What Are The Benefits Of Being Coeliac?
When I was diagnosed as coeliac by Addenbrooke’s Hospital in the 1990s, Artificial Intelligence didn’t widely exist, so I thought I’d ask Google AI, the question in the title of this post.
I received this reply.
While coeliac disease is a serious lifelong autoimmune condition, receiving a formal diagnosis and adapting to the lifestyle brings several unexpected secondary health, lifestyle, and practical benefits.
Health Improvements
Restored gut health: Eliminating gluten stops autoimmune attacks, letting your small intestine heal completely.
Increased energy: Improved nutrient absorption reverses chronic fatigue and malnourishment.
Reduced long-term risks: Strict adherence lowers your chances of developing osteoporosis, anemia, or other autoimmune conditions.
No medication needed: The primary treatment relies entirely on dietary changes, avoiding pharmaceuticals or surgeries.
Lifestyle & Nutritional Perks
Whole-food nutrition: Avoiding processed gluten foods naturally steers you toward fresh meats, fish, fruit, and vegetables.
Culinary exploration: You are introduced to naturally gluten-free alternative grains like quinoa, teff, and buckwheat.
Diverse cuisines: Finding safe meals encourages trying diverse food traditions such as authentic Thai, Indian, or Persian cuisines.
Intentional eating: Reading ingredient labels raises your awareness of hidden sugars, fats, and additives.
Home cooking: Missing out on standard fast-food joints builds confidence in cooking high-quality meals from scratch.
Practical & Community Advantages
Financial assistance: Depending on your location, such as the UK, you may qualify for gluten-free staples like bread on prescription. In other regions, you might be eligible for medical tax deductions.
Family health awareness: Because it is a hereditary condition, your diagnosis helps first-degree relatives get tested and treated early.
Built-in community: Patient support organizations like Coeliac UK provide robust networks, meal apps, and peer guidance.
Decisive ordering: Minimal gluten-free choices at restaurants eliminates general decision fatigue when browsing large menus.
The only thing, I might add is that according to the University of Nottingham, has shown, that because of their enhanced immune system, coeliacs have a lower cancer rate than the general population.
Italy Leads The World In Screening For Coeliac Disease
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on 360info.org.
This is the sub-heading.
Coeliac disease is common but often undetected. Researchers are looking at ways to make the disease both easier to diagnose and easier to treat.
This paragraph gives a few more details.
The land of pizza and pasta — Italy — has become the first country in the world to pass a law requiring all children under the age of 18 to be screened for coeliac disease and type 1 diabetes.
I feel the most interesting part of this law will be its secondary and long term ones.
Topics I will be following include.
- How will it increase the number of diabetics and coeliacs?
- Will it affect cancer rates?
- Will it affect obesity rates?
- Will it affect the rates of other diseases?
- Will it help to improve Italy’s chronically-low birth rate.
- Will it improve Italy’s performance in sports like swimming and athletics, that need a high degree of fitness.
How many other countries will follow Italy?
Daily Pill Could Revolutionise Cancer Treatment
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article in the Sunday Times.
This is the sub-heading.
Doctors hail the ‘holy grail’ of research that provides hope to patients and families facing the disease.
These three paragraphs introduce the article.
A daily pill that doubles life expectancy for pancreatic cancer sufferers may revolutionise treatment for millions of people, experts believe.
Researchers found the drug significantly extended the lives of patients by targeting a specific mutation.
The pill, daraxonrasib, is the biggest breakthrough in decades for pancreatic cancer, which is notoriously difficult to treat.
Exercise ‘Better Than Drugs’ To Stop Colon Cancer Returning
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article in The Times.
This is the sub-heading.
First study of its kind finds that an ‘exercise prescription’ can reduce the chances of colon cancer patients dying from a relapse by a third
These first two paragraphs add more detail.
Exercise can be “better than a drug” for reducing the risk of cancer returning, a study has found.
Patients with advanced colon cancer who received an “exercise prescription” after finishing their cancer treatment were found to be a third less likely to die from the disease.
I find these findings from the The CO21 Challenge trial, partially funded by Cancer Research UK’s Stand Up To Cancer fund, rather remarkable.
The research was led by Christian Booth, of Queen’s University in Canada, which illustrates the international nature of medical research.
On a third reading of the article, I noticed the full implications of this paragraph.
Alongside benefits for colon cancer, Booth said that fewer patients in the active group went on to develop breast cancer, suggesting that there may be an effect on other cancer types too. Of those who received an exercise prescription, only two went on to develop breast cancer, compared with 12 in the control group.
This could be a very significant study, that changes the treatment of cancer.
I’m Getting Fed Up Being Coeliac
I’m not getting fed up with the benefits.
