Celiac Disease & The Beginning of Food Therapy

June 2006, San Diego -

I had been ill for about a year. Multiple courses of drugs had been unhelpful. A long-shot potential diagnosis - Celiac Disease. No insurance. No blood test. No problem.

Celiac Disease is an autoimmune disease. The way it works - man ingests gluten(a protein found in wheat, barley, rye and oats), immune system attacks gluten, intestine is damaged in the ensuing battle, damaged intestine can't absorb nutrients, nutrient deficiencies produce illness.

The treatment for Celiac Disease - diet. I was desperate. I stopped eating all things gluten. Two weeks passed. I did not feel well, but I did feel better. My teeth stopped aching. My muscles stopped aching. The night sweats were less. It was the first relief I experienced. It was the beginning of my experimentation with food therapy, the only therapy to have any effect on my health in the five years of illness.