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Hi Shannon,

My mom could relate to you. She has had debilitating osteoarthritis, and
went on full disability pension in her mid fifties. She only went g-f two
years ago, and much of the damage appears irreversible, but the improvement
has been startling. We now play golf when I visit, instead of her sitting
in a semi-stupor on heavy doses of morphine for the pain.

My brother didn't have any immediate reaction to gluten either, but he died
November 18/96 of lymphoma. If you will look at the literature on celiac
disease and malignancy, you will see that we are 40 to 100 times as likely
to develop lymphoma if we are eating gluten. (There was some doubt that he
had celiac disease, as he never underwent an endoscopy and his primary
tumour was surrounding his left kidney, not in the GI tract.) After a while
on a strict g-f diet our risk drops to about the same as the general
population. That is one problem with cheating.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I think it is an important issue,
which is why I'm sending my response to the list.

best wishes,
Ron Hoggan
Calgary, Alberta, Canada