More About Me

You wouldn't know it to look at me, but I have a disease. It's called Celiac Disease (CD) and basically is a gluten intolerance. Gluten is in wheat, rye, and barley, so I can't eat any product that contains or has come in contact with those grains.

CD is genetic and has been handed down to me probably through my mother's father's family. I have handed it down to both of my children. It is a very well-known and common disease in Europe, but for some reason American doctors think it is extremely rare...almost non-existent in North America. They are wrong. Current estimates are that 1 in 100 Americans have CD but most just don't know it yet. Sometimes Cd is evident during childhood, even infancy, but more often than not (at least in my experience) a CD sufferer doesn't realize that anything is wrong until they reach their late 40's and 50's. It commonly takes a CD patient 10 yrs. to get a diagnosis, after several misdiagnoses and useless treatments.

A person with CD cannot tolerate gluten because the gluten causes an autoimmune response that damagees the villi in the small intestine. With those damaged villi the body cannot absorb nutrients which causes a host of problems. CD is somewhat difficult to recognize (unless you know what you are looking for) because it's symptoms are so varied. And some people (like me) have virtually no recognizable symptoms. CD's most common symptoms are digestive problems like chronic diarrhea (most common), constipation, acid reflux, nausea, bloating, etc. But the symptoms can also range from damaged tooth enamel to seizures to intestinal cancer to bone pains to insomnia and on and on.

The only treatment for CD is a gluten free diet.

To read more about CD, go to http://www.celiac.com/st_main.html