[CeliacMom2008]

There is an excellent article in this month's Scientific American magazine (August 2009). It covers a wide range of information - from the basics of the disease to current treatments being researched. It also has several diagrams and illustrations that were very informative.

Happy reading!

[ENF]

CeliacMom2008, on Jul 18 2009, 11:42 PM, said:

There is an excellent article in this month's Scientific American magazine (August 2009). It covers a wide range of information - from the basics of the disease to current treatments being researched. It also has several diagrams and illustrations that were very informative.

Happy reading!

Glad you posted this. I expect to have the August issue in few days. It sounds like it's very interesting, as well as being an excellent source of accurate information in the publicity and public awareness department.

[Lisa]

I am really looking forward to the article. I hope someone can post it here, when available.

[CeliacMom2008]

The July issue is still the one available online. I'll watch for the August to come up and put a link to it when it does.

[CeliacMom2008]

The article is now available online: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article....isease-insights.

Happy reading!

[Lisa]

I just glanced through this. Facinating. I plan to sit down and study it later. Thank you so much for putting this up for us.

[Gemini]

CeliacMom2008, on Jul 20 2009, 10:29 AM, said:

The article is now available online: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article....isease-insights.

Happy reading!

This article is extremely interesting and a good read BUT I one small issue with Dr. Fasano. He states in this piece that sticking perfectly, over years, to any diet for medical purposes is notoriously challenging. For such reasons, diet therapy is an incomplete solution.

Sorry, but I totally disagree. There are many Celiacs who just take it all in stride and have the ultimate reward of getting their health back without the aid of the medical profession, who can be known to give very poor dietary advice. I understand doctors and nurses can be just as eyeball deep in denial about food as the rest of the population but saying things like this is self defeating. As I have said before, diabetics have it much harder than Celiacs because they cannot have sugar and EVERYTHING today contains sugar except whole foods. I feel they are much more restricted, by far, than those with celiac disease. Is the gluten-free diet challenging? Sure, at first, but it becomes second nature after the learning curve is mastered. I can't even remember what it's like to eat wheat and wouldn't again no matter what is developed for treatment. I think Dr. Fasano deserves huge credit for studying this disease but to say the diet is an incomplete solution is just plain wrong. Doctors are never happy unless they have pills to offer!

[lizard00]

Thanks for posting the link! I knew it was coming and was hoping that I wouldn't forget to check into it.

[Lisa]

Gemini, on Jul 20 2009, 12:59 PM, said:

This article is extremely interesting and a good read BUT I one small issue with Dr. Fasano. He states in this piece that sticking perfectly, over years, to any diet for medical purposes is notoriously challenging. For such reasons, diet therapy is an incomplete solution.

Sorry, but I totally disagree. There are many Celiacs who just take it all in stride and have the ultimate reward of getting their health back without the aid of the medical profession, who can be known to give very poor dietary advice. I understand doctors and nurses can be just as eyeball deep in denial about food as the rest of the population but saying things like this is self defeating. As I have said before, diabetics have it much harder than Celiacs because they cannot have sugar and EVERYTHING today contains sugar except whole foods. I feel they are much more restricted, by far, than those with celiac disease. Is the gluten-free diet challenging? Sure, at first, but it becomes second nature after the learning curve is mastered. I can't even remember what it's like to eat wheat and wouldn't again no matter what is developed for treatment. I think Dr. Fasano deserves huge credit for studying this disease but to say the diet is an incomplete solution is just plain wrong. Doctors are never happy unless they have pills to offer!

I understand what you are saying Gemini, but we have to remember that the US, Canada and European countries have made great inroads in gluten free labeling disclosures. That's not the case in other countries. I cannot imagine the nightmare of being gluten free in eastern Europe or Asia as well as other areas of the world.

I think it also depends on how motivated a person is, how sick they were and their level of dedication to good health. I think we all know that one cheat every once in a while will not be the death of us. But the long term ramifactions of consuming gluten for those of us with Celiac should be daunting enough not too.

I too agree, that eventually there will be a pill that's pushed. Not for me though.

[missy'smom]

Gemini, on Jul 20 2009, 12:59 PM, said:

This article is extremely interesting and a good read BUT I one small issue with Dr. Fasano. He states in this piece that sticking perfectly, over years, to any diet for medical purposes is notoriously challenging. For such reasons, diet therapy is an incomplete solution.

Sorry, but I totally disagree. There are many Celiacs who just take it all in stride and have the ultimate reward of getting their health back without the aid of the medical profession, who can be known to give very poor dietary advice. I understand doctors and nurses can be just as eyeball deep in denial about food as the rest of the population but saying things like this is self defeating. As I have said before, diabetics have it much harder than Celiacs because they cannot have sugar and EVERYTHING today contains sugar except whole foods. I feel they are much more restricted, by far, than those with celiac disease. Is the gluten-free diet challenging? Sure, at first, but it becomes second nature after the learning curve is mastered. I can't even remember what it's like to eat wheat and wouldn't again no matter what is developed for treatment. I think Dr. Fasano deserves huge credit for studying this disease but to say the diet is an incomplete solution is just plain wrong. Doctors are never happy unless they have pills to offer!

I agree that the diet is not that bad. We still have SO many choices. However there are those who are in the care of/at the mercy of others and for those people I hope that this will be of help. I have a family member who would benefit if some kind of drug is available. If it comes to be, it will be too late for her, but it could help others in the future. As is, she is going undiagnosed and not recieving proper care so is left living out the consequences, which I wouldn't wish on anyone. She is in a care facility and they can't force her to do anything she doesn't want to do and her mental health issues stemming from what I believe to be this disease cause her to refuse medical care because she thinks she is fine, and her doc doesn't care enough, isn't educated enough or figures why bother, there's no way they can manage a gluten-free diet or prevent her from helping herself to whatever food is available etc.. As much as I am not a fan of popping a pill to solve all our problems, if there was a drug available, then she might get a better chance at care than she does now because, unfortunately that is easier for those whose care she is in to handle.

