Healthy?

[jaimi alderson]

Ok I was only diagnosed a week ago but as I get time to research this disease I am feeling like I am not a healthy person anymore. Like I no longer have my health! I have always been extremely active fit & healthy with barely a cold all year! Now a month after intestinal symptoms began I am totally back to normal thanks to gluten-free but am reading that I have a higher risk of getting ALL of these other diseases and cancer due to the celiac disease. This is depressing! I am completely symptom free & have no problems following the strict gluten-free diet but my reading tells me that even so I am at a higher risk for cancers and other diseases. One article said that only after being gluten-free for 5 years do you lower your risk of cancer (forgot which type) but until then you have a 78% higher chance of getting it! Is my longetivity on the planet really compromised by this disease even if I take care of myself? Can this be true? I want my health back! I feel fine! Does anyone have any thoughts or info on this?

[tarnalberry]

keep in mind that a 78% higher chance of getting something (over the course of a lifetime) that you have a very small chance of getting (over the course of a lifetime) still leaves you with a very small chance of getting it - even over the course of your lifetime. you aren't doomed to have lots of other illnesses. if you're feeling good - GREAT! keep up the healthy lifestyle and you'll likely be just fine! :-)

[nettiebeads]

RELAX!!!! (blame your anxieties on gluten according to another thread ) You're relatively young, I don't think you were sick that long either, (if I remember right) and you're feeling good. Focus on that. And we all have to die sometime anyhow. I plan on living long enough to be a problem to my child in my old age (hey, it's a goal), celiac or not. And those are statistics you are quoting, which in reality have nothing to do with you individually. (had to take a course on statistics. Believe it or not, I enjoyed it, but I'm weird that way). There are way way way to many variables in your own genetic makeup, coupled with your enviornment, and your own habits, to have statistics apply to you. Again, I say relax! That's really the best thing you can do for yourself, and of course stay gluten free as humanly possible. No guarantees in life anyhow, so just keep doing the best you can for yourself. K?

Annette

[Guest nini]

as long as you adhere to the gluten-free diet, your chances of developing any of those other diseases return to that of the rest of the population... don't worry yourself about them. Keep focused on being healthy and you will BE healthy!

[flagbabyds]

As long as you are completely gluten-free< then don't worry, if you don't have any symptoms, then you should be fine. Don't stress, that can just cause you to got sicker.

Glad that you are feeling better!