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Celiac.com 01/26/2012 - A Canadian woman is fighting a battle with the government of British Columbia to protect the services that allow her 18-year old daughter to live at home in Quesnel, B.C., with 24-hour care — much of it provided by Shelley McGarry herself. The woman's daughter, Chelsea McGarry already has a long list of challenges — Down syndrome, autism, early onset Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, and celiac disease, among other conditions. The problem is that Chelsea turns 19 in December, at which point her responsibility for her care transfers from Ministry of Children and Family to Community Living B.C., the government agency that provides services to adults with developmental disabilities. Shelley McGarry says she's been battling for months with Community Living B.C. According to McGarry, Community Living B.C. has refused to approve the a plan for Chelsea. Moreover, the agency has threatened to reduce the minimal care Chelsea now receives, McGarry says. "It just turns my stomach to think of taking this public," she said. "But I don't know where else or what else to do." Independent provincial politician Bob Simpson and B.C. Representative for Children and Youth Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond both say Chelsea's case is a classic example of Community Living B.C.'s failure to work with families and find solutions. Instead, they say, the agency is worsening the McGarrys' situation. "This is a young woman whose life is in crisis," said Turpel-Lafond, who has been pushing Chelsea's cause since her family since Ausgust 2011, when they asked him to advocate on her behalf. Turpel-Lafond says that Community Living B.C.'s efforts have been lacking so far. "I've written, I've met with the head of CLBC, I've done just about everything I can," she says. "I've said to them very clearly, 'This is a case that needs a review by you, she added'" Simpson represents Chelsea and her family in the provincial legislature. He says that the family has followed all of the government's rules. Shelley McGarry has thoroughly documented Chelsea's fragile medical conditions. She developed a plan with the local non-profit society, also known as a micro-board. McGarry arranged for Chelsea to receive home care for about $340,000 a year. That amount is far less than the CLBC's plan to put Chelsea in a care home capable of managing her complex needs. Simpson called the plan that the McGarry's have offered the CLBC a 'very reasonable and appropriate plan.' However reasonable that plan may be, the CLBC has refused to approve it. Worse still, their proposed alternatives would either be unsafe, or cost up to three times what it would to keep Chelsea at home, Simpson said. Simpson says that he suspects the CLBC is punishing Shelley McGarry for her vocal and tireless advocacy on Chelsea's behalf. Simpson adds that he also suspects that officials, as he says they have done in other recent cases, have lost sight of Chelsea as a person. Both Social Development Minister Stephanie Cadieux and Community Living B.C. have declined to comment on specific cases. However, Cadieux said in an interview that she is aware of the file, and that she has appointed a new client support team, which she hopes can resolve the matter. "I agree that it needs attention," Cadieux said, adding that the new team includes a number of "high-ranking officials" from the Ministry of Social Development, and the Ministry of Children and Family Development. Source: http://www.canada.com/Disabled+woman+faces+battle+government+care/5593715/story.html

Celiac.com 02/14/2014 - A 43-year-old UK mother of two, who turned up at a hospital complaining of severe stomach cramps, first thought she was suffering a case of "acute wheat intolerance," until doctors told her that she was in fact pregnant and in labor. The woman, Teresa Howard, had no idea that she was expecting the son she delivered just hours later. Because her sister is gluten-intolerant, and not realizing she was pregnant, the woman attributed what were clearly pregnancy-related stomach problems to adverse gluten reactions. Howard experienced standard symptoms with both of her prior pregnancies, and so thought she knew the standard things to look for. Until now, Howard says, she was one of those people who definitely wondered how any woman could fail to realize she was carrying a baby until she was actually delivering it. For her part, Howard said, she thought she had just gained some weight by over-snacking and being a bit sedentary, and had been working out to tone up in the weeks before giving birth. Source: Daily Mail

