How many times, after a meal, have we said to ourselves, “Well that did not agree with me!”  Wouldn’t it be better and more exact to say, “Well I ate poison again.”  I realize that I am talking about semantics here, but at least this way we as a society would stop fooling ourselves.  Every time we react unfavorably to a meal, we have given ourselves a form of poison.  So why do we try and hid the fact?  Perhaps it is because food companies and fast food restaurants have glamorized the foods that are bad for us.  We have been told that the wealthy and those that live the good live eat these foods.  They tell us that these foods are cool.  The pretty and glamorous eat them.  Therefore, shouldn’t we eat these food so we can be glamorous too.  Or are these individuals suffering from the same affects rest of us are?  That would be: vomiting, stomach aches, diarrhea, gastric reflux, anemia and all the digestive diseases that follow these symptoms.  As a society and a species we are trying to change our eating habits too fast with poor and very dangerous results.

Celiac Disease is on the rise.  More and more individuals are affected by this autoimmune disease.  How aware are physicians of this disease which more than not appears as digestive distress?  A study done a few years ago asked this same question.  The study taken in the Southern California, found that physicians were not that aware.  Specifically, the study found that primary care physicians and internists diagnosed Adult Onset Celiac Disease only 11% of the time compared to 65% by gastroenterologists.  Most of the physicians knew about wheat intolerance in children, by only 32% knew about Adult Onset.  Of the physicians studied (90%) knew that diarrhea was a symptom.  However, less knew that symptoms of irritable bowel symptoms (71%), chronic abdominal pain (67%), fatigue (54%), depression and irritability (24%), or the association with diabetes (13%), anemia (45%), or osteoporosis (45%), were, in any way connected with Celiac Disease.  Many physicians (44%) were unaware that the diagnosis of Celiac Disease was made by an endomysial antibodies test (ELISA).  The study concluded that lack of awareness on the part of physicians may lead to under-diagnosis of Celiac Disease.  The study further suggested a need for further education of United States physicians.

So to eliminate the average 11 to 17 year wait for a correct diagnosis, what is a person to do?  If you have money you might fly to Ireland.  At a symposium in Ireland last year, the Irish physicians and gastroenterologists showed innovation and progressive thinking in the study of Digestive diseases.  The country showcased its immunology research and innovations that reached far beyond Celiac Disease into IBD, IBS, and other conditions.