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Dr. Kenneth Fine will give a lecture on Sunday, April 18th from 3:00pm – 5:00pm at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (at Scottish Rite) in the Main Auditorium. Dr. Fine will be addressing the members of the Atlanta Metro Celiacs, the local adult support group for people on the gluten-free diet.

The topic for Dr. Fine’s lecture is: “The Historic and Current Clash of Man vs. Gluten: Understanding the Gluten Sensitivity Epidemic”. Dr. Fine will describe some of the history and anthropology of how gluten-containing grains became our primary foodstuffs and why it has resulted in so much disease and immune reaction today. Read More »

[UPDATE: Recognizing Celiac Disease has been converted and expanded into our Gluten Free Works Health Guide.]

If you have been diagnosed with celiac disease, are following the gluten free diet yet are still sick, you may find this true story very helpful…

A few months ago, I was visiting the office of a celiac disease support organization. A woman in the office started asking me questions about her symptoms. She was diagnosed with celiac disease and following the gluten-free diet. She was suffering from peripheral neuropathy and a host of other health issues. We looked up her symptoms in our book “Recognizing Celiac Disease”and noticed trends that pointed to certain nutrient deficiencies. Symptom after symptom pointed to low folic acid, low thiamin, and low omega-3 fatty acids. When we looked up Thiamin Deficiency, she said she had almost every symptom listed.

At that point she said she couldn’t possibly have nutrient deficiencies. After her latest endoscopy with biopsy, her gastroenterologist told her that her villi in her small intestine had recovered and she was absorbing normally.

But, was she truly absorbing normally? Read More »

Celiac Disease (CD) is not curable, but it is manageable by eating a strict gluten free diet.  That may not be enough.

Many suffering from CD still feel ill even after being faithful to a gluten free diet.  Celiac Disease is an autoimmune disease which causes your body to attack and destroy the microvilli and villi in your small intestines.  These are key to the absorption of nutrients from food and are also where many enzymes used in digestion are made.  When these are destroyed, the ability to absorb nutrients decreases and can lead to malnutrition.

This is not all that happens in a damaged intestine.  Gluten can cause the tight junctions, spaces between cells lining the intestines, to be damaged or destroyed allowing larger molecules such as proteins and even microorganisms to pass into the blood stream.

Under normal circumstances, the intestinal wall only permits small particles to pass through the intestinal wall and into the blood stream. When these larger molecules make it through into the blood stream our bodies do not recognize these  larger molecules and an autoimmune response begins.  It is these autoimmune responses that may be the cause of you still feeling ill.  What needs to happen to feel well again, is to Read More »

Celiac disease awareness is desperately needed – now more than ever. 

While the gluten-free diet has exploded in popularity, celiac disease remains massively under-diagnosed.

Why? Two Reasons: 

1. The public has shifted its focus to the gluten-free diet and away from celiac disease due to the media. The media likes diets. Diets sell. Oddly named diseases that are difficult to describe in catchy sound bites don’t sell.

2. Doctors do not have the information they need to recognize, diagnose and treat this common disorder. The information exists but there is no authority that actively ensures Read More »

 

 In 2007, Gluten Free Works published “Recognizing Celiac Disease,” the first work to present over 300 signs, symptoms, associated disorders and complications gathered from documented medical research from around the world.  The book proved that researchers were finding hundreds of health problems associated with celiac disease and gluten.  This list is now being used by celiac disease centers, national celiac organizations and health organizations to help identify at risk patients and determine whether patient symptoms are consistent with celiac disease.

But how can one disorder cause so many problems?  Here’s a look at one way…nutritional deficiencies. Read More »

May is National Celiac Disease Awareness Month, so it seems appropriate to share some medical facts about this autoimmune disease that just might shock you.

These facts come from Dr. Tom O’Bryan who is is a nationally recognized speaker and workshop leader specializing in gluten sensitivity and celiac disease.  Dr. O’Bryan’s specialty is in teaching the many manifestations of gluten sensitivity and celiac disease as they occur inside and outside of the Read More »

by John Libonati

Here are six important facts about celiac disease in the United States:

1. Doctors do not understand celiac disease. 97% of celiacs are not diagnosed. Diagnosis takes over 10 years on average and follow up treatment is poor.

2. Doctors do not understand nutrition. Medical schools do not teach it, so doctors generally do not look for nutrient deficiencies unless you are emaciated.

3. Most of the 300 health problems stemming from celiac disease are due to nutrient deficiencies.

4. Comparing symptoms with one another does not work in celiac disease because symptoms change over time and everyone absorbs or malabsorbs nutrients differently. You may absorb everything but vitamin B12. Another person will not absorb calcium or vitamin D. Even siblings sometimes have totally different symptoms.