Celiac.com 12/02/2009 - It's off-again, on-again for the plagiarism lawsuit against , co-host of TV's The View. Recently, a judge dismissed a plagiarism suit against Elisabeth Hasselbeck for her book called The gluten-free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide. The judge threw out the original complaint because a rival celiac disease author, Susan Hassett, failed to provide supporting documentation for her claim. Barely two weeks later, Hassett, author of the self-published, Living With Celiac Disease author, has filed a second lawsuit, in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, alleging copyright infringement. Hasselbeck's book is published by Center Street press, and made the New York Times Bestseller list. Hassett contends that the judged tossed her first plagiarism suit on a technicality, and that this time, she has included ample evidence to support her claim that Hasselbeck stole from her her "scrupulously researched" book. For her part, Hasselbeck has called the charge of plagiarism and copyright infringement "baseless." In addition to the plagiarism charge, Hassett has added an allegation that Hasselbeck includes information in her book that is "misleading and dangerous" to Celiac Disease sufferers. Hassett claims that she sent a copy of her book to Hasselbeck well before Hasselbeck's book was released, and that Hasselbeck has wrongly borrowed from Hassett's book. Whether Hasselbeck's ghostwriter ever saw the book remains unknown. Stay tuned for updates on this intriguing and ever-changing story.

Celiac.com 02/09/2006 - Do not try this at home. If you have celiac disease you need to remain on a gluten-free diet. This particular study, as indicated below, involved only one person--which is far too small of a sample to draw any solid conclusions from. It does, however, offer some hope that there may be other unknown factors that cause this disease--perhaps factors that can be reversed or kept in check. Many more studies will be needed to determine this. After reading and publishing much of Roy Jamrons work, we thought his comments on this study were very interesting and have reproduced them here. Comments by Roy Jamron: This is interesting, a case of reintroducing gluten to a celiac woman after a 10 year gluten-free diet with no symptoms of celiac disease showing up during a 15 month follow up study. It would be interesting if she remains symptom free in subsequent years. It does bring up the idea of a gluten-ingesting bacteria link which I proposed in my article, Are Commensal Bacteria with a Taste for Gluten the Missing Link in the Pathogenesis of Celiac Disease?. In that article I proposed that a bacteria capable of transporting and internalizing gluten peptides resistant to breakdown could initiate a T cell immune response to gluten. Antigen presenting cells (dendritic cells) might present gluten peptides internalized by the bacteria along with peptides and chemical signals from the bacteria to T cells. The T cells would not be able to distinguish the gluten peptides from the bacteria peptides and would, therefore, initiate an immune response to gluten peptides as though they were components from pathogenic bacteria. The presence or non-presence of such a bacteria in twins offered an explanation as to why one identical twin could develop celiac disease and not the other. After 10 years on a gluten-free diet, it is possible that the numbers of such gluten-ingesting bacteria might diminish to a level too few to initiate a gluten immune response, especially if the bacteria largely depend on gluten for nutrition. So, like the twin who does not develop celiac disease, she remains symptom free. I urged researchers to look for such gluten-ingesting bacteria in my article, and I continue to urge such research. Such bacteria could be found through the use of immunogold electron microscopy. This technique permits gluten peptides to be bound to and labeled with gold particles which show up as distinct opaque spots under the electron microscope. Such spots found within microscopic cross sections of fecal bacteria samples would identify gluten-ingesting bacteria. Abstract of Study: An Attempt of Specific Desensitizing Treatment with Gliadin in Celiac Disease Int J Immunopathol Pharmacol. 2005 Oct-Dec;18(4):709-14. Gluten-free diet is the current treatment of celiac disease. We decided to verify the occurrence of histological and serological modification and/or clinical manifestations during a gradual and progressive introduction of gliadin in the diet and if it may induce a tolerance to food, as it occurs in allergic patients. We studied the case of a celiac woman with complete clinical and histological remittance after 10 years of gluten free diet. She took increasing daily doses of gliadin, reaching the final dose of 9 g of gliadin (15 g of gluten) in 6 months. Then she started a free dietary regimen. During the 15-month follow-up period esophago-gastro-duodenoscopy showed normal Kerckring folds and villi. Anti-gliadin, anti-endomysium and anti-tissue-transglutaminase antibodies, as well as the haematological and biochemical parameters remained normal. Our results represent a new approach in research concerning celiac disease, and could provide a future line of study for its management.