Need A Reason Not To "cheat" On Diet

[thleensd]

I know that some of us here (like myself) went through horrendous experiences and will therefore never knowingly touch gluten again. However, I know some people were diagnosed and didn't have many symptoms to speak of and don't get a physical reminder if some gluten slips in.

I'd like to be able to offer something concrete to someone I know that cheats once in a while since they don't get a reaction. Are there stories here or elsewhere I can point her to? She's smart, but young, away from home, and invincible. I can't just say, "you might get cancer" (like trying to tell a smoker to quit...). I don't think she'll come on here and browse on her own.

Thoughts?

[mushroom]

If she knew there were a violent man who hated women, and loved to torture them, loose in the neighborhood, who had just escaped from jail, would she walk the streets alone at night? That is the equivalent of what she is doing, the kind of risk she is taking, if she continues to eat gluten. He may not find her, but if everyone else is indoors safe, he very well might. That is the kind of risk she is taking. If she is not afraid of harm, is not afraid of dying a tortured death, well I guess that is her business. There is nothing you can do to protect her. She may say she is a karate master and can defend herself - well, good luck. You can only fight back against gluten by avoiding it.

Not much help I am afraid for someone who won't listen.

[adab8ca]

and unfortunately you cannot make anyone do things they don't want to...i was clearly sick for a LONG time without symptoms since the damage was so horrendous but if I had known sooner, I maybe could have avoided the HELL i am in right now. When it hit, it hit me hard and I was 42. Thought I would end up in a wheelchair from neurological symptoms. This diagnosis is a GIFT. She can avoid SO much trouble...Too bad she can;t come live in my broken body for a bit to see what her future likely holds.

[sb2178]

Well, I lost almost 6% of my bone density 14 months, and of that time I was only clearly symptommatic for 2. Do the math, and she'll have stress fractures and non-traumtic breaks within 10 years. Yay, hip fractures in your thirties and forties! (Those results were very weird. Scared me silly, and it was just incidental that I worked in a research center and happened to demo/teach the scanner twice.)

Anemia is also insidious-- you adjust to the new "normal" but it is not normal to be out of breath after going up two flights of stairs at a normal pace.

Or maybe she'll develop a higher sensitivity and that problem will solve itself? Not that I actually wish that on anyone.

[color-me-confused]

Well, I lost almost 6% of my bone density 14 months, and of that time I was only clearly symptommatic for 2. Do the math, and she'll have stress fractures and non-traumtic breaks within 10 years.

Wow. That's a frightening rate - I had no idea that such bone loss was possible so quickly. I meet w/ my GI doc in 3 weeks and the gene test and a bone scan for a baseline on my list.

[annegirl]

Well, cancer isn't as far out as she might think. I just lost a friend to cancer at 35. He had Crohn's not Celiac, but it's similar enough to be scary (I have another friend with Crohn's that manages her disease by being gluten free).

He was sick at 32 with cancer, got it to go into remission and then it came back right after he met his girlfriend. He passed away a month ago.

It's just not worth it to mess around with your life. It might seem ok when you're young....but it will bite you in the butt later.

This from a girl who NSAID her way to leaky gut at 15 {braces hurt!} and suffered through 13 years of chronic pain, illness and allergies before discovering what the underlying issue was.