Manage "Celiac Disease" - An Autoimmune disorder disrupting millions of lives.

Hi, welcome to our new channel of Food Medicine and Life. And before I introduce our special guest today, Deepa Rajani, I will do a little housekeeping. First of all, I'm extremely sorry, I had an emergency in the clinic, so this got delayed. And I'm sincerely grateful to all of you who have waited, but I can promise you, Deepa's story today will shake you from the core of your heart, and you will actually start believing in the power of food is medicine and what all is possible if a human mind decides to achieve success. Please ask your questions in the chat box and I will take some in between and other questions in the end. If you have any friends or anyone, your loved one whom you know has celiac disease or has gluten insensitivity, please share this link with them so that they can join us and ask their questions live from the horse's mouth. So before I welcome Deepa, I will want to say a few lines about her. I met her a few months back. I love her energy, I love her vibes, but what really impressed me about her was she has never-say-die attitude. She will keep trying even if she knows that she's asking, you know, a question which doesn't fit the thing. Even if she knows she is buying something which might not be useful for her, but she will not stop. Nothing can deter her if she has decided to do something. On this note, let me welcome Deepa. Deepa, welcome and thanks for being on this show today.

Thank you, Dr. Preeti, for such a beautiful intro. Um, I love all the things that you had to say, and thank you for having me on this show. And giving me a chance to share my story with the world out here.

Great. So Deepa, uh, you are really inspired people, right? Until I had not spoken to you, I did not know what your story was and what, you know, you have gone through in this life that you are so meticulous, you are so helpful, and you are so inspiring. So can you share with the viewers what happened on your health front and how you overcome that?

Yes, it was a very challenging time in my life, especially when, you know, you face challenges that don't seem to have any answers. You definitely feel lost. And for me, my— I think my challenges with autoimmunity started even when I was a child and I wasn't aware of it. You know, having a weak childhood, always being undernourished, having a weak eyesight, all of that. I always wondered why is this happening to me. But a few years down the line, I got married, and after I had my second baby, I suddenly started having a lot of digestive disorders. I came home, you know, delivering a newborn baby and looking after her. Suddenly I was eating a very healthy meal and Every time I ate, my stomach was making noises. I mean, there was rumbling, there was gas, there was bloating, there was acidity. I didn't know what was wrong with me. And, uh, during that time, I went back to the doctor. He put me on laxatives, and all of that just made my health even worse. So I couldn't understand what was wrong with me. Obviously, this went on for a few months because I was distracted with my newborn baby. And finally, I landed up at a gastro specialist. Hospital for an endoscopy. And I was very, very shocked when I came out of the endoscopy and I sit down with him and he goes on to say that you might be having celiac. I mean, that's a term I heard for the first time. I've never heard that term before in my life. I said, what does that mean? He says it's an autoimmune disorder. Again, a term that I heard for the first time. Autoimmune, kamatlab kya hai? Kabi sunahi nahi tha. And he went on to say that my body is allergic to wheat and wheat-based products. It's something called gluten intolerant, that my body cannot digest gluten, a protein found in wheat and wheat-based products. Again, a third term that I had never heard in my life. And trying to understand what he was trying to tell me was making me even more anxious because first of all, I was happy to learn that I know finally what was wrong with me. But I assumed wheat was good for me. Don't we all assume wheat is very, very healthy for us and we are meant to eat wheat and not maida? And suddenly here someone tells me that the same thing that you consider to be good for you is actually poison for your body. And it was a real shocker for me at that point. So I said, but wheat is in all my favorite foods. I mean, I'm sure all of you celiacs out there have faced the same problem sometime in your life. Samosas, pastas, pizzas, chapatis— I mean, everything we eat has gluten in it. How do you stop eating something like that? And what, you want me to survive on air? That was my answer to the doctor. I said, you know, have you gone crazy? How can I stop eating all of this? It was very, very difficult. This was around 15 years back. That time, you know, people were not even aware of what gluten—

Yeah, just, um, you know, a question is coming to my mind. When this doctor told you you are celiac and you have to leave gluten for your whole life, what happened emotionally?

Ah, emotionally it was very, very tormenting. It was very, very upsetting, you know, for the next few years, because obviously I didn't understand the disease as well for the first few years. It was a very negative time in my life because why me, you know? We all become very upset, and you're always questioning, why me? You know, every time I was eating, even though I had to give up gluten because my digestion was so poor that I didn't have a choice, but I couldn't give up 100%, not knowing how severe the damage could be, you know. So suffering through the same challenges, but the symptoms—

yeah. So Deepa, what I understand is that today you are, you know, shining bright, looking very pretty. So I'm sure you have done a lot and you are also off gluten right now. Yes. What came— what knowledge or who came in your life who told you something about how to manage celiac disease which transformed you to this happy go-getter person you are today?

