Imagine choosing an apple or a burger, you obviously know which is a better choice to make. Yeah, and yes, so the food we eat definitely affects our microbiome. Like I said, diversity of diet rich in fruits and vegetables is definitely going to be good for us. Stress is not so good for us. Living a balanced life, exercising is obviously going to help us, and how dirty do you get, how much you interact with nature is definitely going to be good for our microbiome. And how well you digest is very, very important. So an inflamed gut lining or a weak digestion, lack of diversity in your gut microbiome, toxins, infections can all lead to various symptoms that you may be facing. So all of these, an inflamed gut lining, a weak digestion, lack of diversity in your gut microbiome, toxins, infections, all of these could be the reason for your symptoms being there. Symptoms like food allergies, sensitivities, bloating, gas, acidity. So, and to heal, what do you need to do? We did speak about that earlier. To heal all of this, what do we need to do? We need to heal our gut. I mean, I'm repeating this again and again because that's how important it is to heal your gut, you know. That's why I am talking about this journey, um, about healing your gut. And to begin the journey of healing your gut, what is the next step? Well, there is The next step to healing your gut is to eliminate the trigger foods and to add the right nourishing foods into your diet. That is one of the first steps to begin healing your gut. I'm going to be talking about that a little later, but functional medicine is a science-based approach that helps you to understand why your symptoms are there, what is the underlying cause for your body trying to tell you the things it's trying to tell you. And it helps you to get there. How to restore your gut health? I think that is something we would, we need to really understand. You are not only what you eat, but you are what you eat, digest, absorb, and eliminate. So understanding that how important food is for your body, I hope all from all the information that you have gained so far, you can understand that It's not just what you eat, but how well you eat it, how well you digest it, how well your body absorbs it, and how well you eliminate it. All of that is important for your gut health. And to restore gut health is not an easy process. It is, it is an easy process when done the right way with the right information and the right knowledge. So to restore your gut does require 6 to 8 months because we have been harming our gut for years together. Not knowing how to heal it. So obviously it's not going to be done in a jiffy, right? It is a process. You have to get focused, put in all your efforts to understand how to heal your gut, and you will surely get there. That is my promise to you. You know, you might have tried everything at your end in the past to heal your symptoms. You know, we've all been trying different diets, we've been trying different foods, adding different foods into our diet, eliminating certain foods. But somehow we feel that we haven't ever been able to heal properly, you know. So if that is you, please do let me know. My question to you is, do you want to be relieved of your symptoms? Please answer, please reply with a yes in the chat box. I can see a few yeses coming in there. Yes, we all want to be relieved of our symptoms. Yes, we all do. Do you want to eat right and gain health? Do you want to eat right and gain health? Yes, I definitely do. And do you want to heal your gut and live healthier? Well, yes, yes, yes, for sure. So with all those yeses coming in, I want to now bring to you a very, very carefully designed program. I have designed a very, very informative and enlightening program for all of us celiacs out here today. With all my years of experience and understanding how to manage this disease and taking the help of a lot of doctors, nutritionists, I have designed this very, very beautiful framework that will help us to heal, just begin the journey of healing our gut. It is a 4-step approach to healing your gut called EASE disease. Okay, E-A-S-E. E stands for eliminating the trigger foods. You know, there is fire in our belly right now. There's an autoimmune response happening. Of course, there's something that is adding fuel to the fire that the fire is not calming down. So it is very important that we eliminate all the trigger foods so that we can calm this fire down, this, this immune response that we are facing. The step 2 would be adding the right nourishing foods. Like I said, you know, we don't know what is good for us. Like I told you that I do, I never knew what was good for my health, so I never added those foods into my diet. There's something called prebiotics, there's something called fiber, there's something called Good fats. So all of those things need to be added into your foods. The third step would be sealing the leaky gut. We follow something called a 5R approach in functional medicine that begins the journey of healing your gut. And last but not the least, we enrich the gut microbiome with the right probiotics, with the right nutrition, and the right supplements that will surely help you to heal your gut. So that is what the Ease Disease Program is all about. Um, I just explained the steps to you, and the Phase 1 of the Ease Disease Program is a 1-month elimination diet group coaching program. So I want to explain to you what this is all about. Um, like I said, the gut healing process is a long-term journey, and you need to commit yourself to doing that for a long term. Short term and shortcuts do not help out over here. But if you trust me and you understand, or you, you realize how badly you want to heal, then I'm going to explain to you what the 1-month elimination diet group coaching program is all about. So you will have to commit yourself for 1 month to, uh, an elimination diet. I'm going to tell you what the elimination diet is going to be about. Just give me a second. Yes, so