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Sep. 14th, 2007 10:23 amHere's a good article about celiac disease and gluten intolerance on Newsweek's site:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20643573/site/newsweek/
Here's the first three paragraphs:
"Sept. 17, 2007 issue - In 1988, Alice Bast came home from a vacation in Cancún with what seemed like a classic case of Montezuma's revenge, but with one crucial difference. It didn't go away. As days of illness turned into months and years, her weight dropped from 130 pounds to 110. Her hair fell out in clumps when she brushed it. Her teeth began chipping, and she suffered severe fatigue, migraines, depression and tingling in her fingers and toes. "I thought I was dying of cancer," she says. But the worst moment came in 1990, two weeks before her second child was due. Bast suddenly became aware that the baby wasn't moving. Her husband put his ear to her belly and looked up with panic in his eyes. "I hear nothing," he said. Their unborn daughter was dead.
Twenty-two physicians tried and failed to make sense of Bast's symptoms. It was a veterinarian friend who finally suggested a possible cause in 1994. "Dogs sometimes have trouble digesting grains," the friend said. Within days, Bast had obtained a formal diagnosis of celiac disease—an intolerance for gluten, the protein in wheat, rye and barley. The resulting damage to the small intestine makes it hard for the body to absorb nutrients. Far from being dismayed, Bast was thrilled. "I wasn't dying. I wasn't crazy. I was elated!" she says. Better yet, just two weeks after eliminating these grains from her diet, she started feeling well again. In 2003, she established the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness to help alert others to the existence of the disease. "All those years I lost, I don't want other people to lose them, too," she says.
There are plenty of people who stand to benefit from her work. Until recently, celiac disease was thought to be rare in this country. But in 2003, Dr. Alessio Fasano at the University of Maryland's Center for Celiac Research published a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine showing that the ailment actually affects 1 in 133 Americans, or roughly 3 million people. And they're not just Caucasians, as previously believed, but African-Americans, Asians and Latinos as well. In 2004, the National Institutes of Health formally recognized Fasano's conclusions. Overnight, the disease went from "rare" to "common," although it remains vastly underdiagnosed. "Most GPs don't look for it," says Elaine Monarch, executive director of the Celiac Disease Foundation. But increasing awareness and more sensitive blood tests for the disease are leading to more diagnoses—which in turn are causing more companies to start marketing gluten-free foods. "When we got gluten-free beer, that was huge," says Vanessa Maltin, author of "Beyond Rice Cakes: A Young Person's Guide to Cooking, Eating and Living Gluten-Free.""
It's difficult to be gluten-free and I'm not celiac so much as highly sensitive to it, so I have a little more leeway in that I don't worry about French Fries being fried in the same oil.
What keeps me gluten-free? Fear of being sick. I got *really* sick in 2005 and ended up in the emergency room. A kindly gastrointestinologist - explained that while she didn't see any celluar damage and I hadn't lost the poundage most celiacs do, I did have a resistance to gluten and it made me ill. Try going off it. I did. I haven't had a cold or come down with the flu since - I used to come down with it every three or four months - catching whatever was in the office or on the train - my immune system was weak. Always catching colds as a kid and young adult. This is the first time in my life I've gone 2 years without anything more than the occassional allergy flareup. I also stopped feeling as depressed, tired, and anxious. I slept better. Had less heartburn. Less painful cramps during menstruation. To me eating something with gluten is akin to trying to digest expandable glue.
So when you offer me pizza with wheat crust? You might as well be offering me glue. To a celiac? It's arsenic.
But as the article refreshingly points out - it is not impossible and it has become a lot easier than it used to be. The hardest part is at work and where I happen to work - which is unfortunately in Fast Food central - Penn Station.
And in a department that loves sugar and baked goods. But after a while one adapts and learns how to say no to it and not crave it. It just takes time, is all. Like everything else. The first day it's hard. So's the second. But by the 100th, you are halfway there.
