Have you seen the commercial for Menactra, the new vaccine on the market? The Menactra commercial consists of a series of images of young adults and teens doing what comes naturally, ie. living. The voice over explains how dangerous life can be with meningitis lurking just around the corner. Come on!
Here are the facts. Meningococcal Meningitis is not that common.* Firstly, like HPV, it is common microflora in the nose and throat of 5-10% of people. Occassionally, it mutates and becomes an infectious disease. In the US approximately 3000 people come down with Meningitis. Of those infected, about 10% will die. The death rate for Meningitis in the US is therefore 300 per 301,139,94. In the target group, teens and college students, about 15 will die each year. I still haven't found any information on whether those who do die from this disease are immune compromised, lacking insurance, or disinclined to seek medical treatment until it's too late (has a blood infection.) The disease is typically treated with IV antibiotics and hospitalization.
Menactra is a new line of defense against Meningitis. Sadly, this vaccine has not been proven to be generally effective nor does it provide immunity for more than 3 years in those for whom it is effective. Menactra's predecessor Menomune, in addition to sharing the issue of short term effectiveness, also becomes less effective with boosters. Menactra has not been shown to overcome this problem because of its relative newness. Also, if you have a latex allergy (which is quite common) or a diagnosis of Guillian-Barre syndrome, you should avoid this vaccine.
Meningitis is much more common in Africa and during the Hajj (the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.) If you are planning to travel to one of the higher risk areas of the world (see the list on the CDC website) you might consider the vaccine for possible short-term protection from the 4 most common mutations of meningitis. Otherwise, you might head the words of Nancy Reagan and "Just Say NO!"
*This information is not applicable to HIB meningitis for which infants are usually vaccinated.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
The HPV Vaccine and the Vaccine Surge Part II
Cervical cancer is not very common in the US where only 11,000 women are diagnosed with it each year, a 1/3 of whom will die from the disease. Those numbers continue to fall every year. For the most part cervical cancer is a disease of poverty, i.e. resulting from malnutrition and a lack of access to healthcare. American women afflicted are primary the poor or those who refuse pap smears for religious or cultural reasons.
Cervical cancer is the only known sexually transmitted cancer. The virus which causes cervical cancer is called Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). There are well over 100 types of HPV known to medical science. The numerous types of HPV manifest in various ways all involving skin or mucous membranes, eg. Plantar warts, genital warts, and cervical cancer. Some estimates suggest that 95% of sexually active women and men will be infected with a sexually transmitted HPV strain in their lifetime. As with the flu virus the human body is well equipped to fight infection so long as the immune system is not compromised. In normal healthy adults, HPV is brought under control within 6-18 months of infection.
Because HPV lives in the skin and mucous membranes, the use of condoms does not prevent transmission. However, some studies show that the use of condoms limits exposure to the moister areas of the genitalia and thereby decreases the rate of transmission. The only way to insure that you are not infected with HPV is to avoid any contact with another’s genitalia or to be certain that your chosen partner has never been in contact with another’s genitalia.
So why not try to inoculate all women against HPV with the new vaccine Gardasil? (Name is a contraction of guard against squamous intraepithelial lesion.) There are several reasons why I will not have this vaccine administered to my daughters. Firstly, the study was crap. Yes, I said crap! Though it covered over 11,000 participants, those women ranged in age from 9-26 and came from divergent religious and cultural backgrounds in various nations. We should assume that several of the participants were not sexually active nor part of an at risk population because of age or cultural/religious taboos against sexual activity. Also, if any participant was sexually active prior to receiving the vaccine then she cannot be counted as part of a prevention study. Even the manufacturer of Gardasil (Merck) recognizes that there may be no benefit to women who have already been infected with the HPV strains that it targets (6, 11, 16 & 18). The study becomes much smaller when these women are disqualified.
The most glaring error in this study was its duration. The study was completed in less than four years, whereas it takes approximately 10-15 years for cervical cancer to develop from an HPV infection. The study calculated its success based on the precursors of cervical cancer, namely the presence of lesions. The truth is four years may not be long enough for the development of lesions after exposure. So even if the women in the study were not sexually active when they were given Gardasil and became sexually active within the study period, the absence of lesions in study participants would still mean nothing.
