It seems that right and left I am hearing of people being diagnosed with fibromyalgia and irritable bowel syndrome. Doctors have become familiar with these conditions. What I am wondering is, how many of these people actually have celiac? Celiac was once thought to be extremely rare and doctors where taught that. Thus most doctors do not think to check for the possibility of celiac. When patients arrive that have complaints of tiredness and irritable digestion celiac is not the first, second, or even 50th thing they consider. However, recent studies have confirmed that 1 in 100 to 1 in 133 Americans have this condition. Not rare at all! In fact it is extremely common. That means that there may be as many as 30 moms here on Homeschoolblogger that have it personally and many more will have members in their immediate family with it. That is significant enough that I want to create a category on my blog for it.

John (my husband) and Melody (my daughter) have Celiac Disease. This is an autoimmune disease triggered by the ingestion of a grain protein called gluten. Gluten is in wheat and barley grains. The ingestion of gluten causes the body to mount an immune response that damages the brush villi in the small intestine. Brush villi are responsible for absorbtion of nutrients as well as providing digestive enzymes that break down dairy products. Thus the digestive complaints. When the body cannot absorb nutrients a chain reaction of problems and symptoms results: initially tiredness, later an itchy skin condition specific to celiacs, if diagnosis continues to be delayed there may be bone and joint pain, long-term serious complications such as type 1 diabetes and intestinal cancer can result.

Fortunately, once diagnosed, it is very treatable. No expensive medicines or invasive treatments needed. All that is needed is a lifelong elimination of gluten containing products. This can seem intimidating at first. John has been on a gluten free diet since 1997 and my daughter has been on a gluten free diet since about 2000. It is second nature now to shop, prepare, and serve gluten free meals.

I want to help others who are undiagnosed to consider the possibility that their condition might be celiac and provide a glimpse into what life is like in a family that has two of six members who are celiac. I will post recipees, kitchen helps, shopping tips, what to look for, tests for the condition, and more. To make it easy to track the entries that are specific to celiac, I will add a link in the categories list in the side bar (see the right side of this page). Click on it as you visit my blog in the furure and you will be able to sort out only the celiac posts.

If you or someone you know has been diagnosed or you suspect celiac, please post a comment and tell me about it.