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Celiac Disease Public Service Announcement

[Editor’s Note: This video is from 2007, but it is still true. Celiac Disease research still lags other, less prevalent conditions. Yet, it is the easiest to treat, requiring a gluten-free diet and nutrient replenishment. The focus has been on the Gluten-Free Diet. Let’s shift it back.]

 

Doctors are missing over 95% of people with celiac disease – over 3 million in the United States.  That’s more people than autism or Type 1 Diabetes, yet celiac disease receives a fraction of the funding of these diseases.  Lives are being destroyed every day, when a simple change in diet could cure them.  Let’s get the word out…

Celiac Disease and Gluten Free Diet Educational Videos

Cheryl Harris Gluten Free Works

Finding out you have Celiac Disease is a big transition. Often it’s a good one that leads to feeling great, yet initially it’s a lot of information to take in at once to understand what you need to do for your health. Much of it is because we’re been eating one way for 15, 30, 50 or more years and it can be overwhelming to to instantly unlearn everything we’ve done and change overnight. Wouldn’t life be easier if you could take a doctor or dietitian home as a portable reminder of the basics? And so the Celiac Disease Video Project was born.

See below for videos of Dr. John Snyder, Chief of the Department of Gastroenterology at CNMC in DC, Dr. Gary Kaplan, Medical Director of Kaplan Center for Integrative Medicine and Cheryl Harris, MPH, RD Registered Dietitian and Nutritionist discussing testing, diagnosis and follow-up, eating a gluten-free diet and a short segment on when it’s not Celiac. Though there are an increasing number of videos out there on people’s stories of diagnosis and ways to make a gluten-free pie, this is the first of its kind to do a run-down of the medical and diet basics by healthcare professionals. The Celiac Sprue Association has been kind enough to support the project.

Shocking Facts About Celiac Disease

celiac awareness month
Photo credit: Celiac Disease Awareness Month

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

May is Celiac Disease Awareness Month. Spread the Word!

celiac disease awarenessCeliac 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

Step by Step Guide: Beginning the Gluten-Free Lifestyle

FOR THE NEWLY-DIAGNOSED CELIAC AND DH’er STEP-BY-STEP:  BEGINNING THE GLUTEN-FREE LIFESTYLE©

by Janet Y. Rinehart, Houston,  and Lynn Rainwater, San Antonio

BEGIN

A definite diagnosis of Celiac Disease (screening blood tests plus endoscopic biopsies) and/or Dermatitis Herpetiformis (skin biopsy) means a lifetime commitment to a gluten-free diet.

  • Take full advantage of your local chapter membership.  Our group leaders and contacts have experience with the gluten-free diet.  We can help you acclimate to the changes in your lifestyle. We welcome your questions.
  • Join national celiac support groups, for example:

German Researchers Create More Reliable Method for Measuring Gluten In Food

gluten-free-diet1The options for gluten-free foods are growing for for people with celiac disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity, and wheat allergy. German scientists, reporting in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, have developed a more reliable way for manufacturers to detect gluten in purified wheat starch, a common ingredient in foods labeled gluten-free.1

Sources:
  1. https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-10/acs-tid101216.php [↩]

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.

Most People Do Not Realize How Sick They Really Are 

stock-photo-3443895-depression-and-sorrow1-216x300[1]
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