It can be very frustrating knowing what we know and not being able to get that information to everyone who needs it. I keep reminding myself that our book, The Gluten Effect – How “Innocent” Wheat is Ruining Your Health, is being publishing in January 2009. Only 2 months away but sometimes it seems like an eternity. It took us 5 years to write. Okay, we seriously started last January 2008 but I personally made some feeble attempts over the previous 4 years.
Back to my frustration – a patient came in 9 months ago very overweight and walking with the help of a cane. She hadn’t been suffering silently. She was a bright, proactive woman who was diligently searching for an answer to her problems. She received diagnoses and drugs but no particular improvement of her condition.
We see many patients and while we delight in every success story, sometimes we don’t remember how bad a patient’s symptoms were when they first arrived. When this patient came in last week she had to remind us of her cane. It had disappeared several months ago so it had become a bit “out of sight, out of mind” for us. But for her it was a miracle. She has lost 40 lb and at last week’s visit was proud to announce that she had just completed a half-marathon walk. Yes folks, that’s 13 miles of walking and not a cane in sight!
What changed? She found out that she was sensitive to gluten. Utilizing the HealthNOW Method we restored strength to her immune system and her adrenal glands as well, but the biggest missing ingredient was a life-long gluten sensitivity which had remained undiagnosed.
Do you see what’s so frustrating? I want to shout it from the rooftops. I want to enter every gastroenterologist’s office on the planet and do a lecture about gluten sensitivity to all the patients and staff.
Another patient, one who knows she is gluten sensitive came into the office the other day to receive some chiropractic care along with physical therapy. She told me that she recently went to her general practitioner for her annual physical and informed him that she was avoiding gluten and how much her health had improved as a result. (She had been on the verge of a heart attack about 2 years prior.) Despite relating her tremendous health improvements to her M.D, he insisted that if she didn’t have unrelenting diarrhea it was ridiculous for her to avoid gluten.
Do you see why I’m frustrated?
The number of M.D.s in this country who equate gluten sensitivity with celiac disease is phenomenal. Waiting for a positive celiac diagnosis is akin to waiting for a heart attack to occur before you tell a patient they have high cholesterol. It’s barbaric. And mark my words, within the decade gluten sensitivity WILL be known, understood and the idea of waiting for a positive intestinal biopsy before diagnosing it will be considered malpractice.
To Your Good Health,
Dr Vikki Petersen
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