A gluten sensitivity or intolerance is worse than an allergy. And is not the same as the Atkins diet or South Beach or any other fad.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20643573/site/newsweek/
Here's the first three paragraphs:
"Sept. 17, 2007 issue - In 1988, Alice Bast came home from a vacation in Cancún with what seemed like a classic case of Montezuma's revenge, but with one crucial difference. It didn't go away. As days of illness turned into months and years, her weight dropped from 130 pounds to 110. Her hair fell out in clumps when she brushed it. Her teeth began chipping, and she suffered severe fatigue, migraines, depression and tingling in her fingers and toes. "I thought I was dying of cancer," she says. But the worst moment came in 1990, two weeks before her second child was due. Bast suddenly became aware that the baby wasn't moving. Her husband put his ear to her belly and looked up with panic in his eyes. "I hear nothing," he said. Their unborn daughter was dead.
Twenty-two physicians tried and failed to make sense of Bast's symptoms. It was a veterinarian friend who finally suggested a possible cause in 1994. "Dogs sometimes have trouble digesting grains," the friend said. Within days, Bast had obtained a formal diagnosis of celiac disease—an intolerance for gluten, the protein in wheat, rye and barley. The resulting damage to the small intestine makes it hard for the body to absorb nutrients. Far from being dismayed, Bast was thrilled. "I wasn't dying. I wasn't crazy. I was elated!" she says. Better yet, just two weeks after eliminating these grains from her diet, she started feeling well again. In 2003, she established the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness to help alert others to the existence of the disease. "All those years I lost, I don't want other people to lose them, too," she says.
There are plenty of people who stand to benefit from her work. Until recently, celiac disease was thought to be rare in this country. But in 2003, Dr. Alessio Fasano at the University of Maryland's Center for Celiac Research published a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine showing that the ailment actually affects 1 in 133 Americans, or roughly 3 million people. And they're not just Caucasians, as previously believed, but African-Americans, Asians and Latinos as well. In 2004, the National Institutes of Health formally recognized Fasano's conclusions. Overnight, the disease went from "rare" to "common," although it remains vastly underdiagnosed. "Most GPs don't look for it," says Elaine Monarch, executive director of the Celiac Disease Foundation. But increasing awareness and more sensitive blood tests for the disease are leading to more diagnoses—which in turn are causing more companies to start marketing gluten-free foods. "When we got gluten-free beer, that was huge," says Vanessa Maltin, author of "Beyond Rice Cakes: A Young Person's Guide to Cooking, Eating and Living Gluten-Free.""
It's difficult to be gluten-free and I'm not celiac so much as highly sensitive to it, so I have a little more leeway in that I don't worry about French Fries being fried in the same oil.
What keeps me gluten-free? Fear of being sick. I got *really* sick in 2005 and ended up in the emergency room. A kindly gastrointestinologist - explained that while she didn't see any celluar damage and I hadn't lost the poundage most celiacs do, I did have a resistance to gluten and it made me ill. Try going off it. I did. I haven't had a cold or come down with the flu since - I used to come down with it every three or four months - catching whatever was in the office or on the train - my immune system was weak. Always catching colds as a kid and young adult. This is the first time in my life I've gone 2 years without anything more than the occassional allergy flareup. I also stopped feeling as depressed, tired, and anxious. I slept better. Had less heartburn. Less painful cramps during menstruation. To me eating something with gluten is akin to trying to digest expandable glue.
So when you offer me pizza with wheat crust? You might as well be offering me glue. To a celiac? It's arsenic.
But as the article refreshingly points out - it is not impossible and it has become a lot easier than it used to be. The hardest part is at work and where I happen to work - which is unfortunately in Fast Food central - Penn Station.
And in a department that loves sugar and baked goods. But after a while one adapts and learns how to say no to it and not crave it. It just takes time, is all. Like everything else. The first day it's hard. So's the second. But by the 100th, you are halfway there.
A gluten sensitivity or intolerance is worse than an allergy. And is not the same as the Atkins diet or South Beach or any other fad.