The reality is that HPV has the ability to remain latent (basically hidden in small numbers) for many, many years in the body. In times of great stress or immune suppression (such as with the hormonal changes in pregnancy) the virus can resurface and replicate. Still it will take a year or more for cell mutations to be recognizable. Even when a lesion does form, the body can still fight and reverse the cell changes because in truth the human immune system is excellent at managing HPV infection. Very few women go on to develop high-grade lesions. In the meantime there are several excellent treatments that remove lesions and in the process enable the body to develop immunity.
My last complaint concerns the vaccine itself. Gardasil and the placebo it was tested against contain aluminum. Normally when a vaccine or other injectible is tested, it is tested against a saline (salt water) placebo. Gardasil was tested against a placebo containing the aluminum preservative found in the vaccine itself. This created false data regarding the side effects of the vaccine. Since the vaccine showed only a negligible increase in side effects compared to placebo, it reads as relatively safe. But since aluminum itself is toxic to the human body those side effects resulting from the vaccine and the placebo could be substantial but not accounted for in the study. Already serious side effects are being reported from this vaccine.
Everyone should be worried about injecting aluminum into their bodies. Aluminum is implicated in serious conditions of toxicity including encephalopathy, coma, cancer, microcytic anemia and bone brittleness. It is also a leading cause of discomfort at the site of injection when an ingredient in vaccines.
So what we have in Gardasil is a poorly and deceitfully conducted study proving neither effectiveness nor safety. Now our various governmental institutions want to legislate its use! Stand up and say “NO!” Senators and congresspersons on the whole don’t know much about vaccines or medicine or even good research. They only know what a corrupt FDA and CDC tells them about a disease and its treatment options.
After all of the millions of dollars spent on the development of this vaccine, the best treatment of HPV remain a good diet and a healthy, low-stress lifestyle. The best prevention is comprehensive sex education that teaches kids about the risks associated with sexual activity and having multiple partners. And of course, if sexually active, a woman should have a pap smear every year without fail. Do this for yourself and your daughters and you can skip the vaccine.
Cervical cancer is the only known sexually transmitted cancer. The virus which causes cervical cancer is called Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). There are well over 100 types of HPV known to medical science. The numerous types of HPV manifest in various ways all involving skin or mucous membranes, eg. Plantar warts, genital warts, and cervical cancer. Some estimates suggest that 95% of sexually active women and men will be infected with a sexually transmitted HPV strain in their lifetime. As with the flu virus the human body is well equipped to fight infection so long as the immune system is not compromised. In normal healthy adults, HPV is brought under control within 6-18 months of infection.
Because HPV lives in the skin and mucous membranes, the use of condoms does not prevent transmission. However, some studies show that the use of condoms limits exposure to the moister areas of the genitalia and thereby decreases the rate of transmission. The only way to insure that you are not infected with HPV is to avoid any contact with another’s genitalia or to be certain that your chosen partner has never been in contact with another’s genitalia.
So why not try to inoculate all women against HPV with the new vaccine Gardasil? (Name is a contraction of guard against squamous intraepithelial lesion.) There are several reasons why I will not have this vaccine administered to my daughters. Firstly, the study was crap. Yes, I said crap! Though it covered over 11,000 participants, those women ranged in age from 9-26 and came from divergent religious and cultural backgrounds in various nations. We should assume that several of the participants were not sexually active nor part of an at risk population because of age or cultural/religious taboos against sexual activity. Also, if any participant was sexually active prior to receiving the vaccine then she cannot be counted as part of a prevention study. Even the manufacturer of Gardasil (Merck) recognizes that there may be no benefit to women who have already been infected with the HPV strains that it targets (6, 11, 16 & 18). The study becomes much smaller when these women are disqualified.
The most glaring error in this study was its duration. The study was completed in less than four years, whereas it takes approximately 10-15 years for cervical cancer to develop from an HPV infection. The study calculated its success based on the precursors of cervical cancer, namely the presence of lesions. The truth is four years may not be long enough for the development of lesions after exposure. So even if the women in the study were not sexually active when they were given Gardasil and became sexually active within the study period, the absence of lesions in study participants would still mean nothing.
