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From:
David J Walland <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 16 Feb 2000 18:00:35 +0000
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<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Dear All,

Following my last major input, I did not feel it
appropriate to summarise the replies I received as they did
not seem to be especially useful to the whole list (though
I was grateful for the kind thoughts of many of you).

One thing that did come up regularly was the belief that
the ancient Greeks DID indeed discover/describe coeliac.
Most people specified Galen as the doctor concerned.  Now
I'm in no position to say whether he did or did not
describe/discover coeliac but I just quickly want to argue
that NEITHER IS ANYBODY ELSE.

As far as I can see, Galen described a set of symptoms
which might describe coeliac but might also describe other
problems.  We on this list are very aware of coeliac and
most of us have a much better than average knowledge of the
way our bodies work.  2.5 millenia ago (give or take a
century or two), highly intelligent people did not have the
knowledge which we are privileged to have and had some
fairly strange ideas as to what was going on (it's sobering
to think that I was in the very first group of babies ever
to be scientifically treated for rhesus - blue baby -
disease; indeed about 80% of medical knowledge has been
discovered in my lifetime and I'm only a young middleager).
We must not try to imagine that these people actually had
an understanding of disease processes to the degree we
have.  Once you start to look at these claims as NOW timers
trying to work out what disease was being described THEN,
it becomes a matter of opinion - especially when you look
through this list and see how TODAY'S medics can't spot
what is or is not coeliac when they can discuss it with the
patient and take samples for testing.

Please don't let me disturb your private theories but
please also accept that there is a lot of room for doubt
about what disease was being described.

Regards

David

David J Walland
University of Bristol Radiation Protection Adviser
[log in to unmask]
Tel +44 (0)117 928 8323
Fax +44 (0)117 929 1209

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