in, in the elimination diet, we eliminate a few trigger foods. So we eliminate foods like dairy, wheat, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, soy, eggs, fish. So these foods that usually cause inflammation in most people. So for the, for the 1-month program that we are starting, For the first 3 weeks, we will be eliminating all of these foods because we want to stop this response, right? We want to understand what is causing a trigger in our body. So we're going to eliminate all the inflammatory foods possible, but only for 3 weeks. It is not for a lifetime. So do understand that we are going to be eliminating these trigger foods for 3 weeks. And the next step that we are going to do is add some amazing foods into our diet. So I'm not gonna make you starve because this is not a weight loss program. So don't worry, I'm going to be sharing with you a lot of recipes, a lot of different foods that you can eat, lot of yummy, yummy recipes. And believe me, I will guide you how to make your food tastier after eliminating all those foods that you're not supposed to eat. But we will be adding right nourishing foods, a lot of fruits and vegetables, prebiotics, probiotics, more fiber into your diet, maybe more good fats into your diet, certain proteins that you may not have been eating so far. So this is the first phase of ease disease, which is eliminating the trigger foods and adding the right nourishing foods. And that is called the group— what I'm offering to you is a group elimination diet coaching program. And why should I do this? Like you will be asking, but why should I follow this elimination diet? What is it going to do for me? Well, it's going to do a lot for you. Let me tell you this. I mean, I have done it on myself and it helped me a lot. You know, it will help us to pinpoint our food allergies, our food sensitivities. I mean, so many of us are going through a lot of skin issues, a lot of food stomach issues, and we don't know what's causing it. So if we remove these foods out of our system for 3 weeks, we are going to know the difference. We are going to understand the signs our body is sending us. Isn't it important? When we go to a doctor, he gives us a medicine, but we don't understand what's happening. You know, we may, you know, the symptoms may die down for a while, but then again they come back. So when we do an elimination diet, it's going to help us. It's going to help point out what food is causing that allergy to me. It will eliminate a lot of your other symptoms. You could be having sinuses or migraines or fatigue, and you may start feeling more energetic because you're adding the right foods into your diet. Also, if you have other autoimmune issues going on like rheumatoid, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, thyroid, all of those could also start getting better because this fire that is burning in your belly is being calmed down because we are removing the triggers. So there is a lot, there's a lot you will benefit from doing this elimination diet. Also, it will help you begin the journey of sealing the leaky gut. So like I said, sealing, healing the gut is a lengthy process, but it is going to help you begin that journey. So this elimination diet program is for everyone, for each one of you out there who wants to get better, who wants their symptoms to heal, who wants to live a healthier life. So please do look at this program. It is especially designed for celiacs to gain better health. You know, I will be hand-holding you throughout this process. I will be planning your diet for you, um, you know, help you step by step what you can do. I will, you know, monitor your symptoms, maintain— I will help you maintain a journal to understand your symptoms or what is getting better and what are the changes you're feeling in your body. And at the same time, you know, whatever you learn is going to be a lifetime of learning that you're going to take away from this Elimination Diet Program. And you know what? The investment that you're making in yourself is only ₹2,499. That is the only investment you're making into yourself today. I usually charge, um, to my other clients, um, around ₹11,000 for a 1-month elimination diet program. But since we are going to be doing this in a group, it is hugely discounted, and I am going to be charging you only ₹2,499. But if you register today right away for this program, then I am going to charge you only ₹2,199 for this this amazing enlightening program called Ease Disease. I hope you have understood what the program means. If anyone has any questions as to what the program is going to involve, please put your questions in the chat box. I will try and answer whatever I can. And I hope you understood that this is not a weight loss program. It is not just any diet program. It is especially designed for celiacs. With all the knowledge and wisdom that I have gained, I have tried to put in all my efforts to help you get better. So please do join this Ease Disease Elimination Diet Group Coaching Program. Thank you so much for being here, for listening to me, and giving your precious time to me. What I am going to do now is that I am going to wait for you to register right now There is a number on that, um, on the slide. That is my GPay number. If you register right now by paying ₹500 and you can send me a, you know, confirmation on WhatsApp, you get the discount of ₹2,199. Uh, you get the discount and you get the new— the rate of ₹2,199. So if you can do that, please register right now by paying ₹500 on my Google Pay. Thank you. And in the meantime, I am going to call upon my mentor, my guide, and a beautiful, beautiful soul, Dr. Preeti Nanda Sebal, to join us here today to, you know, be there for the question and answers that we might be having. Um, so you can start putting your questions out there in the chat box, and we are going to try and answer as many as we can. But in the meantime, please do continue with registration as well. Uh, Dr. Preeti, are you with us?