The reality is that HPV has the ability to remain latent (basically hidden in small numbers) for many, many years in the body. In times of great stress or immune suppression (such as with the hormonal changes in pregnancy) the virus can resurface and replicate. Still it will take a year or more for cell mutations to be recognizable. Even when a lesion does form, the body can still fight and reverse the cell changes because in truth the human immune system is excellent at managing HPV infection. Very few women go on to develop high-grade lesions. In the meantime there are several excellent treatments that remove lesions and in the process enable the body to develop immunity.
My last complaint concerns the vaccine itself. Gardasil and the placebo it was tested against contain aluminum. Normally when a vaccine or other injectible is tested, it is tested against a saline (salt water) placebo. Gardasil was tested against a placebo containing the aluminum preservative found in the vaccine itself. This created false data regarding the side effects of the vaccine. Since the vaccine showed only a negligible increase in side effects compared to placebo, it reads as relatively safe. But since aluminum itself is toxic to the human body those side effects resulting from the vaccine and the placebo could be substantial but not accounted for in the study. Already serious side effects are being reported from this vaccine.
Everyone should be worried about injecting aluminum into their bodies. Aluminum is implicated in serious conditions of toxicity including encephalopathy, coma, cancer, microcytic anemia and bone brittleness. It is also a leading cause of discomfort at the site of injection when an ingredient in vaccines.
So what we have in Gardasil is a poorly and deceitfully conducted study proving neither effectiveness nor safety. Now our various governmental institutions want to legislate its use! Stand up and say “NO!” Senators and congresspersons on the whole don’t know much about vaccines or medicine or even good research. They only know what a corrupt FDA and CDC tells them about a disease and its treatment options.
After all of the millions of dollars spent on the development of this vaccine, the best treatment of HPV remain a good diet and a healthy, low-stress lifestyle. The best prevention is comprehensive sex education that teaches kids about the risks associated with sexual activity and having multiple partners. And of course, if sexually active, a woman should have a pap smear every year without fail. Do this for yourself and your daughters and you can skip the vaccine.
Friday, December 12, 2008
The HPV Vaccine and the Vaccine Surge Part I
In my circle, I am often called by parents looking for information about immunization and vaccine safety. I'm the lady who knows stuff, who reads the articles. I'm the lady who has her ear to the ground. And it's true. I am a cautious customer when it comes to pharmaceuticals. Like all the great wonder drugs of western medicine, I believe vaccines have their place. But I think that place has been grossly exaggerated for the profit of companies who make those vaccines. We can all be grateful for the tetnus vaccine, HIB and even measles, mumps and rubella (though not in combination.) But when did we start putting all of those vaccines into one shot? When did we feel the need to find vaccines for illnesses that pose little threat to community or individual. When did we decide it was necessary to legislate their use?
Take polio for instance. Overwhelming evidence exists that the polio vaccine did nothing to irradicate the disease. It just so happened that the vaccine came on the scene as polio was running toward its natural end. Think "the plague." Nobody developed a vaccine that halted its progress. It ran its course and then disappeared. Polio was the same on a much smaller scale. Despite the fact that there have been no cases of polio in the US for three decades, children still receive this vaccine.
Then of course there is the chickenpox vaccine. Most everyone I know had chickenpox as a child and no one I know knows anyone who ever died from it. Yes, it was itchy, but I got to stay home from school and watch cartoons. That's a wash. Nowadays, chickenpox is a "public health risk which threatens our schools." So the government approves mandatory vaccination for chickenpox. What? Firstly, this vaccine is only about 60% effective in creating immunity which means that 40 out of 100 kids exposed to chickenpox or shingles will still have to fight off the infection. Beyond that, the vaccine does not appear to provide lifelong immunity when it works at all.
