Tuesday, April 3, 2012

"Celiac Disease: New Approaches to Therapy"

In sum, there really aren't any:
"Currently, adherence to a gluten-free diet is considered as the first line and indeed only therapy for coeliac disease, which has been proven to relieve the symptoms in most cases and effectively prevent potential complications. The availability of a readily applicable and safe therapy in the gluten-free diet has reduced the impetus for alternative therapies. However, the costly and restrictive aspect of complying with a life-long gluten-free regimen may have a significant adverse impact upon the quality of life of the patients. Human nature in dealing with temptation, motivation to resume regular diet especially with milder disease, and the hidden gluten in the diet are the main issues. In many cases, what should be naturally considered as gluten-free foods are widely contaminated with wheat. Moreover, even with achieving and maintaining a truly gluten-free diet, especially in adults, there might be a lack of complete recovery in the intestine which may impact survival.
Thus emphasizing the importance of avoiding wheat if you think you might be genetically susceptible. If you have immediate relatives who have it, you're susceptible. And going wheat-free isn't really that big a deal once you get used to it, although avoiding wheat requires vigilance.

But it's better than the alternative.

And all this holds if you're only "gluten sensitive", as well...

1 comment:

  1. I hear you on this. I have been trying semi-successfully to get my parents to avoid wheat since there might be a celiac's gene floating around in our pool. I have many family members that are inflamed, swollen, have mounting health problems, but refuse any dietary change when a pill can 'kinda' or at least make you things are better.

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