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 makes perfect sense.

Watch this movie, if for nothing else than to inspire yourself to learn more.

Live stream link: http://www.bbc5.tv/eyeplayer/video/food-matters

*I’m not sold on enemas. 

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 stars that I was in Canada, where I didn’t pay anything for my blood tests, my biopsy, my dietitian, or my meetings with the osteoporosis specialists. 

It’s still very important to remember that having CD is an expensive pastime - I pay hundreds of dollars in food and nutrition supplements every month that I otherwise would not have to buy. But thank goodness I didn’t have to pay $4,000 for blood work. What a nightmare.

This girl, Orcasisle, has made a great video on CNN’s iReport (apple plug, anyone?) about “the shortcomings of the U.S. health care system during [her] 6 year journey getting diagnosed with Celiac Disease highlighting the need for health care reform.”

I thought it was a great (even better near the end) bit of independent journalism. Congratulations on your diagnosis, Orcasisle, and on getting through the healthcare system despite all the drawbacks you encountered.

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 touted as one of the most important studies of auto-immune disorders. It was described as the only auto-immune disorder with an extractable environmental correlate (gluten) (Fassano, 2009). This makes CD relevant to both the extra-geographical medical community and the internal community of social health geographers. While it is important to understand how CD  develops on a cellular or chemical level, it is equally as important to understand the social and environmental factors that make an individual more or less susceptible to the disease. It is also of paramount importance to research the social determinants that may encourage or discourage individuals to (a) be tested or screened for CD and (b) live active and healthy lifestyles post-diagnosis.”

Do you think they’ll be convinced? I defend the thesis in two weeks’ time, so please say yes.

*too much? Too bad, I’m going to try to get away with it.