Coping with Coeliac Disease
By Karen Brody - a Sheldon Press book

Coeliac Disease is a digestive problem caused by gluten intolerance, which makes the body unable to digest everyday foods, such as anything containing wheat. It as a serious, and common, health problem.

The symptoms include serious weight loss, pain, fatigue and depression, which can affect every aspect of our life and your body's natural resilience. But there is good news - many people report enormous improvements as a result of following the gluten-free diet.

This book gives the whole picture, for anyone who has, or feels they might have, coeliac disease. It explains what coeliac disease is, why it happens and what can trigger it. It sets out the diet, including simple nutritional recipes and expert nutritional advice for sufferers, and there are sections for special groups of sufferers, such as older people, who can go undiagnosed".

• Acknowledgements
• Preface (2003)
• Introduction

• How to find out whether or not you have coeliac disease
• What is coeliac disease?
• The connections between coeliac disease and other conditions
• Talking about coeliac disease
• The importance of a gluten-free diet
• Living in a gluten-free world
• Gluten-free cooking
• Getting rid of those gluten-free blues

• Coeliac websites
• Bibliography
• Useful addresses
• Index

Preface (2003)

As I revise this book for an updated edition it is now 2003, six years since its original publication. I revisited many of the people I spoke to in 1997 and researched new information on coeliac disease. The result is a book that brings you, the reader, as up to date as possible on what the disease is, how to treat it and how to cope.

The most noticeable difference in the field of coeliac disease is an increase in the information and support that is available for coeliacs today. Please check out the new website section at the end of this book to explore how you can access this new information.

More research on coeliac disease is now being funded and every day we learn a little more about it, but the prescription for coeliacs remains the same. You must go on a gluten-free diet. This is the only way to maintain your health. Informing yourself of what foods are gluten-free is an essential task of every coeliac. Do not compare yourself to other coeliacs: you may have a different tolerance level to gluten from another coeliac. Research cannot tell you how much gluten it takes to cause a reaction, so your best defence is to avoid foods with any trace of gluten.
You can do it.
Good luck on your journey. And good health.
Karen Brody

Introduction

You as the patient are in charge of your own body. The physician and his staff, your family and friends serve as helpers, consultants. Never forget that you must take an active interest in your bodily welfare.
Lloyd Rosenvold, MD, Can a Gluten-free Diet Help? How?

This book could change your life. Not because it's well written or provides all the right information for you, but because you — or someone who cares about you — took the step to buy a book on how to cope with your coeliac condition. Taking this step will change your life.

Buying a book on coping does not mean you are not coping or that all the coeliacs you will read about in this book cope with the disease in the same way you do. On the contrary, coping means you're taking care of yourself, empowering yourself with information that may help you on those days when you feel rotten, experience a set-back and need some reassurance that you will feel better once again.

You will quickly discover in this book that all coeliacs cope differently with their condition. This is true for most physical ailments, and especially when the treatment is food-related. So why write a book about coping? Because all personal experiences have meaning, whether they are suitable for you or not. Reading about how others cope can often spark new ideas that you never thought of. Think of all the different coping strategies you'll read about in this book like something to dip into, taking what you like and discarding the rest. No strategy is right or wrong; each coeliac is an expert, with knowledge of how to cope. This book will help you build on your knowledge.

Coeliac disease is a very serious disease if untreated, so you must stick strictly to a gluten-free diet in order to feel better. This may seem difficult at times. For example, food manufacturers often do not accurately label their products with the exact ingredients they contain or suddenly change their ingredients without relabelling the product for several months. Scenarios like this can make a coeliac go bonkers. 'Can I eat it or can't I?', that really is the question for most coeliacs. Hopefully this book will reassure you that you are not alone. There are many coeliacs asking the same questions out there, in countries all around the world.

This book has been written to give you answers about coeliac disease now, bearing in mind that the medical knowledge about coeliac disease changes and the advice coeliacs will get from individual doctors may differ. As a coeliac, you must devise your own plan to cope with coeliac disease, while always keeping yourself up to date on the current medical research and findings. Research on coeliac disease may be changing every day, but the goal of every coeliac is similar: to feel better now. People's health cannot wait for research. If you know you are a coeliac, the key to feeling better is to stick strictly to a gluten-free diet.

If you are reading this book and think you or someone you know may have coeliac disease, consult your doctor and explain your symptoms and how they relate to coeliac disease. As the symptoms of coeliac disease mimic those of many other conditions, you cannot be sure you have coeliac disease without having tests. These can be done by referral from your GP. There are many undiagnosed coeliacs, feeling awful and not aware that eating a gluten-free diet could be their ticket to better health. It would not be wise to start a gluten-free diet before having the tests, though, because this can often spoil the accuracy of the results. So have the tests first — never self-diagnose.

Coping is a way of healing. You can never be cured of coeliac disease, but you can live a completely healthy life if you follow a gluten-free diet. As one coeliac told me:

after I adjusted to the gluten-free diet I began to feel better because I began to accept the gluten-free diet and just get on with things instead of brooding about having coeliac disease and being on this special diet. I now take my gluten-free snacks with me, so I'm always prepared and never without food. I think it's this kind of attitude that has made me feel so much better.

This book will give you strategies for coping on the diet. Try some and see if they work for you. Your health depends on adhering to this diet; it will change your life.