Yes, Deepa. Hi, good evening, and a very, very beautiful, energetic, and a holistic webinar, I would say. You've covered everything very beautifully. And yes, it's a great, great, great mission you are on. Wish you all the best. So people can unmute and ask their questions, or they can also say in the chat box, and I love to answer those. What is SIBO and SIFO? So this Kaina asking this, right? So Kaina, SIBO is small intestinal bowel overgrowth and SIFO is small intestinal fungal overgrowth. So if you remember, Deepa spoke in her webinar about gut microbiome. So gut microbiome is very interesting. You know, if we go back to our traditional traditional era, 1,000 years, 500 years back, we all know that our ancestors strongly believed that gut health is equal to our health. But somehow, unfortunately, in the last 50 years, we have been changing every possible thing. In that situation, I think allopathy came forward, and also, you know, broke this concept of gut health is equal to our health. Now in our gut there are bacteria, there are parasites, there are fungi, there are a lot of organisms and they are living in a balance. For example, in a family or supposing in a wedding, there are a lot of people from different places. But in that one hall everybody is in peace, everybody is enjoying Everybody is having fun, right? And imagine suddenly one of the close family members of the bride or the groom get annoyed. What happens? A fight happens and some people move out of the room. And, you know, just imagine that if people start walking out, if it goes to that extent, what will happen? The door will will get chock-a-blocked. This is what happens in our body. Supposing you are a celiac, right? Now, in a celiac, it's an autoimmune process. The villi get distorted, disturbed. These bacteria which are there in the colon, they come out and start residing in the small intestine. Now, small intestine is very thin. These bacteria do not belong to small intestine. And when they start coming and staying there, this is called small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. Means more bacteria than small intestine can handle. Now what this results in? This results in bloating. The abdomen will swell up immediately after you have eaten food. Sometimes episodes of pain and all— pain also happens. In such situations. Now when SIBO happens, what other imbalance will happen? Fungus. We all know fungus is something which is finding an opportunity to spread, and it is very, very difficult to remove fungus. We see fungus in bread. No, we have to throw the whole bread, right? Similarly, in our body, when fungal overgrowth happens, we have lot of symptoms, but it takes a lot of time to heal the fungus. And what is the food for fungus? It's all sugar. So anybody who is craving for sugar, you know, I get some children, autistic, celiac children, who I treat, or type 1 diabetic, they actually just want to have sugar. Their parents are not able to, you know, avoid sugar for them because they have strong cravings. And when we get it tested, we realize that fungal infection is there. And once we treat the fungal infection, cravings automatically start to heal. And in celiacs, there's been a lot of studies which show that about 70 to 80% 80% of celiacs suffer from SIBO and SIFO. And the later you are diagnosed, more probability that you have this infection. And unfortunately for us, you know, the data says that 1 out of 250 human beings have the probability of having a celiac disease. And in single digits, celiac is being diagnosed early on. Single digits. So therefore all the remaining people, they actually suffer from these diseases, and it is very critical that we clean the gut, heal the gut, seal the gut, which is done by a 5R approach, so that, you know, you can have a healthy, happy life. I hope this has answered the question, but please feel free to ask if something is there which is still not clear.

