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>"Had we not, contrary to our doctor's wishes, put our daughter on a gluten
>free diet..."
>
>The sentence pulled me almost out of my chair.  Why is it that so many
>medical professionals are against trying a gluten free diet?

g'day, this strikes a chord with me too. my mother was diagnosed a coeliac a
year ago, after a lifetime of being told "it's all in your head" etc etc. it
still makes me mad that after going to see so many doctors and specialists
over the years not one ever even thought to look for coeliac disease. they
found it when they did a colonoscopy (looking for cancer - she was that sick
by then) and saw all these flat villi. but alot of years of suffering could
have been saved if it was something they had looked for earlier. what's
more, my mother's doctor (gastroenterologist?) recommended my brother and i
have a blood test done now, just to see. well i've got no problem with that,
it's just a little blood test right? so i rock up to my doctor (i live in a
different town) and say tell him i'd like a referral to get a blood test for
coeliac disease. well! you'd have thought i asked him to cut off an arm.
talk about hitting a brick wall. he didn't even want to discuss it. just
told me to stop being silly (never asked about any symptoms i may have) - i
didn't have coeliac disease so forget about it. so i - patiently - explained
again why i wanted it done, and he gave me this exasperated look and told me
it was a childhood disease and i couldn't get it now! just completely wrote
it off. so i launched into this big speil of things i had learnt throught he
coeliac society in the last year. his reaction: "so that's what they're
telling you now, huh?". like they're some weird fanatical group he's sick of
dealing with. i was appalled. what is it about this disease that cuts such a
raw nerve in the medical profession?

oh, and i got my referral for the blood test - i told him to give me one to
humour me and refused to leave until he did :-) i get the results today.

nik
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Nikki Ward    Griffith   NSW   Australia
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