November 2011
1 post
1 tag
This person was in random and debilitating pain... →
August 2010
1 post
4 tags
A Letter to a Celiac Chapter Member
Hi Ellen!
I wanted to go to the meeting but there’s no way I can make it. However, if I could have gone, these are the things I would have mentioned:
To start and most importantly I think the CCA is a very necessary organization, and I support everything they already do to help their members. The Victoria chapter especially is active and inspiring. I have truly enjoyed working with...
July 2010
3 posts
7 tags
Do You Wish You Had an Immunotherapist?
Celiac Disease. I’m starting to come to terms with it. I’m starting to not think about it so much, just like the participants in the study I conducted last year said I would. When I go shopping I know what to buy. When I invite my friends to dinner I know where to go and who to trust. For the most part, I’ve even had the chance to slow down a bit with explaining it to people - most of my friends...
June 2010
2 posts
5 tags
Breadywhaaaa? →
This is an amazing contraption, there’s no doubt about it.
But I thought the point of making gluten-free bread at home was to eat cheaper bread? Each packet costs $7-9!
That said, I was in awe of the machine by the end of the video. It’s too bad I like making good economic decisions.
May 2010
2 posts
4 tags
Sex and the Celiac →
This little gem of an article came into my mail box just now. It talks about semen, sex drive, and self-confidence in the bedroom. Now that’s my kind of breakfast reading!
April 2010
5 posts
1 tag
Estrogen →
From The New York Times:
MAGAZINE PREVIEW: The Estrogen Dilemma
New science is showing that estrogen’s effects on women’s minds and bodies may depend upon when they first start taking it. What should you do?
Estrogen and osteoporosis are highly linked to each other, and people with celiac’s disease are highly succeptible to osteoporosis.
Just saying.
5 tags
En France!
Bonjour!
Day 1 diagnostics: it’s really really hard to find French people who know what Celiac’s Disease is. However, I did meet a British Woman on the ferry who has had it for 12 years. She visits her summer home in France with it. That got my hopes up about travelling to the South until she said that she brought all her food with her from England. Merde!
On the upside, Justin and...
6 tags
Food Matters Documentary | BBC Stream →
Remember this website? It’s about orthomolecular practitioners and how to live healthily using nutrients to maintain your health instead of pharmaceutical drugs.
This movie is the kind of thing someone with documented chronic malnourishment might be interested in. The interviewees are a little too earnest about what they’re talking about, but then again, nearly* everything they say...
Gluten Free Baking Class!!!
On May 15th, Foul Bay Road.
See details here.
March 2010
16 posts
In other news, I've just received $20,000 worth of...
Oh hiiiiiii!
Last summer I send a letter to Dr. Harris at McMaster, about my interest in his project on the social geography of Bombay and Calcutta at the turn of the 20th Century.
Nine months later, after applying, sending in my transcripts two months late, also being tardy on my letter of intent, and planning to take a year off and ignore the academic scene for a while, McMaster has offered...
MDs tout benefits of group visits | Times Colonist →
Group sessions are such a great idea, and I’m surprised that medical practitioners haven’t really pushed this on the island. If not medical practitioners, maybe associations could host mass seminars for diagnosed people and their family members. Seminars for people with CD not only about the gluten-free diet, per se, but on physical activity, children, sleep, chronic pain, food...
Healing Through Self Care | Peninsula News Review →
The Peninsula News Review is our small-time local newspaper. This last Friday, they put the Aboriginal Women’s Conference on the front page. I missed the AWC this year and was choked when I found out. Last year, I volunteered babysitting the kids, but really, I’ll help out any way I can for it next year if I’m around. It’s so important to make sure women are healthy:
The...
My Fav Restaurants In Victoria
Dear LeftyLuna: this is for you.
To preface this post, I would like to say that I have celiac disease, that I react very quickly from gluten of even the tiniest amounts, and that I am always, always 100% gluten-free. If there is even a 1% chance of eating it by accident, I simply don’t eat (I wait until later). The restaurants that I’m about to suggest have served me faithfully at...
4 tags
The Healthcare Bill - Details
The ladies over at Feministing have broken down the important details of the healthcare bill. Here’s an except from their most recent posting.
From Jos at Feministing:
“This bill is a major expansion and improvement of the U.S. health care system. This long overdue legislation is the result of almost a century of organizing and political action. It is a considerably weaker bill...
5 tags
Barack Obama's healthcare bill passed by Congress... →
Congratulations, USA!
May you collectively save money on acute healthcare costs by diagnosing chronic illnesses sooner, respecting your patients’ concerns, and allowing healthcare access for all members of society so they don’t burden you with much more expensive conditions later.
This is a very important bill for people with CD, especially those 85% who remain undiagnosed. Now...
6 tags
Health Care and Celiac Disease a Month Ago →
What does it take to get diagnosed for celiac disease in the United States? Thousands and thousands of dollars, years of being told that you’re a hypochondriac, and persistence. Sweet, sweet persistence.
Don’t get me wrong, I think some of the acute healthcare available in the United States is pretty impressive. But every time I think of being diagnosed with CD, I thank my lucky...
4 tags
Food Stamps: Do they mean you shouldn't eat right?
“Apparently, we’re paying for hipster foodies to eat better than us.” -Jeff Miller, after quoting this wretched reason article.
Most people generally approve of the food stamps program. It’s not terribly expensive. It contributes to local economies. It decreases malnutrition and related costs. And it allows its impoverished beneficiaries a measure of dignity and choice.
...