So what happened and who came into my life, I mean It is like this, you know, when a student is ready, the teacher appears. I mean, at that point in my life, I was suffering for the next few years, but suddenly, 6 or 7 years down the line, when my younger daughter was 7 years old, a hale and hearty child was suddenly diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis and celiac disease. And by now, that means my worst nightmares had come true. Because, you know, imagine telling your 7-year-old child that you cannot eat any of your favorite foods because her liver was getting damaged. She was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis and celiac, and I had to tell her that she cannot eat gluten. You know, kids are so excited to go for birthday parties. You know, there's everything on the table but has gluten. There's cupcakes, there's chocolates, there's pastries, there's pastas, there's pizzas, there's cakes. I mean, imagine going for a birthday party and not being able to touch any food on the table. At that point, to a 7-year-old girl, I mean, we have cried at birthday parties because we didn't know what to do. And I couldn't let her eat it because I know her health was getting damaged. And above all of that, I had to start her on steroids and immunosuppressants. And the more I read up about these medicines and how severe the side effects can be, I feared that the disease was better than the side effects of the medicines. And so I was refusing to give her the steroid, but ultimately I literally had no choice. I started her on the steroid medicine a couple of months down the line. And because I gave so much fear to the medicine that my daughter was in the ICU within 3 days of starting the steroids. At that point, I think was the lowest point in my life because I just didn't know what was happening, you know. I was praying to God that to show me a better way, that there has to be an alternative way of healing. This cannot be the only way. You know, I was looking for answers every day, and that is when I came across on the internet— um, I mean, if I have to thank somebody, I have to thank Google for this, because on the internet I came across something called functional medicine. And it was— I think it was the answer to all my prayers, because functional medicine is a science-based approach that goes to the root cause of healing diseases. You know, why is this disease there in your body in the first place is a question that we never remember to answer. You know, I mean, we go to a doctor, hai problem hai, disease hai, ye dawaaye lelo. But the doctor never tells you, ye ho kyu raha hai. You know, this body of ours is so beautiful. This complex system works so efficiently. Our heart beats without me paying attention to. The blood is flowing through our body. But why does it suddenly not function perfectly? Why does it start attacking itself? You know, all of those answers is what I received through functional medicine.

Finally, I will just break in between because I was smiling a lot. Thank you very much for not staying beyond this because I'm an allopathic doctor practicing functional medicine now. So I was keeping my fingers crossed that Deepa should not say anything about doctors here. No, but I definitely agree. That in allopathy what we do is we work on the symptoms. Fever, BP, sugar, metformin. And you are right, that what is the cause of the problem? Is it the emotional thing? Is it the gut health? Is it the food the person is eating? What is it that is causing the problem? And therefore, I love functional medicine approach because it does two things. One, it helps us understand what is the cause. And the way I look at functional medicine is, you know, like a dead rat. If you have a dead rat in your house, you can keep cleaning your house, but will the foul smell go away? Anybody who's listening to us, maybe, you know, they can think through an answer. Will the foul smell go away? No, it will not. But you can keep spraying the deo, and what will happen? You will still be able to live in that room. And that is what allopathy does— keeps spraying the deo on the health problems, right? Perfume, deos— that's the reason sales is so much of deos and perfumes, right? But in functional medicine, we will find that dead rat. And from there, we will actually, you know, know how to take that dead rat out of the body. And then we don't need a dew or a perfume, and we will be feeling brighter and lighter. So Deepa, here, what did you do to get the dead rat out in your daughter's case as well as for yourself?

