Tag Archives: Gluten

Healthcare May Seem Doomed But You Can Save Yourself

Image source: wkrg.com

Fixing healthcare is a big topic in the United States at the moment.

No healthcare plan is going to work because no one in government or the medical industry is looking at healthcare the right way.

People should be healthy. Instead, they are sick and getting sicker – almost 60% now take a prescription medication. What does that look like? Line up 5 people. Three of those five are taking a prescription drug to treat some health problem. 15%, or almost 1 in 7, take five or more medications.

You cannot fix a system by shifting money around when the underlying causes of health problems are not being treated or prevented.

Doctors are trained to treat acute symptoms. Chronic diseases are being treated like acute symptoms. As a result, medications that are only supposed to be taken in the short term, like Read More »

How Gluten Causes Alopecia Areata

Alopecia-Areata-wikimedia-227x300[3]Do you recognize this circular hair loss pattern? It is called alopecia areata. According to the National Alopecia Areata Foundation, “no FDA approved treatment or cure exists yet.”

No cure, eh? It is amazing how many times I hear this “no cure” declaration when I KNOW people who have been cured of the condition in question, in this case, alopecia areata. Maybe they mean no DRUG exists that cures it.

I was recently shopping at a department store to pick up some new exercise shorts when the security guard walked past me.

He was a young man, about twenty-five, medium height with a thick build, pale skin and short cropped black hair. I noticed several round spots where hair was missing from the side and back of his head. It looked like he had taken an electric razor and buzzed those places bare.

I said hi. He replied with a smile and a hello. I told him I didn’t mean to pry, but I noticed the bald spots and asked whether he got them in an accident. He said no, they just started appearing a few years ago and he’s tried everything to get the hair to grow back.

I asked if he was taking zinc supplements. He said no and asked why…

I looked up hair disorders in our Gluten Free Works Health Guide.

According to the Health Guide, alopecia areata is caused by an immune reaction and targets the area and zinc deficiency. The immune reaction can be caused by gluten and the zind deficiency by either not eating enough, or more likely, by malabsorption of zinc – a common problem in people with celiac disease who are not on a gluten-free diet. Taking zinc and following a gluten-free diet can turn around alopecia areata so that the hair grows back.

The guard thanked me about ten times. He was ecstatic to discover that he might have hope of getting his hair back after all.

Now, I don’t know how smart it is to walk up to a stranger and start advising them on their hair loss, but in this case I already knew a number of people whose alopecia areata resolved after they went gluten free.

This is why we gathered medical information from around the world to create the Gluten Free Works Health Guide. So, everyone, no matter where they live, can access it and find out what is causing their symptoms and the steps they need to take to fix them. So, they could discover which of their medications might be depleting the nutrients they need and which foods or supplements they need to ingest to replete their levels. So, they could connect the dots and take charge of their health. So, they could get healthy and stay that way.

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Most People Do Not Realize How Sick They Really Are 

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We are told the gluten-free diet is the only treatment for celiac disease and gluten sensitivity. We follow the diet, but do not recover fully. Many times, because we feel better than before, we do not grasp that we can be so much healthier than we are.
 
There are a host of health issues that can and should be treated through diet, supplements and medications, reducing inflammation and correcting deficiencies. Hundreds in fact.
 
Many times, we are told our symptoms are just who we are. And we accept that, because we don’t know any better.
 
Even our doctors have no idea that their patients who suffer from fatigue, thinning hair, flaking fingernails, poor vision, constant irritability, forgetfulness, mottled skin and hundreds of problems that they believe are “normal” day-to-day conditions actually result from Read More »

Fatigue: The Gluten-Adrenal Connection

glutenadrenalfatigueDo you feel tired all the time? Maybe tired isn’t even strong enough of a word to describe the extreme fatigue you feel all day, every day. The problem seems to be pretty common place for those who eat a gluten-free diet.

Or maybe you have trouble falling asleep at night and wake up completely drained as if you were running a marathon in your sleep. Sure, you could chalk it up to a busy, stress-filled life, but the answer is more complex and hits closer to home that you even realize.

Allow me share with you a personal story… Read More »

Gluten-Free Oz

As you may know, Oz the Great and Powerful has made a cinematic comeback with the help of the dashing James Franco. In the strangest of ways, this movie’s plot relates directly to the gluten-free diet. This version of the classic Wizard of Oz does not include Dorothy or Toto, but it does include three types of witches and one great man that will learn how to defeat the evil that exists. Meet the characters of Oz the Great and Powerful:OZ: THE GREAT AND POWERFUL

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How the Gluten-Free Diet is like a Zombie Apocalypse

Going gluten-free is a battle. A battle of the many emotions involved with learning an entire new way of eating. The battlefield is similar to the one that Rick, Carl, Maggie, Daryl and the others face on every episode of The Walking Dead. How do the two journeys relate? Well, let me explain…

1. What the ______?

When Rick woke up in the hospital he had no idea what was going on. Where was his family? Were they infected with this new ‘disease’? What just happened to life as he knew it? These feelings are similar to the ones someone experiences when diagnosed with Celiac Disease or Gluten Intolerance. They are confused about their new condition. How did this happen to them?

2. Stay Away!!

On The Walking Dead, the group did not know exactly what the zombies were or how they got that way, but Read More »

One Grain More – Les Mis Food Allergy Parody

The Les Misérables food allergy parody that will knock your hypoallergenic socks off!

With the amazingly popular hit musical Les Miserables coming to theaters oh so soon (only 26 days, but who’s counting?!), I thought it would be appropriate to share this funny and amazing “One Grain More” video made by four people who are struggling to cook gluten free.  I loved the line, “This never ending road to gluten free,” boy does that seem true sometimes!

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