Case of Noodle Containing Glutten and Celiac Disease

I love noodles, trust me when I say that I love noodles a lot and I have been looking to eat Ramen, the Japanese noodle dish. But in this post, I will be discussing a case involving Ramen noodles and trust me, I was going to have a second thought about how I take noodles in general.

This is a case of a man who ate over 600 pounds of Ramen Noodles over 6 months and it took a wrong toll on him as it landed him at the emergency department disoriented and having psychotic delusions. He was a 42 year old man who loved noodles but his extreme intake of noodles wasn't because he loved it that much, it was because he wanted to save money, and would go for Ramen noodle cups since they were cheaper and he didn't have much since he was in debt.

At the beginning, he began eating this noodles and he loved it but then began to eat it excessively but then he began to feel sloppy bowel movement that he didn't have before and he would feel more hungrier the more he ate it. Noodles usually consist of Dietary Fiber and this would make him want to eat more even when he has eaten. Excessive dietary fiber can have varying effects on individuals. Some people may find diets high in certain types of fiber, especially soluble fiber found in some grains, fruits, and legumes, helpful to control appetite but some may experience bloating or discomfort, which could potentially influence their perception of hunger and he is one of them.

This led him to eating pounds of the noodles since this was what he had at home. Soon he began to hallucinate, seeing different things and events that never happened. He would stare all through the night but will not remember any of it in the morning and this showed that here is something wrong. He didn't stop eating the noodles, he continued to consume more of it but then he started to feel tingling and needle like stinging in his fingers.

When he went to the hospital, his blood work showed that he was suffering from anemia (less/reduced red blood cells of different sizes). The doctors also noticed his delusional thoughts but then they began to wonder where he could be having blood loss from. The team decided to at his gut where they found that the villi were no longer available which means he wasn't bleeding, he was suffering from a nutritional deficiency.

This led to the doctors requesting for a sample of his intestine to be examined where they found out that there were no villi in his intestines but there were white blood cells inside the intestine. This test and the blood test made it clear that the patient suffered from undiagnosed Celiac disease. This was a good reason for his delusions and erratic behavior. People who have celiac disease have mutated protein such as Human Leukocyte Antigen which is found on the surface of cells. When this mutated HLA binds with Glutten, it tells the body that an pathogen is present in the gut, causing the immune system to attack the gut.

With the noodles, glutten was always present in his diet, and this led to the immune cells attacking the gut and with this there was no iron absorption causing anemia and fatigue, and this altered the composition of the gut which is connected to the brain through the vagus nerve. The alteration of the gut led to neuropsychiatric symptoms. Treating this patient started with changing his diet, as he has to start eating glutten free food.

This case serves as a poignant reminder of the potential health risks associated with extreme dietary patterns, even with seemingly innocuous foods like noodles. It underscores the importance of maintaining a balanced diet and raises awareness about undiagnosed conditions like Celiac disease, emphasizing the intricate connection between gut health and overall well-being.

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Read More

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4253173/
https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/aimcc.2022.0155#F1
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10673521/
https://ashpublications.org/blood/article/119/11/2458/29625/How-I-treat-enteropathy-associated-T-cell-lymphoma
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25716069/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33382495/
https://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(05)00177-0/fulltext
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6647104/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5765830/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10453492/

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Image Reference

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Image 1 || Wikimedia Commons || Ottugi Sesame Ramen
Image 2 || Wikimedia Commons || Coeliac Disease