Celiac Sprue Disease

Years ago, when I was dieting the Over-Eaters Anonymous way, I learned that I was gluten intolerant. Not allergic....too much doesn't agree with me. So, I read all I could about gluten intolerance's, and found a lot of interesting recipes on line. I learned to live without too much gluten in my diet, understanding that it's almost impossible to cut it out totally. I also learned about Celiac Disease. I've read various books like Eat Right for your Blood type...also a lot of high protein, low carb diets. We speculated back then maybe my husband had a problem in this area as well. A close family member told me that just because I might have a problem, doesn't mean he did. It's very common among people who don't wish to cater to special diets to deny these things. So, we let it go.

When Desirae was born, Dave came down with a bad case of colitis, that lasted a very long time. Stress can bring out the best in diseases. He had some tests, determining that he had colitis, and nothing more was done. He got better, with occasional bouts, nothing that we found too alarming. After losing both his parents, and being let go from a new job he started right after his Dad died, his colitis went into a full flare-up. Nothing could control it. After tests, the Dr put him on medicine. An anti-inflammatory for his insides, and a med to lower his white blood cell count, which was high. Basically, his body was attacking itself. On top of that he took Prilosec daily. And the $600 a month meds were not working.

The doctor mentioned surgery to remove the most severe part of his gut. That scared me. After that....then what? More surgery? So, I went on line and researched. And what I found was Celiac Sprue---again. It's an auto-immune disorder from eating gluten. The body attacks itself, and it doesn't absorb nutrition. People with this problem can develop a rash (Dave had various rashes), along with severe colitis and diarrhea. I also found that colitis is ALWAYS caused by a food allergy to gluten, dairy or fructose (fruit sugars). Very eye opening for us. This explained why his white blood count was high.

Obviously, the medical profession knows very little about nutrition and food allergies. Dave saw a specialist and liked the doctor very much. The Dr never once stressed that diet could play a role. How sad for others who suffer from this condition.

In October, Dave lost his job, and his insurance that covered his $600 per month medicines. I did more research and found a special elimination diet, and he paid attention to what he ate and how his body responded. He cut out gluten and dairy. He stopped taking all his meds, not even finishing the samples the doctor gave him. And he got better. I later found out that medicines can be bound together with modified food starch, which contains gluten. He's had little slips because we have to read every food label, very carefully now. We have to recognize those strange ingredients that are made from wheat, rye and barley. And from these little slips, we have determined that he has Celiac Sprue disease.

There is a test that is 50% accurate to determine if he has the disease or not. At this point, why bother. He would have to go on a gluten fest to trigger those antibodies. It's not worth the grief. And, now I have to pay attention to Desirae because she has parents who can't tolerate gluten. She sure loves her raman noodles.

Dave has also dieted recently and lost 50 Lbs....the right way, by eating very healthy and much less. Our house borders on vegatarian now. We have one small serving of meat at supper. Desirae gets to enjoy dairy products, Dave doesn't and I severely limit mine. I've lost 11 lbs, and I refuse to "diet". I want to change my eating habits for life, so that whatever weight comes off, will stay off forever. It feels really good to be taking care of ourselves this way, eating healthy, getting more excersize, feeling more energy. I hope to lose the blood pressure med and some cholesterol as well. Someday.

So....anyone have good gluten and diary free recipes to share?