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To my fellow Celiacs,

I am 20 now, and have been "living Celiac" for 16 years now. It is hard for
me to remember anything but GF eating.  Sometimes I work to counsel teens and
young adults who have been recently diagnosed.  One of my friends on campus
recently referred me to another college student named Nahry who was diagnosed
less than a year ago, and floundering through the rigors of living GF.  I
quickly found her number and called her, willing to help in any way possible.

Nahry has what I would describe as extremely acute symptoms.  She spends
hours vomiting after gluten exposure, and has been down as low as 70 pounds.
She gets ill from inhaling minute amounts of wheat flour.  In other words,
she is very sensitive, and undoubtedly, sustaining a lot of internal damage.
Luckily she is a biology major (like myself), and familiar with how the body
works.  Unluckily, however, she found a local doctor who practices "eastern
medicine" (combined with some aspects of "western medicine") who says that he
can cure her with herbs and accupuncture.

Granted, I try to be as open-minded as possible about medical techniques; I
realize that there is much that we don't understand.  But what I do
understand is that a girl like Nahry is in great danger; she is very sick.
Her body needs major "TLC" right now.  According to a mutual friend, this
doctor has her on an all-herbal, no sugar, no carbohydrate diet.  Our friend
says that she's not doing well.  Yet, Nahry adamantly insists that this guy
can cure her.

I realize that there is some major denial going on here.  However, I don't
know if there's any way that I can help.  She is an intelligent adult, and
has read enough of the Celiac literature to know the nature of our diet.  I
can't help but feel, though, that she's clinging to a false promise that will
ultimately end up in further, unnecessary damage.  I appeal to you, my fellow
Celiacs from around the world, for advice on how to help this sick young
lady.  I feel for her, and want her to experience what may be "sound health"
for the first time in her life.  Does anyone have any ideas?

Thank you for your time.

Jessica
Indianapolis, IN