Celiacs Disease

[brockenspectre]

Hi hm671 I haven't posted before as I was waiting for others with more expert knowledge to respond. However, I will now chip in my 2 cents worth. I was diagnosed a celiac nearly 25 years ago when I was in the RAF and having suffered an injury was in hospital and began to lose weight dramatically. It took a while for anyone to realise what the problem was, merely because I had always been so slim and fit up to that point! Had I not been diagnosed a celiac I would still (probably) be in the RAF as the injury to my back and hip was not sufficiently severe to curtail my career.

As far as civilian medicals are concerned I would consult an AeroMed specialist and find out. The reality has to be that a gluten free diet, unless like me you are a total foodie and will always find a good solution, can be seen to be extremely curtailing.

A celiac is born that way, we are missing that part of DNA that processes gluten (found in wheat, rye, barley and probably oats). Anything containing these or their by-products (the "modified starch" in many products) is a no-no. Gluten is the stuff that makes flour sticky when you add water to it. A celiac, because they cannot digest the gluten, instead have it sticking to the "system", essentially poisoning it and rendering it less capable or incapable of processing the minerals and vitamins in food. You can become extremely unwell. Milder forms, because not everyone reacts the same, may just mean you are tired, bloated, get upset tummies very easily, can be snappy and unpleasantly/unreasonably irritable (and feel bad for being that way) to those nearest and dearest.

If the diagnosis is confirmed it is vital that you maintain a gluten free diet, the web and the YahooGroup for coeliacs will if you research it properly tell you the downside if you fail to maintain the diet and will give plenty of tips and hints on how to manage the regime without appearing a total hypochondriac!!

On the one hand we celiacs are lucky because our genetic disease is not an allergy, in other words we don't have an instant and potentially life-threatening reaction such as folks with nut or seafood allergies.; on the other hand, if someone persists in eating gluten-full products then it is possible for the unwellness to develop into a form of bowel/intestinal cancer.

Celiac disease is most common among those of Irish ancestry (who knows why!) and is believed to be present in one form or another in 1:350 of the UK population.

A lot of diagnoses are first made when babies are weaned on to real food and these "cases" seem to grow out of the problem when they reach puberty. Because of the vagueness of symptoms, for the most part, adult diagnosis is quite difficult unless a family member is already a celiac - GPs are, however, a lot wiser than they used to be about the disease!

Tesco, Sainsbury, Waitrose, M&S these days produce bread and products (bread, pasta, sausages) that are gluten-free these days and the crossed-out-grain symbol is also commonly used to denote products that are gluten-free.

I love cooking and eating and welcome the introduction of GF products in stores - unfortunately as I used to make my own bread I can sadly confirm that nothing thus far produced in the GF ranges of breads/rolls is a patch on the "real stuff".

Some celiacs can tolerate a degree of "glutening" ie the inadvertent or deliberate digesting of gluten, but it is silly to do this unless it is absolutely vital! In my case I feel as if I am about to pass out and I get an appalling tummy upset!

Sorry to go on so long but .. hopefully you have found something helpful in what I have said.

Apart from being a celiac (which is just something that affects my food choices) I am as fit, healthy etc as the next person!



PS celiac is the American spelling, in UK "coeliac" is more usual!