That is a “Pandora’s Box” question, it seems. 
There is much we don’t know about Celiac Disease & folks who don’t fit the current “normal” can present a diagnostic problem. Personally, the rise in gluten intolerance in our society is extremely alarming to me. I mention the Mayo Clinic study frequently to gluten free folks & very few have heard of it. Hopefully, if you spend anytime on the internet, esp. reading about gluten intolerance and Celiac Disease, you’re already familiar with the study. I blogged about it last year.
A quote from Dr. Murray, who led the study.
“Celiac disease is unusual, but it’s no longer rare.” “Something has changed in our environment to make it much more common. Until recently, the standard approach to finding celiac disease has been to wait for people to complain of symptoms and to come to the doctor for investigation. This study suggests that we may need to consider looking for celiac disease in the general population, more like we do in testing for cholesterol or blood pressure.”
We should be looking just as hard for the cause as we do at diagnosing the disease.
I don’t know why more people, both professionals & those who suffer from gluten intolerance, are not just “up in arms” wanting to know the truth about this epidemic. I think many are like frogs in the boiled pot…the heat has been slowly rising & we’re just living a “new” normal.
“Oh, you have celiac? Me, too!”
“You can’t eat gluten either? At least someone understands.”
Those are very valid thoughts. I’ve said things along those same lines many, many times. The internet has made all the difference in being able to become gluten free savvy. I love how it connects us with other gluten free folks, don’t you? I’m more likely to bake a new gluten free concoction when I’ve seen how someone else has done it, aren’t you? Like Gluten Free Mommy’s awesome Lighter Than Air Chocolate Cake or Angel Food Cake. Yum! We humans have this funny thing about us – we like to be around & learn from people like us. It’s just a psychological fact. It’s encouraging to see how others handle the gluten free life with such grace & at the same time learning from their blunders (that they so graciously share) too! While living gluten free has to be our new “normal”, we, as a society, should never accept it as just another disease or condition we should learn to live with or even worse, medicate. Should society be educated & offer GF alternatives? ABSOLUTELY! But, we should not be complacent & accept gluten intolerance as just another “thing” or disease society has to contend with. Some thing or things have changed drastically since 1950 & we need to investigate it further. We should strive to find the cause of the epidemic rate of increase in the prevalence of Celiac Disease!!
OK, I’m stepping down from the soapbox… *sigh* I know I took a huge rabbit trail…so, before you go…
Here’s another article where Dr. Sheila Crowe, a professor in the division of gastroenterology and hepatology in the department of medicine at the University of Virginia, where she responds to readers who asked whether you can be intolerant to gluten, the way some people might be intolerant to milk, without having full-blown celiac disease.
Have an awesome gluten free day!!