That was a lovely example that you gave comparing the seagull.

Yeah, actually right thing in the wrong place, and then it's very difficult to remove that you know, thing from that wrong place. The other question we have here, Deepa, is my daughter is on gluten-free diet from 8 months, but seldom she complains about stomach ache. I've already answered. One, rule out infections. Second, see whether she has a leaky gut or not. And if she has a leaky gut, please take help and seal it up. Because otherwise, you know, the chances of getting infected, the chances of getting other autoimmune disorders, which Deepa very nicely, you know, elaborated on, increase. In fact, I manage a lot of type 1 diabetics, and, and now there is a lot of literature also which says that it is very, very important to rule out celiac in type 1 diabetics. Even in Hashimoto's thyroiditis, celiac has been found to be one major cause behind that disease. And rheumatoid arthritis, and you name it, we can go on and on. Even some malignancies, especially gut malignancies, celiac is the source or the starting point.

Dr. Nanda, my question was there. It was my question for my daughter, okay, when she was having, uh, this some stomachache problem. But now, uh, her stool is improved, but still she complains. When she was not diagnosed, when she was not diagnosed with celiac, she was having continuous diarrhea. But after following gluten-free diet, her stool improved and and the stool is fine, but still sometimes she explains— she complains for stomach pain, right?

So Anju, the reason is this only, that before, you know, since she had it to the time you got it diagnosed, yes, and stopped gluten, there is some imbalance in her gut, okay? And also she definitely has a leaky gut, okay? So, yeah, if we can do the 5R protocol and heal it for her, it will keep her very healthy throughout life because now she knows she's celiac, she's not going to eat gluten. Other complications can be easily avoided if we do the 5R thing for her.

Okay, thank you so much. Thank you so much, Dr.

Thank you, Anju.

Doctor, a lot of people want to understand better what is functional Can we elaborate on that?

Right. So functional medicine basically works on the cause. So I'm an allopathic doctor. As an allopathic doctor, I was taught treat the symptom. Means, bachcha rota hua rahe hai, uske ansu mein aapne toh ab bas uske ansu posh do. Is that what any one of us here does? If your child comes to you crying, you don't ask the child, "What happened? Did somebody hurt you? What has made you feel like this?" Or do we just do this and tell, "Okay, okay, go do whatever you are doing"? How many of you follow approach 1? How many of you follow approach 2? So approach 1 is allopathy, and allopathy is needed in complications, in emergencies. Allopathy is the only solution. But unfortunately, lifestyle diseases happen because of the way our inner environment is created. And that's where future medicine is functional medicine, where we ask what happened What happened?

Who hurt you?

Did you hurt yourself? Kaun chhot lagi hai kya? When you find the cause and you heal the cause, that is functional medicine. Yes, there are protein powders which are gluten-free, right? There's pea protein powder. I use a lot of fermented millet protein powder, which is giving me very good results. Very reasonable, very cheap, very effective. You must use good proteins because good protein is important to seal the leaky lining also. So for gut health also, good protein is extremely important. And because in celiacs the absorption of food is less, it becomes even more critical that good protein is added to the diet.

Dr. Preeti, somebody wants to even know tips— there are people who want to know tips for gaining weight, and even for, you know, some people who are putting on weight being on a gluten-free diet. So both of those things, right?

So if you are putting on weight on gluten-free diet, that means That either there is a hormone imbalance which has happened because of being a celiac. Second, it could also mean that probiotic, prebiotics are not taken in the right proportion, which, you know, Deepa just shared that in her first month program she is going to eliminate foods for you. So first thing, stop putting gasoline on fire, and second, she's also going to help help you add good probiotics and prebiotics, because studies have shown that when we remove gluten from our diet, we create an imbalance and lot of deficiencies unless we introduce foods which are probiotic and prebiotic, specially studied for celiacs, so that, that balance is maintained. So your weight will come down once you maintain that balance. Now, weight loss. If the weight loss is still happening, that means that your gut is not healthy. Either there is some infection or leaky gut. Food nutrition is not getting absorbed. Body is in a catabolic state and you are losing weight. Heal your gut, body will stabilize. Remember, weight gain is much more much more difficult than weight loss. The first thing we need to achieve is stabilize weight, so the weight should neither fall nor gain. Once we have stabilized for a while, slowly the weight will start increasing and you will start feeling more energetic, healthier, and nicer.

Excuse me, ma'am.

Yeah, Anju.

If the TTG levels are the controlled range, right? Does that mean that the gut has improved or the gut is healed?

So what happens is when we remove gluten, in 6 to 12 months the TTG levels come down, but it does not mean that the gut has healed. It means that whatever was triggering the gut is no more triggering the gut. So every time we were eating gluten, antibodies were being released. And that's the reason TTG was coming high. Now you are not taking gluten. So 6 to 6— I'm sure it's more than 6 months since you are avoiding gluten now. Yes, yes, great. So 6 to 12 months, your TTG levels come down. But if we don't want relapses, if we want healthy health later on, the gut process will have to be done, which is a 6 to 9 months process, but the initial 2-3 months are more demanding.

