Basically, it means, if you eat gluten, you will poison yourself.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, yeah yeah yeah) the only treatment is to avoid all products containing gluten. If someone with Celiac decides they don't want to avoid gluten, there can be serious consequences, not just immediate, but also further down the road. I should note that I am not an expert on this topic; I am just beginning to learn. After reading about all the bad things that could happen to me if I didn't stop eating gluten, I decided I'd better stop. It seems that the first thing I am asked by a fellow celiac is, "What were your symptoms?" It's a funny thing because this "disease" (yikes! it sounds so awful when called that... I will have to come up with another term) has so many different symptoms and everyone's story is different!
Well here's my story:
I think I've had celiac my whole life, but who knows. My symptoms began about 2 years ago, gradually getting worse and worse. In May of 2011 my symptoms got really bad. I was getting sick at least once a week, and it continually got more and more frequent with each passing month. All of my symptoms were through my GI tract and without any notice I would wake up in the middle of the night with terrible nausea. I was forced to stay home from classes, work, and in my summer travels on vacation I was bed-ridden for several outings... Basically- no fun at all! I tried every possible food allergy from dairy to nuts to soy to egg and any other issues I could find on Web-MD! (Word to the wise, never go on that website, all too often, at least in my case, it ends in a terrible misdiagnosis!) After countless misdiagnoses (typical celiac story) my aunt was searching the web for my symptoms, and came across the idea of a gluten allergy. I had seen this before, but thought there was no way because "gluten is in everything" (those, I believe were my exact words.) Sure enough, I went to the most wonderful Gastro Doc in town and after being gluten free for 2 weeks and not getting sick, he diagnosed me. Now, from what I've learned since my diagnosis, going GF before getting diagnosed is possibly the worst thing you can do. In my case, I had journaled every food I had eaten for almost 2 months and was able to find in my diet what was upsetting me. But, it's different for everyone. If you're reading this, you probably already have a good guess that you are gluten intolerant, so my advice is So that's my story! I stopped eating gluten and my life has begun.
And to quote the song that is playing on my iTunes right now:
"In time it's gonna get better, believe me this is gonna make you stronger!" Artist: Mandisa Title: Stronger
^ I'll explain more about this later ^
Oh, one more thing... I am new to this blogging thing, but we will see how it goes. I am excited to share my stories and hopefully be able to hear some of yours as we share recipes, ideas, and experiences living in a beautiful, enjoyable, gluten-free world!
Much Love,
Emily