Ah, I love that. First of all, I love the comparison that you just had with the dead rat. Um, yeah, um, I— it was seriously something like this because gluten, but symptoms, you know, for years suffering with that bloating and that gas and that acidity, I was lost. I didn't know what to do. When I read functional medicine, I finally understood vitamins, minerals, how will I, you know, be able to function properly? Plus the diet that I was eating, the food that I was eating, you know, we mostly eat food, um, taste, oh, I like to eat that, I like to eat this. But, you know, don't— most of us don't realize that food is actually medicine. You know, the food that we eat is actually that builds our health. Or brings us ill health. So imagine learning this, not knowing all of this, you know, before this. This was an eye-opener. I suddenly realized that my diet was thoroughly lacking in nutrition. I was eating all the inflammatory foods. So functional medicine, the first thing is removing the trigger foods that are causing you inflammation in your body. A gluten to nikal diya, but what about the milk? What about the soya? What about the, uh, you know other gluten, gluten and other, uh, you know, silent, silent gluten and other foods which we were not even aware of. And that was something that I learned through functional medicine. And the minute I changed the way I ate, I mean, the minute I added the nutrition back into my diet, one by one my symptoms started disappearing. And it was such a relief to be able to, you know, get over those after so many years of suffering. For my daughter also, um, giving her the immunosuppressant in the beginning, like I said, she had a very bad reaction to it. But again, I had to start her on that. But along with the immunosuppressant, when I started adding the right diet, the right supplements, um, the right vitamins and the minerals into her body, um, it was like magic, you know. Her health started changing literally magically, you know. And thanks to functional medicine Thanks to even my doctors being so, uh, you know, supportive of what I was doing, that we could bring her to better health and stop her on from the immunosuppressant within 2 years. When I was told by one of the best aims that do not even talk about stopping the steroid medicine, you know, this is what I was told. But less than 2 years and we stopped the immunosuppressant completely. So that was a change.

Amazing story, and I loved it. And the way I look at it, and I will want to sum it up for the viewers, is do you remember when you were young and you got hurt on your elbow or on your knee? I'm sure all of us got hurt there, right? And I'm seeing which hand I got hurt on because I'm gonna show you something. You know what, generally if you get hurt on your elbows and knees, you have marks. So if you can see, I have a mark here. You can see this mark, this one. Yes. What— why do I have mark here and not on my other rest of my arm? Because when I got hurt here, I used to be running and playing, and every time I used to hit this elbow somewhere, and the peel which was forming over it used to come off. Again, I used to run, hit it somewhere, and again this peel used to come off. And finally, 30 years later, I have this mark even now. This is what we do when we are allergic to some foods, or when we are celiac and we eat inflammatory foods. Every time you keep doing this, every time the gut heals— your body has an innate ability to heal from within. Your body knows how to heal from within, but we, with the exposure of inflammatory foods, keep on hitting it again and again and peeling it off. And every time it peels it off, the symptoms increase, the intensity of the problem increases, right? So I definitely Uh, loved what you shared, Deepa. It is amazing, and functional medicine definitely is very, very powerful. But Deepa, I— there's another question which is coming to my mind. You have helped yourself, you've helped your daughter from such a serious diagnosis where many parents would not know. Their hands would tremble, their feet would tremble, and they would not know what to do. You have, you know, helped her come out of that situation and now be a healthy child. What is it that you are wanting, your heart is wanting to do in future?

Uh, there's one very, very strong message that I want to share with all the viewers out there, is the power to heal lies within you, you know, and every challenge that comes our way can be a blessing in disguise. Short story I want to share here about my daughter is that because she was diagnosed with gluten at the age of 7 years and she couldn't eat any of the baked goodies outside, being a 7-year-old child, obviously she wanted to eat the cakes and the pastries and the pastas and the pizzas. So what she decided to do is bake for herself at home. So every time she was going to go out and she knew she wouldn't be able to eat outside, she used to bake a cake for herself. She used to bake the brownies for herself, the cookies for herself. So imagine this small child who can empower herself. And she used to be so excited about the baking that she forgot that she cannot eat outside. So, you know, there are so many ways that we can empower ourselves. That this is a message that I want to give all the celiacs out there.

That's so inspiring.

We are always wondering, what can I eat? What can't I eat? Where will I get what I wish to eat? I mean, there are solutions to all of this. You know, celiac may not be curable, but all the symptoms that we face because of celiac are all very, very, um, curable and easy to take care of. And that is where I want to help you as a health coach. I want to make it easy for you I want to guide you to, you know, become the creator of your own health. I want to teach you and guide you that you can be the creator of your own health and take that power back in your hands.

