<<Disclaimer:  Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Donald Kasarda has expressed concern that recent reports on this list about
"myriad personal symptoms," which some of us have linked to our ingestion of
gluten, might cause people to think that these responses are a necessary,
universal part of the celiac's response to gluten. He has called for
postings from those who experience no such responses. Null reports may be
reassuring to some newly diagnosed or highly anxious celiacs, but I hope
Kasorda is not implying that a response must be universal to be an intrinsic
part of the disease. We already have abundant evidence on the great individual
variability of gut and skin symptom responses to gluten. Why should there
not be variability in other ways in which our immune systems respond to this
stimulus? If symptoms such as mental confusion, irritability, depression,
joint pain, and so on turn out not to be caused by celiac disease itself but
to be the result of associated sensitivities or auto-immune problems,
they are still worth knowing about.

As a scientist, I share Kasarda's skepticism about anecdotal reports linking
phenomena whose statistical coincidence has not been established by good
epidemiological research and for which a linking mechanism is not known.
However, until that research becomes available, I think there is value to
celiacs, their physicians, and researchers in thinking broadly about
adverse effects of gluten on sensitive individuals. Too little is known to
restrict our definition of the problem.

Nancy E. Jackson <[log in to unmask]> until April 27, 1995
and <[log in to unmask]> thereafter