The G Free Diet

Whether you are conservative, liberal or the man on the moon you should stop by your local book store and pick up The G Free Diet by Elisabeth Hasselbeck. I am only on chapter 3 but it is so informing and interesting to read you will not want to put it down. Why am I reading this? Well, we are trying to find out why Doug is having so much trouble with food, he is having so much pain in his stomach after eating certain things. After so much research and trying to find answers with numerous doctors, we have self diagnosed him with Celiac disease. What is celiac disease? It is a digestive disorder where your body has a toxic reaction to gluten. It is also an autoimmune disorder where your body attacks itself and is hereditary but not everyone experiences the symptoms, which there is a long list of. Untreated celiac disease can cause you to have problems with your health such as intestinal cancers, infertility, Type 1 diabetes, miscarriage and osteoporosis. What is interesting so far is that some doctors believe and evidence shows that celiac and gluten sensitivity can possibly influence mood and behavior disorders like ADHD, depression and bipolar disorder. Right know doctors are studying the link between gluten and autism spectrum disorders because they believe that if you remove gluten from the diet this can improve the condition.

For Doug to get his diagnosis he will need to have a celiac panel done, which is the first step. This test for the presence of antibodies associated with celiac, these include antiendomysial antibody, antigliadin antibody, tissue transglutaminase and total serum IgA. The next step in diagnosis is a endoscopy and small tissue biopsy, you only need to go through this if your celiac panel shows your risk level as high. Step three is genetic testing and this only needs to be done if step one and two prove inconclusive. So once we get his doctor to set it up we will be one our way to hopefully prove our self diagnosis and then change his diet. And hopefully getting him to feel better and eating healthy options so that he isn't hurting after he eats anymore.

I hope this helps anyone who may be experiencing problems after eating to go out and ask there doctor for a celiac panel to go and starting living a happier, healthier life.