Wow, Deepa, so lovely, so, so, so lovely. Actually, I was so mesmerized and I was thinking, if everybody starts thinking like this, we would become such a happy world. Right, but what happens is what your daughter has taught us today. I think a lot of us need— needed this. A lot of us, when we are told quit gluten, quit dairy— so I work on gut health majorly. My tagline is Gutsy India, Happy India. And when I tell them to quit gluten and dairy, they are like, will you not let us eat anything? Why should I eat this, right? And of course, I also come from that clan. I started practicing functional medicine 6 years back, and every time my friends used to tell me that leave gluten, and I used to tell them I'm lactose intolerant, gluten doesn't do anything wrong to me. Then finally, few months back, I read a study, and I would want to share that study with your permission here. Is because I read this study that they had taken 64 patients, they divided them in 4 groups. One were people like me who said gluten say kushne hota hai. The second was people who had some bloating and more sleepiness but nothing else. There was a third group who had gluten insensitivity, and fourth group who were celiac. So genetically also, you know, the They had positive genes which, from which we diagnose whether you are celiac or not. So they had those positive. And you know what the study found? The study found that people in all 4 groups had inflammatory gut when they ate gluten. The only thing was that these people who thought that gluten doesn't do anything their gut lining recovered faster, right? So if they take once a week and then they don't take it, they're still okay. But thinking that gluten is not inflammatory for some and only inflammatory for some is a misnomer. Today gluten is all genetically modified, and therefore it's all the more a bigger problem for almost all of us. And definitely for celiacs. And with you here with me today, I am very confident that anybody who thinks that what will they eat, what will their kids eat if they don't have gluten in the diet or dairy in the diet, they can get in touch with you and know what all your daughter eats and what all you eat at your house, right? And have a varied cuisine at home. And when they go out, they can carry their own cakes and their own pastas, and their friends actually can be waiting eagerly for them because their friends know something more tasty than what they have ordered is going to come with you.

That's always the case when we are around because something or the other is always baking at home. And believe me, we eat the most delicious food at home. Because, you know, we've chosen to explore what people don't usually do, you know. So that exploration has helped us to really, you know, eat a wide variety of different foods. And believe me, it's a challenge in the beginning because you don't know and you don't have the right information and the right knowledge. So that is where, you know, helping yourself comes into the picture. Take help from the right sources. You know, find the right guidance to help you, and I think you're going to be sorted. Because every challenge, when you treat it like a mountain, it is difficult to climb. But you treat it like a small dot, it's easy to erase it. So I treat every challenge as a small dot.

Wow, this is so beautiful. And Deepa, just before I let you go, I have my last question for you. Uh, one is San wants to ask, from where have you done your functional medicine coaching course?

Okay, um, so I studied— so, you know, COVID has its pros and cons. Like, we were all in lockdown and we were in pause mode, so it gave me the time to study two of my favorite topics. So, um, I got a chance, you know, since we were stuck at home, I studied functional medicine health coaching from the Institute of Functional Medicine from USA. It's a certified health course. It was a one-year course where I studied, uh, functional medicine. And I am not an— I am not a doctor, I am not a practitioner, I am a health coach. But I am guided to help you with your diet and your nutrition. I help you to, uh, you know, change those stubborn habits that do not allow— that are the triggers for your ill health. So that was— that's what mainly a health coach does. If she guides you, she helps you to find that inner wisdom.

And when are you launching your course for celiacs? Because you just said that you are going to help celiacs. So I'm hoping you are doing something for them very soon. So when is that soon happening?

So we are planning a webinar in the month of April wherein we're going to be giving you all the details about the 3-month coaching plan that we are planning to start for all celiacs out there. And it is going to be, you know, answering all of the queries that you have had over the years And you know, maybe you haven't got answers to those things. So we will be having a webinar, and after that you, you can join the 3-month coaching program that is going to help you to heal your gut and learn a lot more about nutrition and what functional— how functional medicine heals you.

Wow, thank you, Deepa, for being here. Thank you very much for coming out in open and trying to help and guide celiac patients because that is the need of the hour. The number of celiacs are increasing, and it is like, you know, you are an Asian, you are an American, you are a PCOS girl, or you are a celiac. It's just a type. And I feel all these types a little more special, need a little more care, and a lead— need lot more love. And thank you for helping such special people in such special way.

Thank you so much, Dr. Preeti, for having me and giving me this opportunity. And thank you everyone out there for, um, you know, joining us for this YouTube Live and looking forward to—

my apologies for the delay. Sorry, but you know, it happens. I had an emergency. Sorry once again, but I'm sure this inspired you, this has given you some solutions, and you can reach out to Deepa later also and ask you know, her more in depth about her journey of working with her own self and her daughter. Thank you, Deepa. Very, very inspiring, very, very motivating, and lots of good work you're doing.

Thank you, Dr. Preeti. Thank you.

Bye-bye.