As a Celiac Disease/Gluten Intolerance Nurse/Educator,  I help people regain their health by learning to follow a gluten-free diet.  In doing so over time I have become so familiar with every manifestation of Celiac Disease and gluten sensitivity that I can often recognize symptoms in people at a glance.   Perhaps you can too.  You know, the fair-skinned Celtic or blond Nordic types, with a butterfly-rash on their faces, or dermatitis on their hands, elbows, or legs, a general puffiness in their appearance.   Sometimes you hear them complain about general stomach discomfort or bloating, or itchy skin, or aching joints.  These are not people I know well, but general acquaintances, like the cashier at the market, or the child of a friend of a friend whose mother is an MD. 

I am a highly intuitive person, and I often used my intuitive abilities as a nurse on a busy surgical floor.  When my inner wisdom told me what was going on with a patient, I never failed to listen, and advocate for what I felt was in the patient's best interest.  But, I'm not in that environment anymore, and John Q. Public is not one of my patients.  Still, sometimes I feel as if I ought to say something.  Do you think it is ever appropriate to do so?  Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease are still not part of the common vocabulary.  The people I counsel and that take my cooking classes have all navigated long, circuitous paths to finally get a diagnosis.  How great it would be to help steer someone in the right direction, maybe skipping years of frustration and ill health!  But, I am by nature a reserved person, brought up to respect the privacy of others.  Is there a graceful way to intervene and provide information on gluten sensitivity to relative strangers?  That is the question I pose, and I look forward to reading any responses.