Posted on: May 11, 2015 Posted by: Michele Lee Comments: 0

Mystery food

You could be slowly losing your good health without knowing it … and unless you get tested, it could get worse.

Celiac disease, the autoimmune reaction to gluten – a group of proteins originating in wheat, rye and barley – afflicts about 1 percent of the population. Experts estimate that about 1.4 million Americans are walking around with this disease and don’t know about because the symptoms can be subtle and widely varied.

If you have celiac, your immune system, in response to consuming gluten, attacks the body – potentially destroying the intestinal lining, the brain, nerves and other organs.

A new report from the United European Gastroenterology Journal urges widespread testing for celiac.

The report emphasizes the need to test anyone closely related to someone who has celiac. You should also be tested if you have type 1 diabetes or iron-deficiency anemia: both of those conditions can be linked to celiac.

“This important research highlights the value of serological testing (blood tests) for CD (celiac disease) in anyone with symptoms that might be due to the condition and in all asymptomatic individuals from high-risk groups,” says Antonio Gasbarrini from the Gemelli University Hospital in Rome, Italy. “It is vital… to tackle this prevalent condition and reduce its serious health consequences.”

If you have celiac disease and don’t go on a gluten-free diet, your life expectancy is significantly shortened. A 45-year study in Minnesota found that having undiagnosed celiac quadrupled your risk of dying during the study.

“Celiac disease is readily treated with a gluten-free diet, so it is unacceptable that people suffer its symptoms for many years before they are properly diagnosed” says Gasbarrini. “We now have blood screening tests that are simple, safe and accurate, and it is time we started using them effectively to limit the damage caused by this common condition.”

In my own case, I wasn’t diagnosed with celiac until I was in my fifties. Until then, I was plagued with high blood pressure, heart problems, persistent skin rashes, irritable bowel syndrome and memory difficulties.

For decades, I was treated by doctors for each of my individual problems, not realizing (and the doctors didn’t realize it either) that these difficulties were all linked to the inflammation in my body promoted by gluten.

Since going on a gluten-free, paleo diet, most of my ailments have just about vanished!

I agree with Gasbarrinni – “Unfortunately, because the symptoms of CD are often vague and similar to those of irritable bowel syndrome, many people with CD are undiagnosed and many who are diagnosed will have waited 10 years or more for their diagnosis to be confirmed. At best, only around one-quarter of all CD sufferers are likely to have been diagnosed by a physician, leaving large numbers of people still at risk.”

If you have a persistent physical problem and/or any digestive issues, you should get the blood test for celiac. It’s an inexpensive test and it could save your life.

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