Fructose: This Video Has Changed My Life →
The title of this post links to an article about a 90 minute video, a lecture, by Robert Lustig, MD, a UCSF Professor of pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology.
This video, after watching it yesterday, has changed my entire perception on fructose. It talks about sugar, glucose, sucralose, ethanol, and carbohydrates too, and breaks down his argument using bio-chemical, political, and...
Why can't we stop eating? →
Celiac disease and eating disorders are directly related. I certainly go through phases of eating “issues” - and have yet to figure out whether my behaviour is a normal part of growing. This article sheds some light on the subject of over-eating, cravings, and the ever-important issue of food politics.
From the article:
“Sugar, fat and salt make a food compelling. They...
Response from Patients Like Me
Claire,
Thanks for your message and interest in PatientsLikeMe. Celiac disease is not a condition we are considering for our platform at this time. Each community we build is a tremendous undertaking (not easily internet scalable), and this disease presents unique challenges for us that we are not yet prepared to tackle.
Regards,
Chris Fidyk
PatientsLikeMe Business Development
Well,...
8 tags
Patients Like Me - Celiac Disease Proposition
Dear Jamie Heywood and associates,
My name is Claire, and I’m writing from Victoria, Canada. I watched a TED Talks about your website this afternoon. I’m very interested in the Patients Like Me project, and would like to propose adding celiac disease to your list of included ailments for patients using your site. It would be a useful and necessary addition for the following reasons:
...
January 2010
1 post
6 tags
December 2009
0 posts
7 tags
40% Of Food Produced Goes To Waste, While One In... →
I’m hungry right now. Hungry for real, and hungry for a more efficient, better-serving food system.
Food Security Info-Graphic:
Feel free to start experimenting on that new system in Victoria. Thanks.
Also: “cultural factors” should be “cultural and medical factors” - but who’s watching?
November 2009
7 posts
8 tags
Health Care Savings Could Start in the Cafeteria -...
This New York Times article directly relates to people with celiac disease. Why? Because it shows that when people are food secure - nay, healthy food secure (not just what they want to eat, but healthy food that they want to eat), then health care costs go down.
“We need to put food back in the heart of health care,” says Zoe Finch Totten, Full Yield’s chief executive. “It’s the cheapest way to...
7 tags
CD is Paramount to Social Health Geography. I...
This is me trying to justify my honours paper research:
“The study of CD is the ultimate study in social health geography*. Social geographers have been interested in the “relationship between the changing environment, both “built” and “natural,” as well as the corporeal experiences of health” (Del Casino, 2009) for decades. In the August 2009 edition of Scientific American, CD was...
"Gluten-Free - Is It For Me?" Oh, Oprah, you're...
Oprah talks about gluten intolerance.
This quote made me confused:
“Just limiting your gluten intake (once a day, once a week) can have dramatic benefits for those of us who have mild reactions. My symptoms are noticeable, but not terribly severe, so I’ve tried to limit gluten to special occasions. You may find this to be your perfect solution too. However, for those with a real...
Durum Wheat and Global Warming →
Sorry, Italy (not).
“Projected climate changes in this region, in particular rising temperature and decreasing rainfall, may seriously compromise wheat yields.”
-Jonathan Leake of Times Online
Climate change is still bad, people.
8 tags
Thrifty Foods is making a reference to this fact.
Come on Sobeys, I want results! I didn’t give away my beloved island grocery store for this kind of inefficiency!
What? My standards are too high?
… Maybe. That’s not the point, though.
Thrifty Foods’ brown rice is just a slight be over the sketchiness line, apparently. I called them last night to ask them if it was gluten free and they couldn’t answer me right...
Where's the Wheat? Monday Magazine claims there... →
Best quote:
“Suddenly, it’s not like you’ve got a medical condition, but that you have an alternative diet like a vegetarian. You can look at it as just being part of the human race again.”
…Thank God, because until now, I considered myself an alien.
Yay Monday Magazine for writing about gluten-free awareness, and yay Eric for letting me know about it. Home town...
October 2009
10 posts
Check your diet: Gluten-free is not healthy by...
When I talk to people about the gluten-free diet, the first thing that often comes up is how hard it is. The second thing is how healthy it is. Unfortunately, though, the general public may have got it wrong. The diet requires much more than simple elimination techniques.
This Swedish study has come to the conclusion that people with CD who have been gluten-free for ten years are still not...
I swear I get addicted to dairy.
(and sugar, but I’m not writing about that today.)
If I eat a meal without cheese, I still crave cheese. According to the internet, it’s because my “leaky gut” lets lactose peptides through directly to my brain:
“Both casein in dairy, and gluten in wheat, contain food peptide opioids which, in people with certain, ( “leaky”, as a result of chronic...
I've found a way to get people to never want to...
Image association.
From the Medical Professionals...
This picture has nothing to do with the post except for the dietitian part:
Interesting information that I’m not writing about in my honours lit review:
“The National Institutes of Health (NIH) held a landmark consensus conference in June 2004, culminating in concise guidelines regarding the diagnosis and management of CD, as well as recommendations for future research. According to the...
The (Abridged) Case for Mass Screening
Celiac Disease fulfills the requirements for a worthwhile screening program:
1. It is a common disorder causing significant morbidity in the general population.
2. Early detection is often difficult on a clinical basis.
3. If not recognized, the disease can manifest itself with severe complications that are difficult to manage (eg. infertility, osteoporosis, lymphoma).
4. There is an...
“She’s clearly working hard to publicise allergy issues. We should all be doing...”
– A quote from Lucy at free from about Lorraine at Allergy Cooks.