Why is short term immunity a problem when you can just go get another shot? Well it goes something like this. In the "normal world" a kid gets the chickenpox, may or may not have symptoms, and passes it on to the next kid. In the process the child becomes immune to the chickenpox because the virus (varicella zoster) does not leave the body. The immune system continues to respond by producing antibodies. A quality side effect of the child's infection is the exposure of the caregivers to the virus. The caregivers, who presumably had the chickenpox in childhood, get an immune system wake up call, which results in a sort of self-reimmunization. When an adult has not been exposed to chickenpox in childhood or when they have not been re-exposed for several decades (as the case often is with the elderly) they can contract the varicella virus which manifests as adult chickenpox or shingles, a very painful, localized skin eruption that usually travels along a single branch of nerves along the trunk of the body.
Because the vaccine reduces the number of children getting chickenpox, it is increasing the number of adults who are not being self-reimmunized by exposure. Since the introduction of the chickenpox vaccine the incidence of shingles has sky-rocketed(in the last three years I know of 2 in my general acquaintance.) And because the vaccine is not highly effective, there is no guarantee of irradication or that when you get the vaccine (especially as an adult booster) it will protect you from shingles which is infinitely more disagreeable than chickenpox. The best advice I was given about this vaccine is this: Don't give it to your kid. When you know someone with chickenpox, let your kid go play at their house. When your child reaches the age of 10 have them tested for the antibody even if you never saw a single chickenpock. If they are immune, no worries; if not, get them vaccinated. Of course they will have to remember to do it again and again, roughly every 10 years with still no guarantee of immunity.
If the chickenpox vaccine doesn't make sense, then the Hepatitis B vaccine mandate is a cruel joke. This vaccine is given to infants, often before they leave the hospital (another reason for home birth!) Hepatitis B is a sexually transmitted disease that can also be acquired by sharing needles or an exchange of blood with an infected person. Is your infant shooting up? Is your infant engaging in risky sexual behaviors? No? Then your child is NOT AT RISK! The only infants that should be vaccinated for HB are babies whose mothers are infected with HB. This information can be obtained from routine prenatal blood tests prior to giving birth. We do not require a mass vaccination effort.
In the United States, fewer than 11,000 new cases of Hepatitis B were reported in 1996 (less than 300 of those were children.) That number has been falling because the number of people using injectible drugs is on the decline. Of those who are infected only 0.1% ever die, ie. 259 people a year!) 95% of those infected completely recover and develop lifetime immunity. Additionally, HB is not easy to transmit. Even direct exposure may not result in disease acquisition.
To add insult to injury, the new version of the HB vaccine, RECOMBIVAX HB, is genetically engineered and was never adequately tested for saftey or for long term efficacy. Sadly, the number of people suffering from adverse reactions to HB vaccine is growing rapidly. Thousands of HB vaccinees have reactions that result in permanent disabilities including blindness, brain damage, mulitiple sclerosis, Guillian-Barre syndrome, and death primary in the form of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). (see Institue of Medicine Report 1994)
So why is the government pushing these new and out-dated vaccines like a street-side dealer? Moolah! Cashola! Money in the form of research funding from pharmaceutical companies puts the power to dictate Food and Drug Safety protocols into the hands of the drug makers themselves. An enormous percentage of the funding received by the CDC and the FDA comes from drug companies that manufacture vaccines. It is sick and incestuous. The CDC and FDA give recommendations to congress about what vaccines should be mandatory, then the federal government provides incentives to states based on the number of children in the state that are fully vaccinated. This promotes statewide efforts to vaccinate children, usually by legislating that children have to be fully vaccinated to attend public schools or daycare programs. Also, pressure is put on low-income families to vaccinate through government paid programs. For instance, a woman on WIC can choose to have her children fully vaccinated for free (i.e. using tax-payer dollars) or she can accept $25 less per month in WIC benefits. Hmmm.
