South China Morning Post: No Grain, No Pain

A few weeks ago Jennifer, a former colleague of mine, called me from Hong Kong to do an interview about Celiac Disease for the South China Morning Post. I was very intrigued by this interview because I wanted to learn more about the prevalence of Celiac in Asian countries. I chatted with Jennifer for close to an hour and gave her my run down of Celiac Disease over the past thirty years.

Much to my surprise, my friend Jill (owner of Glow Gluten Free) emailed me yesterday with the article which was sent to her by someone in her family living in Hong Kong. This was another example of the power of the Internet and the truly global community we live in.

Here's the article:

No grain, no pain

Gluten intolerance is most often associated with a Western diet. But a study has found the condition may be on the rise in Asia owing to a change in eating habits

Jennifer Huang (healthpost@scmp.com)  Jul 19, 2011

Bread is said to be the staff of life. But if you happen to be among a small but growing number of people diagnosed with coeliac disease, a severe form of gluten intolerance, it can make you very sick.

Click here to read more

Happy Australian Coeliac Awareness Week

Originally posted here: http://www.gluten-free-living.net/news/

** Australian Coeliac Society – Media Release **

The gluten free diet is not a fad diet for over 250,000 Australians!

Coeliac Awareness Week
13 – 20 March

Medical practitioners and the food and catering industry need to be aware that for many Australians the gluten in wheat, rye, barley and oats is not food, but poison.

Coeliac Disease is now recognised as an underdiagnosed life long disease affecting over 250,000 Australians (prevalence 1:70-250 caucasians and west Asians) with a range of presentations.

How much of a burden to society is untreated coeliac disease?

We do not have the answer yet but we can say that we are working towards it and other important economic questions needed to be answered about coeliac disease. The Australian New Zealand Coeliac Research Fund has recently commissioned the School of Population Health, University of Melbourne to undertake an important project. Over the next twelve months, they will quantify, in health and economic terms, the full impact of coeliac disease, in Australia and New Zealand and identify useful priority areas for future research.

Some of the clinical features that prompt screening for coeliac disease are family history of coeliac disease, unexplained anaemia, fatigue, nutrient deficiency, diarrhoea, constipation, irritable bowel type symptoms (although gastrointestinal symptoms may not be present), osteoporosis, growth and developmental delay in children, recurrent mouth ulcers, unexplained neurological complaints, infertility and recurrent miscarriage, skin rash – typically itchy and blistering. Coeliac disease is associated with a range of conditions which include type 1 diabetes, thyroid disease, liver enzyme disturbance, colitis and other autoimmune diseases.

Don’t trial a gluten free diet

A gluten free diet should never be started before an endoscopy and blood tests, as it will interfere with establishing the correct diagnosis or may delay the diagnosis of another condition with similar symptoms.

If you would like further information you can contact –
The Australian Coeliac Society on +61 2 9411 4100 or info@coeliac.org.au