5. Symptoms from nutrient deficiencies show up before intestinal damage occurs, but also after starting the gluten-free diet depending on the degree of damage and quality of diet.

6. Most celiacs do not realize how sick they really are. They think, “This is me. I’ve always been this way.” They end up spending thousands of dollars on lotions, salves, medications and surgeries when the root of their problem has been a missing nutrient or nutrients all along.

You need to understand gluten and how celiac disease affects your body if you want to be healthy.

You must be able to identify health problems and the nutritional deficiencies that cause them so you can add the missing nutrients to your diet and inform your doctor to help him treat you.

You need the book, Recognizing Celiac Disease.

Recognizing Celiac Disease teaches you everything about gluten, celiac disease, the health problems it causes and what you need to fix them.

Thousands of celiacs around the world are using Recognizing Celiac Disease…because it works.

“Having been dx with CD for one year, I reached saturation – almost overload point a few months ago. Then I read the summary of “Recognizing Celiac Disease” and felt it might encompass everything I had referenced across numerous articles and books – and more. I love being able to look in the index and go to detailed information in my struggle to ensure my nutritional requirements and deficiencies are being met and addressed.” – Reta McCallum, TX

Read how this one of a kind book is helping others at www.recognizingceliacdisease.com.

Order your copy of Recognizing Celiac Disease today. Review it and bring it with you to your next doctor visit. This way you can work with your doctor to make sure you get the best treatment possible.

Visit www.recognizingceliacdisease.com for more information and to see what others are saying.

For individuals just diagnosed with celiac disease or other gluten intolerant auto immunity issues, the prospects of learning a whole new way of eating can be daunting at first, especially for those eating the standard American diet (S.A.D.). Following are answers to a list of frequently asked questions:

What grains contain gluten?
Wheat, barley, rye, and any flours derived from these grains. There is controversy over oat’s status.

What are hidden sources of gluten?
Soy sauce (the second ingredient is wheat), barbecue sauce, marinades, teriyaki sauce, Asian sauces, or anything that contains soy sauce in the list of ingredients. Modified food starch, malted drinks, malt vinegar, most cold cereals, grain based veggie burgers, meatballs, breaded foods, durum and semolina pasta (another name for wheat flour), some seasoning blends, and many prepackaged foods.

What foods are safe to eat?
Most whole foods are safe, especially fruits, veggies, legumes, oils, nuts and seeds, and lean meats, and for some people, dairy. Safe grains include rice, corn, millet, tapioca, sorghum, teff, buckwheat (not related to wheat), potato starch, bean flours, nut flours, and coconut flour. Some people may tolerate gluten free oats, but caution is advised as there is controversy over their gluten free status. Visit this link for more information. Read More »

The globe-spanning presence of wheat and its exalted status among secular and sacred institutions alike differentiates this food from all others presently enjoyed by humans. Yet the unparalleled rise of wheat as the very catalyst for the emergence of ancient civilization has not occurred without a great price. While wheat was the engine of civilization’s expansion and was glorified as a “necessary food,” both in the physical (staff of life) and spiritual sense (the body of Christ), those suffering from celiac disease are living testimony to the lesser known dark side of wheat. A study of celiac disease may help unlock the mystery of why modern man, who dines daily at the table of wheat, is the sickest animal yet to have arisen on this strange planet of ours.

THE CELIAC ICEBERG

Celiac disease (CD) was once considered an extremely rare affliction, limited to individuals of European origin. Today, however, a growing number of studies indicate that celiac disease is found throughout the US at a rate of up to 1 in every 133 persons, which is several orders of magnitude higher than previously estimated. Read More »

Editor’s Note:
Click here to see Part 1.
Click here to see Part 2.

WHEAT: AN EXCEPTIONALLY UNWHOLESOME GRAIN.

Wheat presents a special case insofar as wild and selective breeding has produced variations which include up to 6 sets of chromosomes (3 genomes worth!) capable of generating a massive number of proteins each with a distinct potentiality for antigenicity. Common bread wheat (Triticum aestivum), for instance, has over 23,788 proteins cataloged thus far. In fact, the genome for common bread wheat is actually 6.5 times larger than that of the human genome!

With up to a 50% increase in gluten content of some varieties of wheat, it is amazing that we continue to consider “glue-eating” a normal behavior, whereas wheat-avoidance is left to the “celiac” who is still perceived by the majority of health care practitioners as mounting a “freak” reaction to the consumption of something intrinsically wholesome. Read More »