Sounds like conspiracy theory, I know. But the reality is that the paper trail is there for all to see. You just have to look and ask questions. "Who funded this study? Where did this information come from?" I got curious, and being a researcher at heart, found more than I ever wanted to know. Do I believe that some vaccines are useful? Yes, of course I do, but not all of them. Even HB vaccine might be a good choice if you work in a criminal facility or spend a lot of time in Africa or the Far East where HB infection rates are high. (compare 5-20% of the population vs. 0.1% of the population in the US) But I do not trust the FDA which brought us such delights as Olean which depletes the body of fat-soluble vitamins and causes anal leakage, or Aspartame which was proven to cause brain tumors in clinical trials and was still "pushed through." Or for that matter an FDA that has banned Estriol, a natural estrogen replacement treatment for menopause that has been used safely in Europe for over 3 decades. The FDA banned it because the makers of Premarin, the leading HRT drug, filed a citizen's complaint that it was being marketed as a menopause treatment by compounding pharmacies. Of course no one had the money to stand in the way of that decision since natural substances like estriol are unpatentable. (By the way the name Premarin is a contraction of Pregnant Mare's Urine, the source of the drug. This drug has been proven to cause blood clots and stroke, among other deadly conditions, in the women who use it because horse estrogens are 100 times stronger than human estrogens. No thank you.)
So the more I know, the more careful I am about what I put into my body and the bodies of my children. The newest vaccine craze is the HPV vaccine Gardasil. They even ADVERTISE it on television. "I'm One Less." One less what? One less informed consumer. I have read a library's worth of books and articles about HPV and cervical cancer, so I was ready when this one came around. The phone has already started ringing. More on that one in Part II.
Take polio for instance. Overwhelming evidence exists that the polio vaccine did nothing to irradicate the disease. It just so happened that the vaccine came on the scene as polio was running toward its natural end. Think "the plague." Nobody developed a vaccine that halted its progress. It ran its course and then disappeared. Polio was the same on a much smaller scale. Despite the fact that there have been no cases of polio in the US for three decades, children still receive this vaccine.
Then of course there is the chickenpox vaccine. Most everyone I know had chickenpox as a child and no one I know knows anyone who ever died from it. Yes, it was itchy, but I got to stay home from school and watch cartoons. That's a wash. Nowadays, chickenpox is a "public health risk which threatens our schools." So the government approves mandatory vaccination for chickenpox. What? Firstly, this vaccine is only about 60% effective in creating immunity which means that 40 out of 100 kids exposed to chickenpox or shingles will still have to fight off the infection. Beyond that, the vaccine does not appear to provide lifelong immunity when it works at all.
Why is short term immunity a problem when you can just go get another shot? Well it goes something like this. In the "normal world" a kid gets the chickenpox, may or may not have symptoms, and passes it on to the next kid. In the process the child becomes immune to the chickenpox because the virus (varicella zoster) does not leave the body. The immune system continues to respond by producing antibodies. A quality side effect of the child's infection is the exposure of the caregivers to the virus. The caregivers, who presumably had the chickenpox in childhood, get an immune system wake up call, which results in a sort of self-reimmunization. When an adult has not been exposed to chickenpox in childhood or when they have not been re-exposed for several decades (as the case often is with the elderly) they can contract the varicella virus which manifests as adult chickenpox or shingles, a very painful, localized skin eruption that usually travels along a single branch of nerves along the trunk of the body.
Because the vaccine reduces the number of children getting chickenpox, it is increasing the number of adults who are not being self-reimmunized by exposure. Since the introduction of the chickenpox vaccine the incidence of shingles has sky-rocketed(in the last three years I know of 2 in my general acquaintance.) And because the vaccine is not highly effective, there is no guarantee of irradication or that when you get the vaccine (especially as an adult booster) it will protect you from shingles which is infinitely more disagreeable than chickenpox. The best advice I was given about this vaccine is this: Don't give it to your kid. When you know someone with chickenpox, let your kid go play at their house. When your child reaches the age of 10 have them tested for the antibody even if you never saw a single chickenpock. If they are immune, no worries; if not, get them vaccinated. Of course they will have to remember to do it again and again, roughly every 10 years with still no guarantee of immunity.
If the chickenpox vaccine doesn't make sense, then the Hepatitis B vaccine mandate is a cruel joke. This vaccine is given to infants, often before they leave the hospital (another reason for home birth!) Hepatitis B is a sexually transmitted disease that can also be acquired by sharing needles or an exchange of blood with an infected person. Is your infant shooting up? Is your infant engaging in risky sexual behaviors? No? Then your child is NOT AT RISK! The only infants that should be vaccinated for HB are babies whose mothers are infected with HB. This information can be obtained from routine prenatal blood tests prior to giving birth. We do not require a mass vaccination effort.
