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Dear Listmates,

Sorry my turn around time was so poor.  With trying to get Jesse an
accurate diagnosis with his skin (seen all the worried mommy DH posts
lately?), I have obviously been otherwise consumed with larger fish to
fry than Dr. Fine.  However, I have wanted to follow up as I my interest
and the interest of many of you is piqued by his work and sudden
prominence.  Sudden to me anyway.

In summary, most of the posts were of two sorts:

A.  I love Dr. Fine!   See his website for more info.
or
B.  I have been wondering who the heck he is too.  Please be sure to
summarize!

So, I looked at his website.  It doesn't really tell me a whole lot. He's
got fine credentials (pardon the pun).  He's got a whole lists of tests
for sale.  He doesn't see patients, just receives their bm's via mail or
whatnot and examines them .  The list of tests  look all rather the
same-ish and redundant--they look like various interpolations. Very
confusing!  Leading one to wonder, "What test do I get?"  Never fear, he
has a link to answer that.  It basically encourages you to:

A.  Get the most expensive test as it covers the bases (about $300)
and
B.   Get your whole family (willing members) tested with you as you get a
discount on the first go around.

Skads of folks who wrote me or who I found  in the archives (can't tell
you how many skads is--this is not a scientific paper) who had multiple
members of their family diagnosed with CD by him.  He has few negative
results from what I can tell--not zero but very few.  I had like two
people tell me ONE of their tested family members came back negative.
His test is supposedly patented or getting patented.  Didn't know one
could do that--I mean, the whole country of labs can do, say, a CBC or
Autoimmune panel.  So, the exclusiveness of the test was a bit of a
concern to me.  Most folks are sure he isn't in it for the money from the
looks of his humble lab.  Dunno.  All I know is that the patented test
with its' unpublished findings with a small sampling of patients; along
with the long list of confusing tests leading one to the most expensive
one; and the bring the family discount just struck me as questionable.
Run-on sentence queen...

In talking with my husband, who is a Hospital Chaplain and on the
hospital ethics committee, we had a few concerns:

A.  Dr. Fine doesn't actually see his "patients".  That approach is not
considered good medicine by the medical community.  Generally, it would
be understood that, in their eyes, he is not currently a doctor who
should be making such serious diagnoses as he is not maintaining any
face-to face doctor/patient relationships.  Therein lies the beginnings
of his falling out of favor with the medical establishment.

B.  His findings are unpublished, had a small sampling of participants
listed and  it is exclusive (the patent idea) which makes one concerned
about the veracity of the findings and the motivation in keeping a good
thing to one's self.

In the end, I had to conclude that he is either a Columbus on the verge
of huge breakthroughs and the establishment just needs to be convinced
with a publishable study.  On the flip side,  just consider the
implications of him being wrong.  Either the population of those with CD
and the genetic likelihood of passing this is much more vast than has
been considered or this man is putting a host of people in a lifetime of
bondage needlessly to the GF diet.  God help him if he is.  If not, I'd
love to see him do things that would cause him to regain respect he may
have lost in the medical community and get the word out--and THE test.

The implications are vast either way.  Ponder it.  Visit his site and see
for yourself.  Read the archives.  Ask questions.  The truth needs to be
known in any case!  If you are not high on conventional medicine, you
won't agree with any of this.  Please don't flame me.  If you love Dr.
Fine, then go out and prove his case and make it known to the
establishment!  And still don't flame me ;O)

Shellie Kepley

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* Visit the Celiac Web Page at www.enabling.org/ia/celiac/index.html *