[Tim-n-VA]

That could just be the semantics of the terms - "sticking perfectly" versus "many Celiacs".

Cross contamination is a fact of life so it is difficult to stick perfectly to the diet.

It seems like a weekly topic for someone to post that they can't do the diet, that its too hard, etc. Despite many Celiacs taking it in stride, there are at least some who have lots of trouble with it.

[Darn210]

Tim-n-VA, on Jul 20 2009, 01:58 PM, said:

It seems like a weekly topic for someone to post that they can't do the diet, that its too hard, etc. Despite many Celiacs taking it in stride, there are at least some who have lots of trouble with it.

. . . and I think we all know people who would rather not be tested for fear of the diet. If they don't actually "know" then they can pretend they don't have it . . . but if they had a pill, then it would be something they would investigate. The "head-in-the sand" mentality applies to many medical situations, not just celiac disease.


That being said . . . I think the doctors that have been in this field for awhile don't realize how much things have changed/improved in the food industry over the last few years. I've only been at this a little over two years and have been thrilled with some of the things that have happened . . . can you say Betty Crocker?



Oh . . . and thanks CeliacMom2008 for posting this link . . . I'll be passing it on.

[Tim-n-VA]

My brother's doctor told him that unless his symptoms were too much to handle he recommended not being tested despite a 50+ year history of "IBS" and a sibling with Celiac.

[Gemini]

missy'smom, on Jul 20 2009, 01:31 PM, said:

I agree that the diet is not that bad. We still have SO many choices. However there are those who are in the care of/at the mercy of others and for those people I hope that this will be of help. I have a family member who would benefit if some kind of drug is available. If it comes to be, it will be too late for her, but it could help others in the future. As is, she is going undiagnosed and not recieving proper care so is left living out the consequences, which I wouldn't wish on anyone. She is in a care facility and they can't force her to do anything she doesn't want to do and her mental health issues stemming from what I believe to be this disease cause her to refuse medical care because she thinks she is fine, and her doc doesn't care enough, isn't educated enough or figures why bother, there's no way they can manage a gluten-free diet or prevent her from helping herself to whatever food is available etc.. As much as I am not a fan of popping a pill to solve all our problems, if there was a drug available, then she might get a better chance at care than she does now because, unfortunately that is easier for those whose care she is in to handle.

I hear what you are saying because, as we speak, my father is slowly dying from celiac disease and neither he nor the rest of my dim-witted family seem to care. He has been diagnosed recently with beginner dementia and I totally believe it's all from undiagnosed celiac disease. He looks like the poster child for it, as did I, and I think he is too confused to process what I try to tell him about it. So those who should be watching out for him are not and it sickens me. The rest of my family are the pill types who will not be responsible about their health unless a pill is involved.

I have also told my husband under no terms will I EVER go into a care facility of any kind. I am not resigned to the fact that all people end up in one either. Can you imagine trying to get good gluten-free food in a nursing home? If we live in denial about food to such an extent in today's world, I don't think anything will change with the elderly anytime soon, especially if we go to socialized medicine. I cook everything I eat and get quite creative with it but that isn't going to happen if I become what most people fear will happen as they age. I am convinced, though, that the majority of memory issue problems are food based so we strict Celiacs should be OK.

As far as the problem of CC is concerned, I don't personally think it's as big of a problem as some think. If you live on your own and are responsible for your own food (which is not everyone, I agree) then handling CC is another problem which gets much easier with the learning process. I think fear of CC is a bigger problem than CC itself. If the newly diagnosed learned the disease process well in the beginning, then they would be knowledgeable about how it occurs as opposed to not feeling well after eating and blaming everything on CC. There are other sensitivities that may be the culprit also. For those who read the article, Dr. Fasano made the point well about having to ingest gluten for an autoimmune reaction to occur. I'm not saying it isn't hard for some but there may be reasons for that which could be worked out with a little effort.

The other problem is the cost of the meds, if they ever develop anything which might even work well. I know many, many people who stopped taking meds that helped them because of cost. They are not going to make this drug cheaply and I highly doubt they will give it away either. They also will not prescribe it unless you have a definitive diagnosis so that could be another roadblock for those who are self diagnosed.

[tarnalberry]

Gemini, on Jul 20 2009, 09:59 AM, said:

Sorry, but I totally disagree. There are many Celiacs who just take it all in stride and have the ultimate reward of getting their health back without the aid of the medical profession, who can be known to give very poor dietary advice. I understand doctors and nurses can be just as eyeball deep in denial about food as the rest of the population but saying things like this is self defeating. As I have said before, diabetics have it much harder than Celiacs because they cannot have sugar and EVERYTHING today contains sugar except whole foods. I feel they are much more restricted, by far, than those with celiac disease. Is the gluten-free diet challenging? Sure, at first, but it becomes second nature after the learning curve is mastered. I can't even remember what it's like to eat wheat and wouldn't again no matter what is developed for treatment. I think Dr. Fasano deserves huge credit for studying this disease but to say the diet is an incomplete solution is just plain wrong. Doctors are never happy unless they have pills to offer!

Statistics disagree with you. The majority of celiacs are NOT strictly gluten free, and do *intentionally* cheat on the diet, according to random sample studies. We all know that it is very difficult to avoid every instance of contamination without making significant life-style changes, as well. Which does make the diet, when used in the population of celiacs as a whole, and incomplete solution. A solution, but not a complete one.