Why Is This Such A Popular Condition For People To Self Diagnose With?

[Crimson]

Honestly, I don't know how I can really add much to this amazing topic. I am self diagnosed. I have no insurance. Doctors are expensive. Experienced doctors are hard to find. Specialists are even more expensive. When you have skin issues related to gluten, you go to a dermatologist. When you're having GI symptoms, you go to a GI specialist. When you're having reactions to other foods, you go to an Allergist. Problems with joint pain, Rheumatologist.

All those doctors add up faster than I can even begin to tell you. As do their costs.

Weigh that with just giving a Gluten free diet a chance... try the diet, get better... no expensive tests, doctors or specialists doing invasive procedures... I'm sold!!!

My take on WHY gluten intolerances and Celiac Disease is so prominent in our society today....

We started eating more grains *particularly wheat*, processed foods than ever before. And found cheap, efficient ways to package, store and make additives out of it. It's now in everything!

Next, scientists, in an effort to make our food better, started genetically modifying the grains *especially wheat, corn and soy **technically soy is a legume, but that's beside the point*.

Wheat is modified so that the grain is bigger, stronger and has more protein. That protein is mostly gluten. So, we're not just eating more gluten grains, but gluten grains with more gluten in them.

So, if you're genetically predisposed toward having issues with gluten and you eat more of it. *FDA recommends grains to be somewhere around 60% of your daily caloric intake* And the grain itself has more gluten than EVER in human history due to genetic modification...

Well you can see where that can lead to issues. Yes?

[shivermetimbers]

25 years of doctors and all I got was steroids, antibiotics, antidepressants etc. It was a constant ride down hill. After all those years only getting rid of gluten helped. So many ailments just went poof or in constant remission since then. No way I'll ever touch it again for a diagnosis.

The treatment the last doctor I saw recommended was Ciclosporin. A immune suppressant for transplant recipients! Thanks, but no thanks doc.

[chasbari]

This whole discussion almost brought me to tears.. a major near accomplishment in light of my Sjogren's syndrome... to go with all the other autoimmune symptoms I have been dealing with for decades that are slowly getting better as I stay fastidiously gluten free. It is hard enough staying gluten-free here in a mixed household with caring family members. I used to work in restaurants years ago.. all the more reason I will not be ready any time soon to be trusting enough to go to one and risk undoing all the healing that I have experienced in the last year after a lifetime of undiagnosed pain and skepticism from the usual vast array of medical professionals who were unable to make a proper diagnosis over the course of four decades... so... it certainly must have been in my head. Fortunately I do have an official diagnosis at the hands of some very good medical professionals after a lifetime of searching but not quite getting it right. Oh, I am a middle aged male, BTW and am more than willing to educate those around me and share, especially when I have so many friends and acquaintances who seem to be dealing with many similar issues who are unwilling to even consider they too might be suffering from gluten issues. I have already shared this in the past but I still vividly recall in my nursing nutrition course in college the day we covered celiac/tropical sprue where the professor related that it was rare and very unlikely that any of us would have any cases to deal with.

I am a staunch believer that words mean something and you, as a waiter, might be conveying much more than you realize in your overall unintended tone when presented with paying customers who make such requests. I notice that you have not chosen to engage in further discussion once you started this whole thing. I am glad you did. This discussion has now become required reading for my family as the articulate responses spell out a lifetime of frustration in a way I can not even begin to convey as I get all tongue twisted and emotional as I try to condense into a sentence a response that makes sense. I am ever grateful for this board and all here who make my life just a little more sane!