Okay, okay, got your point.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you, Anju.

Dr. Preeti, there is, uh, Avesh asking, um, you know, her daughter is 5 years old and her TTG level is low now, doesn't get the belching during or after eating, vomiting occurs. Any solution?

Yeah, so this is again infections, Deepa. Right, the infections need to be healed. So I'll tell you, I have such— I have a similar client right now, and when she came to me, she had tried everything. She was on elimination for 3-4 months and vomiting, belching. She was scared of eating anything, and whole night, you know, she used to keep vomiting. And finally, we found a lot of viral infection. And the moment we treated that— and we all know celiac may— one of the triggers is viral infection. And unfortunately, in India, I'm seeing a lot of viral infection, H. pylori, which I think till 5-10 years back I had never seen this much. So that infection needs to be healed for the kid to feel better.

You know, continuing on to— on the same question, are skin-related issues like acne and rosacea also related to infection?

Yes, yes, yes. First to celiac and then to leaky gut and infections.

If somebody is not a diagnosed celiac and they are having skin allergies, food allergies, they show our skin allergies acne, they should check on—

Working on gut will help them, you know, relieve, get rid of them from the source. Also, we have to understand that, you know, when our gut health goes for a toss, our hormones also are not in balance. Another reason why gut health goes for a toss is stress levels, which actually creates an imbalance and that also leads to all the skin things. But gut is at the core of all of these problems.

Just the basic digestive issues, just throw some light on, you know, bloating and gas and acidity, what causes all of them. I did talk about it earlier, but people would like that answer as well.

Sorry, Deepa, I think I missed your question because I was reading a question from Kitty Mukherjee here, which was why more weight loss after being gluten-free for last 4 months. So Kitty, it means something still is not resolved. So some of these celiacs also are lactose intolerant, also are allergic to other food. So one, you need to find that if there are any other food intolerances. Then we need to find what is the histamine response. We need to get to away with the infections and your weight will neutralize and you will start gaining weight then, right? There's this question from Hina. My daughter is 2.5 years now. Her TTG level is 228, diagnosed celiac. Doctor recommend endoscopy and biopsy. They are safe because they are the best known treatment options currently for diagnosis. Are you on a gluten-free diet already for your daughter? Generally, it is recommended that we do these tests before we change anything so that we know the exact situation. My 11-year-old daughter is diagnosed with celiac and hypothyroidism both 2 years back, but she She doesn't have good appetite. What to do? Again, she is hypothyroidism and celiac. Does she have Hashimoto's hypothyroidism or normal? Probability is she has Hashimoto's. So you need to do the 5R approach so that her autoimmunity gets in control. Because otherwise, you know, few years, one more, few years, one more, the cycle continues. Are there any reliable tests for food? Not talking about IgE-1, which is generally available. Shreya Pasvicha. So Shreya, I generally don't do food intolerance test in the beginning. There are some good tests which go to Germany, but I don't do because I have, you know, worked, helped almost now 800+ people to do elimination diet, and this diet helps me find out allergies to major food products. And I feel this is the most personalized way to find out if you are allergic to something or not. Provided I fail here, which happens in, you know, maybe 2 in 100, then I go and get the test done. If you still want, I can— I will share the test name with Deepa and she will we'll share it with you. But I think elimination diet is what I rely on the most.

Another question someone has, Dr. Preeti, is that why after stopping gluten symptoms are worse?

Wait, wait, wait. Okay, so there is this Redmi 9 Power. I am on gluten-free diet for 4 years, lactose intolerant also, IBS also. What I want to add here is I IBS is a gut infection problem. So, kutthal pele ya alopathi medicine mein IBS is thought to be the mental health problem, right? But now it's no more a mental health problem. I have almost helped people recover from IBS completely. I think about 20-25 of them, which is a good number, and I have not seen the protocol fail in any IBS situation. And of course, you are lactose intolerant, gluten intolerance, IBS— better do the 5R, get rid of this so that nothing more adds up to it. Uh, Princey is asking, ma'am, I've been underweight for more than 10 years and still can't put on weight. I don't have lactose intolerance, any other food allergies. What to do? Princy, we need to check your gut health, know what is the balance. We will also in that test know what is your mitochondrial health. We will also know if you're deficient in any amino acids, especially the essential ones. Because if you're losing weight, there has to be a reason. So of course, that we need to see, but start with the gut test and find out where the problem is. Deepa has a very smiling face.

