<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

At 9:00 tomorrow (Thursday) morning, there will be a Fresh Air interview on NPR with Robert Dallek on his new book "An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963."  Listers and Delphiforum members will recall that after the January article in the Atlantic Monthly that listed his myriad symptoms (spastic colon, fatigue, ostoporosis, other autoimmune disease (Addison's), celiacs wrote the book publisher, the editor of Atlantic Monthly, and the author himself to suggest that JFK might have suffered from celiac disease.

 Unfortunately, Mr. Dallek discounted the possibility somewhat by saying " - other indications of celiac sprue - stunted growth in children, iron deficiency anemia, and family history - were absent. The presence of persistent, severe spastic colitis (now described as irritable bowel syndrom), and the possibility that he had Crohns's disease (an illness marked by intestinal inflammation and bleeding) also diminish, though do not eliminate, the likelihiood that Jack had celiac spure, a disease of the small intestine, not the colon. "

We all know that none of the above diminishes the possibility that Jack had CD, in fact, the above symptoms, IBS, inflammation, and bleeding, have all been reported in celiacs!
Most adult celiacs don't have stunted growth, we would only be iron deficient if that portion of our intestine were involved that effects absorbtion, and there is no family history until it is looked for.  The great majority of current celiacs had no family history of CD in 1960!

Anyone who has the time, please contact Fresh Air at [log in to unmask] to ask that these issues be addressed.  It is great that we are finally getting press on our issue, but the inaccuracies that are constantly being put forward must be corrected.




Kit Kellison
Activism Chairman
Tidewater Chapter #71
CSA/USA

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