In the United States, fewer than 11,000 new cases of Hepatitis B were reported in 1996 (less than 300 of those were children.) That number has been falling because the number of people using injectible drugs is on the decline. Of those who are infected only 0.1% ever die, ie. 259 people a year!) 95% of those infected completely recover and develop lifetime immunity. Additionally, HB is not easy to transmit. Even direct exposure may not result in disease acquisition.
To add insult to injury, the new version of the HB vaccine, RECOMBIVAX HB, is genetically engineered and was never adequately tested for saftey or for long term efficacy. Sadly, the number of people suffering from adverse reactions to HB vaccine is growing rapidly. Thousands of HB vaccinees have reactions that result in permanent disabilities including blindness, brain damage, mulitiple sclerosis, Guillian-Barre syndrome, and death primary in the form of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). (see Institue of Medicine Report 1994)
So why is the government pushing these new and out-dated vaccines like a street-side dealer? Moolah! Cashola! Money in the form of research funding from pharmaceutical companies puts the power to dictate Food and Drug Safety protocols into the hands of the drug makers themselves. An enormous percentage of the funding received by the CDC and the FDA comes from drug companies that manufacture vaccines. It is sick and incestuous. The CDC and FDA give recommendations to congress about what vaccines should be mandatory, then the federal government provides incentives to states based on the number of children in the state that are fully vaccinated. This promotes statewide efforts to vaccinate children, usually by legislating that children have to be fully vaccinated to attend public schools or daycare programs. Also, pressure is put on low-income families to vaccinate through government paid programs. For instance, a woman on WIC can choose to have her children fully vaccinated for free (i.e. using tax-payer dollars) or she can accept $25 less per month in WIC benefits. Hmmm.
Sounds like conspiracy theory, I know. But the reality is that the paper trail is there for all to see. You just have to look and ask questions. "Who funded this study? Where did this information come from?" I got curious, and being a researcher at heart, found more than I ever wanted to know. Do I believe that some vaccines are useful? Yes, of course I do, but not all of them. Even HB vaccine might be a good choice if you work in a criminal facility or spend a lot of time in Africa or the Far East where HB infection rates are high. (compare 5-20% of the population vs. 0.1% of the population in the US) But I do not trust the FDA which brought us such delights as Olean which depletes the body of fat-soluble vitamins and causes anal leakage, or Aspartame which was proven to cause brain tumors in clinical trials and was still "pushed through." Or for that matter an FDA that has banned Estriol, a natural estrogen replacement treatment for menopause that has been used safely in Europe for over 3 decades. The FDA banned it because the makers of Premarin, the leading HRT drug, filed a citizen's complaint that it was being marketed as a menopause treatment by compounding pharmacies. Of course no one had the money to stand in the way of that decision since natural substances like estriol are unpatentable. (By the way the name Premarin is a contraction of Pregnant Mare's Urine, the source of the drug. This drug has been proven to cause blood clots and stroke, among other deadly conditions, in the women who use it because horse estrogens are 100 times stronger than human estrogens. No thank you.)
So the more I know, the more careful I am about what I put into my body and the bodies of my children. The newest vaccine craze is the HPV vaccine Gardasil. They even ADVERTISE it on television. "I'm One Less." One less what? One less informed consumer. I have read a library's worth of books and articles about HPV and cervical cancer, so I was ready when this one came around. The phone has already started ringing. More on that one in Part II.
Man Cannot Live By Bread Alone; And Sometimes It's the Bread That Kills Him
I have celiac disease. I don't know why I haven't blogged about it before now, but I think it is about time. This is a general overview of celiac disease and gluten intolerance.
What is celiac disease? Celiac disease almost always begins with a genetic predisposition. At any point in the life of a predisposed person a celiac gene can get turned on. This can happen in the womb, after a serious illness or viral infection, or with significant hormonal changes like puberty, pregnancy or menopause. When one or more of these genes gets "turned on" the person becomes gluten intolerant. That is when all hell breaks loose.