I love the examples you give and the comparisons you do.

Great. Dr. Saab, is there any chance to get rid of any of the autoimmune disease after gets puberty? So getting rid of autoimmune disease is difficult to say, but if you ask me, is there a chance to manage autoimmune disease in a way that you have no symptoms? Yes, autoimmune diseases can be easily managed. And guys, we need to know that almost we know of 80 autoimmune diseases now. Autism, even now PCOD is being being considered as an autoimmune disorder. Imagine. So imagine how many of us, our immune system is going for a toss. And I think what COVID has taught all of us is immune system is important, right? Immune system is equal to our health. We must work on it, and of course, uh, we will, you know, heal properly. So I don't know whether you will be able to say I'm rid of autoimmunity, but you will definitely be able to say my antibody levels are normal, I have no symptoms, I have great energy, I'm feeling the best I have ever felt in my life. If that's what you're looking for, 5R approach can really be a good thing. Shreya, GI map is a good test to understand gut health, yes, but with this we also sometimes need need to do OAT test, oxidative acid test. We also need to rule out some other infections. So what I have done in the last few years, you know, doing the GI map, OAT, other infections, it was a very, very expensive combo. So we have found some reasonable tests in India. We start with those, and you know, again, in some cases where this thing are very, very complicated. Of course, GI map, oat is extremely important, but in about 80-85% we are able to manage with the other tests which are now available in India. Lost 8 kg weight since, had liver fibrosis in Feb. So I think you all know, I am not sure whether Deepa touched that or not, celiac disease is Connected with liver problems. Anybody who has a celiac has to have liver problems, and anybody who has liver problems, celiac should be ruled out. So facing breathlessness, Sushant Nakpal, there is definitely some infection and a lot of inflammation going in your body. Do the 5R approach. It's a bit of effort, it's a bit of investment. Adjustment, but you will feel much better. No stiffness, heaviness— all of this in majority of people give me an indication of bad fungal. And when there is bad fungal, sebotum, viral, we will have to test and get to know. But get this sorted. Any specific reason for autoimmune disease? First is your One is your genetic makeup. Now everybody who has the genes Q2 and Q8 are not going to have celiac. Then is your environment and then some infection, may be stress or viral infections, they trigger it. So vo machis ka kaam karte hain. And you have autoimmunity. Aaj ka autoimmunity has really increased Because of the environment we are living at. Look at the pesticides we have, look at the— So even the gluten we are eating is not what our ancestors used to eat. It's genetically modified. The protein is much longer now. The glyphosate, the pesticide which is being used is horrendous. I don't know what we can do together as a community, but we really need to work on all of this. This, to be healthy and to, you know, leave a healthier earth for our kids. Vitamin D levels, naturally being lactose intolerant, uh, for vitamin D, I definitely recommend supplements, uh, because they are, you know, food packed in pill. It's safe, it's easy to use, it's available as a liquid, as a powder as a capsule. You can add it in your dal, in your dahi, in any fatty thing which you are taking, and the absorption is great. Otherwise, sunbathing between 11 AM to 2 PM is excellent, with 70% of your body exposed 2 hours for 4 to 5 days a week, and it can help you increase vitamin D. In vegetarians, mushroom is the only good source Otherwise fortified stuff you can use. My son, 17 now, in gluten-free diet for more than 7 years, under limit TTG levels, good hemoglobin maintained throughout, gained height, but his bones seem very thin. Exactly. So see, something is wrong with the gut and therefore absorption is not happening right. And osteoporosis is one of the, you know, out of the first 5 complications of of being a celiac. So we must work on this. We must see what is missing and then correct it. Hyperthyroidism. So basically, one thing is very clear. I have managed few hyperthyroidism cases, though they are more difficult to manage. Than hypothyroid. We will need to do some testing for you, Charu. And but more importantly is that your gut is not right, and that's the reason hypothyroidism has also happened. So if we work on the source, you need to work on your gut health. Correct your gut health, lot of things will start improving. Until then, for hypothyroidism, whatever your endocrinologist has prescribed to you, take it, keep it in balance, work on your gut, and see the results. If it's a new diagnosis, you might have a reversal also. Perfect. I think the questions are over, Deepa, at least the ones I saw here.

