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SUMMARY RE THEORY
I apologize for not being able to print all for lack
of space. I found your stories and comments very
moving. We can all learn so much from each other.
Thanks, Susan
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>From England: "The real answer to your problem in the
'States is to get it made a LEGAL requirement that all
doctors take continuous professional development . . .
This is just the sort of political hobby horse for a
senator or two to leap on and you could build tax breaks
into it too. After all the quality of your medical
treatment should not DEPEND on drugs companies
(however 'well intentioned')."
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"IBS means drugs (money) doctor visits (money).... It is
all about money! I also think we need someone famous to be told they are
a celiac. Wonder what Hillary is doing?"
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"Another reason why Celiac disease is not known about is that many of
the people diagnosed are older women who are not very assertive and are
not letting enough people know about their diagnosis."
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"Celiacs can do a lot to educate doctors. Send GI docs in your area
celiac literature. If they get enough of it, eventually they'll look at
it. I sent the GI doctor in town and several internists copies of Dr.
Murray's recent (1999) review article on celiac disease.
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"The good news seems that your doctor didn't care if you
didn't eat wheat. Some will treat you if you want to run 70
miles a week or be a vegetarian, but it's almost un-
American not to eat wheat. Educating doctors
is the key, but it seems to me that celiacs giving info
written by celiacs to their doctor is not going to make a
difference. I prefer to give them copies of these instead:
http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health/digest/pubs/celiac/index.htm
http://www.aafp.org/afp/980301ap/pruessn.html
"It's easy for doctors to brush off a bunch of crusading celiacs w/out
official diagnosis, but who can argue w/ the National Institute of
Health or the Journal of American Family Physicians. They have no
special interest in celiac, just in health. I especially like that
the NIH article says it can be as common as 1 in 300 & is greatly
undiagnosed."
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"I was self diagnosed after intestinal surgery with hope to
survive one more year. When I found out about CD, I
thought I discovered America. The attitude of doctors is
the same all over world, also in Europe where I talk about
the issue with many doctors with the same result. My
opinion is that this doesn't just happen to be this way. It's
to protect the cereal industry and not to create panic. CD is
more widespread than is admitted by health officials. The
consequences are so horrible, that nobody wants to see the
panic that this fact would create."
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"Your theory is what I have suspected ever since I heard
about celiac disease. Since I am involved in nutritional
health, I find so many people whose doctors will not even
consider a nutritional basis for their illness(es), from
ADD/ADHD to osteoporosis and much more. They would much
rather write a prescription, based on pharmaceutical company
based research, and then write another one to handle the
(often) unpleasant side effects. So many disorders have a
nutritional basis, but the general public is very uninformed
and usually wants a quick fix for their problem!"
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"My doctor had the same ho hum reaction.
Somehow there is a parallel between pharmaceutical
companies training doctors, pesticide and herbicide
companies training farmers, and political
action committees training politicians."
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"There is no kickback (financial) to a Dr. when they can
only tell you your medicine is a special diet for life. When
they can prescribe a drug, it is money in their pockets."
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". . . a knowledgeable friend who added another piece of
information: he says that a big reason Britain has
been far more accepting of Celiac diagnoses is their
National Health to cut down on the number of health
complaints coming into the medical offices, they
investigated causes of the ill health, rather than treatment
of the symptoms.
" Until our nation looks ahead to prevention rather than
silver bullet treatment, we are going to continue to get bad
medical advise."
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"This is all so true. I worked in a large diagnostic center
for nine years as a nurse and saw the drug reps with all the
propaganda. This is passed directly on to the
patients. Maybe that experience is why I try
EVERYTHING before I take a
prescription drug."
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". . . they [doctors] are trained from day 1 to find a drug
to treat the problem. Why are they trained this way? Who
do you think are the major contributors to medical schools?
I'm sure on every list, pharmaceutical companies rank very
high. And as you mentioned, where do doctors get
continuing education, from pharmaceutical reps.
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I would like to make you feel better but I want to tell you
from my experience that you are too kind rather than
cynical. Not only are practicing docs dictated to by the
pharmaco industry so are the federal health agencies that
supposedly look out for the consumers (us) And if you think
celiacs have it bad, you should see the (lack of) care and
treatment that children who are autistic or Downs receive.
If you don't believe the pharmaceutical industry is money
and power mad look at the issue of vaccines. 33 different
vaccines before a child is in school and they have gotten
many states to pass laws for mandatory vaccines (probably
unconstitutional). Incidentally it is possible that certain
vaccines may play a part in the vast increase in autism
(273 % increase in Calif. in the last few years- Calif.
health dept info) To make your suspicion more vivid, at a
congressional hearing last week (Rep Buirton, Chair)
investigating this connection, one third of the seats for
persons of the general public were taken by Merck corp.
They simply handed out $100 bills for people to hold places
for them in line!! They weren't testifying, they just
wanted to block parents from getting in. We should realize,
I suppose, that the big boys who run the pharmaceutical
industry trained in the same schools as those in the
tobacco industry. Not only do the docs learn nothing of
nutrition, evidently ethics is the big void for the MBA's.
If you are a cynic, I suppose I sound like a flaming radical.
If you haven't thrown this out yet, you should know that I
am a retired college prof, who was pro establishment for a
lifetime, but who became disgusted at my treatment for
celiac (after they made a fortune on procedures, I had to
self diagnose) and their treatment protocol for my autistic
son (Throw him away)
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It's fairly certain that, if CD had an expensive drug
therapy, not only would doctors know about it but we'd be
seeing quality commercials and ads about CD and the drug
therapy. Since doctors are, after all, just people, there has
to be a limit to how much new info they can absorb. The
blitz of info from drug companies probably serves to turn
their attention away from conditions like CD.
I wonder if we could turn this to our benefit some how.
For example, I just discovered that Boost is GF and I've
been drinking 2 cans a day to gain weight. I wonder if
Mead Johnson would consider pushing the therapeutic
value of Boost for celiacs. I was disappointed to see that
their new packaging eliminated the words "gluten free".
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"My doctors turned themselves inside out
to provide the best tests, specialists' opinions, and pretty
much did a lot more than I expected, to come up with my
diagnosis."
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