In simple terms: The gluten intolerant person eats gluten (the protein found in WHEAT, RYE, BARLEY, KAMUT, SPELT, MALT, and most commercial OATS.) When the gluten protein enters the small intestine, the body views the gluten like it would a virus protein. So the immune system send out antibodies and also attacks the small protrusions that cover the lining of the intestine where the gluten is absorbed (villi.) Eventually the villi flatten completely and you have celiac disease. Because the body is attacking itself, celiac disease is an autoimmune disease.
Current estimates are that 1 in 100 Americans have celiac disease, but only 1% of those people know it. Until very recently, most gastroenterologists (gut doctors) thought that CD was very rare and only appeared in children. Likewise they were taught that unless all your villi were flattened you did not have celiac disease and therefore did not need to avoid gluten. I'm no doctor, but this sounds like one of the dumbest things I have ever heard! Recent studies show that as many as 29% of Americans are gluten intolerant, i.e. that they have this autoimmune reaction happening in their guts every day. Still physicians do not advise these folks to stop eating gluten because the patient will reverse the condition and the doctor won't know when the person ACTUALLY HAS full blown celiac disease!!! Insanity! "We need you to be 100% sick before we can recommend the tried and true treatment that can cure your condition right now."
The significance of gluten intolerance to the individual is three fold: symptoms, system-wide effects, and co-diseases, all of which can seriously affect your quality of life long before you technically have celiac disease.
The traditional symptoms of gluten intolerance are varied and include diarrhea, constipation, bloating, stomach aches, abdominal discomfort, stabbing sensation in abdomen, nausea, and unexplained weight gain or loss. We all have one or more of these symptoms at some point. The concern comes when the problem is repeated and significant. Symptoms tend to be worse in early childhood, decrease or disappear during puberty, then reappear and worsen as time goes on. However, some men and women do not develop traditional symptoms until later in life, and occasionally will have no obvious symptoms at all.
Still there are serious system-wide issues resulting from gluten intolerance that can occur with or without tradtional symptoms. Because the villi in the small intestine are constantly under attack a) the immune system is always "on" using up the body's resources and resulting in fatigue, and b) the nutrients that are normally absorbed in the same section of the intestine as gluten can not be absorbed in part or at all into the body. Illnesses related to these two factors are chronic fatigue symdrome, chronic migraine syndrome, anemias (both iron-deficiency and macrocytic), anxiety and depression, chronic muscle and joint pain, hormone imbalances, infertility, schizophrenia (approx. 10%), various cancers, osteopenia/osteoporosis, growth failure in children, ADD/ADHD, and skin conditions especially dermatitis herpetiformis.
Celiac Disease also tends to present with other diseases, especially other autoimmune diseases such as: diabetes, lupus, fibromyalgia, Hepatitis C, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, Crohn's disease (nearly 60% are gluten intolerant according to an Italian study,) asthma, scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, microscopic colitis, gastroesophageal reflux disease, peripheral neuropathy, ataxia, seizure disorders such as epilepsy, thyroid disorders, downs syndrome, addisons disease, dental enamal hypoplasia, multiple sclerosis, pancreatic disorders, gallbladder disease, impotency, autism.
If you have or you have a family history of any of the above symptoms, conditions or diseases, you could be gluten intolerant. For testing info, check out the cool links section. The good news is that if your problems result from your being gluten intolerant, they will improve or be eliminated by switching to a gluten free diet.
Interesting facts:
3 times as many women as men are diagnosed with celiac disease. Is it because women have more natural events that could turn the gene on or because women are more likely to seek medical help?
A sufferer of celiac disease gets a diagnosis on average 11 years after first seeking medical help.
Autism affects 3 times as many boys as it does girls. Many researchers believe that gluten, along with cow's milk protein (casein), plays a role in autism spectrum disorders which include ADD and ADHD. In a 2001 study more than twice as many kids with celiac disease had these disorders than the control group.