You've answered most of them because there I had similar questions earlier. And, uh, someone has just asked, what if gluten-free diet is not the only solution, then what is the solution?

See, gluten-free diet is the solution, but before that, since you were a celiac until the time you were diagnosed, your gut has gone in imbalance. You have a leaky gut. We need to heal that once, get our gari serviced once, and get in form. Once that is there, then gluten-free diet, and also knowing which are the supplements we will be deficient in, and adding that, you know, every 2 months or every 4 months in our diet, and making sure all that is in balance. Balance can be a great tool for us to stay healthy, happy, energetic, and, you know, improve our epigenetics also.

Thank you so much, Dr. Preeti. That was really helpful. Last but not the least, I would want you to talk about the elimination diet and the healing gut, healing the gut. Why is it so important? And, uh, just throw some light on that.

Of the celiacs, they do avoid gluten, right? But when we avoid gluten but do not add probiotics and prebiotics, we create more imbalance. So I am a big fan of doing elimination diet before I start working on the gut. I do it for 3 weeks, then introduce other foods other than gluten and see which are the foods which are creating problem for that person. It is like, you know, not throwing gasoline on the fire so that fire subsides, so that inflammation goes down. Now once the inflammation subsides a little, that is when, you know, if we start working on infections and all, we are able to. If there is huge inflammation elimination and we start working on infections, sometimes the symptoms also aggravate. So as they say, no, you can't have a baby today. If you conceive today, you have to wait for 9 months, 7 days to have a baby, right? Similarly, if you have to heal your gut, the starting point is elimination diet. 3 weeks of elimination diet before anything else can be done. Right, I also want to share that, you know, when you are removing gluten from your diet, I'm sure you are also taking care of the toiletries and the cosmetics we are using. Even if it's a child and you are using a lipstick which has gluten, or you are using a foundation which has gluten in some form, that is also a big problem. So I'm sure Deepak you know, spoke about cross-contamination. But generally what we do is we think of cross-contamination in food. In fact, today I had gone to Mars to do some shopping and I realized that now we are getting banana chips also with gluten-free written on it. And I was so, so, so happy, I can't tell you. And who would think that banana chips have gluten? Tell me, anybody here? I would not have. And you know Recently I had a patient from US who told me that he always used to keep having symptoms, and finally he realized that the turmeric he was using was having some gluten. So imagine, it's a difficult world for all of us guys, but what we need to do is be aware. So cosmetics, all the products you use in the washroom or All the products you use in clinic— cleaning— make sure they are not contaminated in any which ways, right? So elimination diet is exceptionally important. We need to start right, because I know ki ye kaam bhot mushkil hota hai, par agar ye dang se— it's about the whole life, right? If we heal our gut once, if we balance our hormones hormones once, we are good because we know the cause now. So might as well do as a ritual, as a protocol, and the way it has been studied and tested, right?

Um, that was very, very well explained. I mean, I hope all of you all have understood the importance of doing the elimination diet, and very, very importantly understanding that we need to heal our gut in case of being a celiac so that we can live a healthier life. Thank you, Dr. Preeti, for such beautiful explanations and enlightening—

and all for your mission. Uh, celiacs are increasing and they're still struggling to find the right solution. So all the best.

Thank you so much, Dr. Preeti, for this disease time. Um, okay, um, thank you everyone for being here and spending your precious time. Please do share your feedback. How did you like the webinar? Was it, uh, you know, was it helpful to attend this? Were your questions answered? I will be sharing a feedback form with all of you in the coming week, so please do share your feedback with me. And my number is there, my GP number is there, if in case you want to pay for the webinar today. You will be investing only ₹2,199 into your investment. This is the best investment I think you can make into your health today. And how does it get better than this? You know, you are going to see some magic happen when you understand how to heal your gut. It's going to be a lifetime of learning. You may spend 1 month with me, you may spend 6 months with me, but trust me, you're going to be taking away a lifetime of learning with me. So please do join this program called Ease Disease, the Elimination Diet Group Coaching Program. And thank you all for being here. I would like to thank my colleagues around me. Dr. Preeti, thank you so much for being here and supporting me through this journey in healing, in helping others. Um, also Abhimanyu, my marketing, uh, my digital marketing person, thank you for all your help with all the technical details. And I would like to thank Vidhi, my, uh, the girl who's helping me, uh, who's responsible for making all these slides. Thank you so much, and thank you all for being here. Thank you. Thank you.