What is celiac disease? Celiac disease almost always begins with a genetic predisposition. At any point in the life of a predisposed person a celiac gene can get turned on. This can happen in the womb, after a serious illness or viral infection, or with significant hormonal changes like puberty, pregnancy or menopause. When one or more of these genes gets "turned on" the person becomes gluten intolerant. That is when all hell breaks loose.
In simple terms: The gluten intolerant person eats gluten (the protein found in WHEAT, RYE, BARLEY, KAMUT, SPELT, MALT, and most commercial OATS.) When the gluten protein enters the small intestine, the body views the gluten like it would a virus protein. So the immune system send out antibodies and also attacks the small protrusions that cover the lining of the intestine where the gluten is absorbed (villi.) Eventually the villi flatten completely and you have celiac disease. Because the body is attacking itself, celiac disease is an autoimmune disease.
Current estimates are that 1 in 100 Americans have celiac disease, but only 1% of those people know it. Until very recently, most gastroenterologists (gut doctors) thought that CD was very rare and only appeared in children. Likewise they were taught that unless all your villi were flattened you did not have celiac disease and therefore did not need to avoid gluten. I'm no doctor, but this sounds like one of the dumbest things I have ever heard! Recent studies show that as many as 29% of Americans are gluten intolerant, i.e. that they have this autoimmune reaction happening in their guts every day. Still physicians do not advise these folks to stop eating gluten because the patient will reverse the condition and the doctor won't know when the person ACTUALLY HAS full blown celiac disease!!! Insanity! "We need you to be 100% sick before we can recommend the tried and true treatment that can cure your condition right now."
The significance of gluten intolerance to the individual is three fold: symptoms, system-wide effects, and co-diseases, all of which can seriously affect your quality of life long before you technically have celiac disease.
The traditional symptoms of gluten intolerance are varied and include diarrhea, constipation, bloating, stomach aches, abdominal discomfort, stabbing sensation in abdomen, nausea, and unexplained weight gain or loss. We all have one or more of these symptoms at some point. The concern comes when the problem is repeated and significant. Symptoms tend to be worse in early childhood, decrease or disappear during puberty, then reappear and worsen as time goes on. However, some men and women do not develop traditional symptoms until later in life, and occasionally will have no obvious symptoms at all.
Still there are serious system-wide issues resulting from gluten intolerance that can occur with or without tradtional symptoms. Because the villi in the small intestine are constantly under attack a) the immune system is always "on" using up the body's resources and resulting in fatigue, and b) the nutrients that are normally absorbed in the same section of the intestine as gluten can not be absorbed in part or at all into the body. Illnesses related to these two factors are chronic fatigue symdrome, chronic migraine syndrome, anemias (both iron-deficiency and macrocytic), anxiety and depression, chronic muscle and joint pain, hormone imbalances, infertility, schizophrenia (approx. 10%), various cancers, osteopenia/osteoporosis, growth failure in children, ADD/ADHD, and skin conditions especially dermatitis herpetiformis.
Celiac Disease also tends to present with other diseases, especially other autoimmune diseases such as: diabetes, lupus, fibromyalgia, Hepatitis C, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, Crohn's disease (nearly 60% are gluten intolerant according to an Italian study,) asthma, scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, microscopic colitis, gastroesophageal reflux disease, peripheral neuropathy, ataxia, seizure disorders such as epilepsy, thyroid disorders, downs syndrome, addisons disease, dental enamal hypoplasia, multiple sclerosis, pancreatic disorders, gallbladder disease, impotency, autism.
If you have or you have a family history of any of the above symptoms, conditions or diseases, you could be gluten intolerant. For testing info, check out the cool links section. The good news is that if your problems result from your being gluten intolerant, they will improve or be eliminated by switching to a gluten free diet.
Interesting facts:
3 times as many women as men are diagnosed with celiac disease. Is it because women have more natural events that could turn the gene on or because women are more likely to seek medical help?
A sufferer of celiac disease gets a diagnosis on average 11 years after first seeking medical help.
Autism affects 3 times as many boys as it does girls. Many researchers believe that gluten, along with cow's milk protein (casein), plays a role in autism spectrum disorders which include ADD and ADHD. In a 2001 study more than twice as many kids with celiac disease had these disorders than the control group.
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