- The inability to get serious doses of the covids, as was shown by the University of Padua and I documented in Risk Of COVID-19 In Celiac Disease Patients.
- The lower rate of cancer, compared to the general population as has been shown by Nottingham University.
- Coeliac diease and the B12 injections I take, indirectly helped my recovery from the stroke I had. But that was just luck!
I haven’t had a dose of the covids, but I have had all my vaccinations.
But increasingly, restaurant chains like Carluccio’s and Le Pain Quoitidien are closing only to be replaced by chains that don’t even pay lip-service to coeliacs.
Some chains, even treat being gluten-free as a fad. That is an insult to people like me and the doctors and other medical staff, who diagnosed us.
I’m getting feed up as more and more vcoeliac-friendly cafes and restaurants close.
Coeliac disease indirectly killed my son and probably my paternal grandfather and is present in at least 1-in-100 of the UK population.
We should identify all of those, who have the genes, using the genetic test, which is only a simple blood test costing a few pounds.
Indian Minister’s Health Advice: Lie In A Cowshed To Cure Cancer
The title of this post, is the same. as that of this article in The Times.
This is the sub-heading.
Senior politician in Narendra Modi’s party says he drinks cow urine every morning to kill bacteria and eliminate negativity
These are the first three paragraphs.
The humble cow has long been venerated in India. Revered by Hindus, pictured with the prime minister, Narendra Modi, and long used by his Bharatiya Janata Party to promote the leader’s own politically charged brand of nationalism, the animal plays a central part in Indian life.
That adoration could grow further after a senior politician claimed that cows could cure cancer.
Sanjay Singh Gangwar, 48, a BJP minister for sugarcane in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, said patients could eradicate their symptoms simply by cleaning and lying down in a cowshed. They would be cured by the “positive aura and energy” of cows, the minister said.
When I found a peer-reviewed paper entitled Coeliac Disease: Can We Avert The Impending Epidemic In India?, I discussed it with my GP at the time, who was of part-Indian extraction, and I got a rant about Narendra Modi.
I now take anything Narendra Modi says with a very large dose of salt.
Gangwar’s advice doesn’t stop there.
These two paragraphs give more pearls of wisdom.
The health benefits of a cow do not end there, added Gangwar. He advocated drinking “filtered” cow urine — which he said he did every morning — and use cow dung as flooring in village homes. And anyone suffering from high blood pressure should simply stroke a cow — once in the morning and again in the evening.
“If a cancer patient starts cleaning a cowshed and lying there, even cancer can be cured,” he insisted as he inaugurated a cow shelter in the city of Pilibhit. “If you burn cow dung cakes, you get relief from mosquitoes. Everything that a cow produces is useful in some way.”
So to Gangwar, the global-warming methane, that cows emit is useful, but in what way?
Is Gangwar, Donald Trump’s long-lost Indian son from a dalliance in the country?
I Had My Fifth Endoscopy Yesterday And The Fourth Without A Sedative!
After two at Addenbrooke’s in Cambridge, this was my third endoscopy at Homerton in East London.
The most difficult part was not eating for eight hours before and only drinking water for four hours before.
I have mild anaemia and they were looking for cancer.
Luckily for me, they didn’t find any.
I did however lose nearly a kilo in weight.
Was that the diet or the long walk to the bus, which took me home?
Endoscopies At Homerton
On their information, they sent me, Homerton said they prefer to do endoscopies without a sedative.
I suppose it is more efficient, as Addenbrooke’s told me nearly thirty years ago.
Conclusion
I am certainly not worried about endoscopies and if your doctor says you have should one, make sure they talk you through it sensibly.
Years ago, I was on holiday in Capri and met a party of about six American gastroenterologists, who were horrified, that I had had two endoscopies without anaesthetic.
But then, I think they were more worried about the fees, that the anaesthetist didn’t get.
When Homerton investigated my gallstones, I said I’d be happy to undergo the procedure without a sedative, although, the specialist private surgeon, doing the procedure for the NHS, was accompanied by an anaesthetist. In the end the anaesthetist just stood by, in case he was needed and the surgeon did his first endoscopy without a sedative. He was very pleased with everyone’s performance including mine.
We Should All Raise A Glass To Sven
The BBC has a very matter-of-fact article on the death of Sven-Goran Eriksson, which is entitled Former England Manager Eriksson Dies Aged 76.
The article finishes with these words from Sven.
I hope you will remember me as a positive guy trying to do everything he could do.
“Don’t be sorry, smile. Thank you for everything, coaches, players, the crowds, it’s been fantastic. Take care of yourself and take care of your life. And live it.
There are no major fixtures today, but it will be interesting to see how he is remembered by fans, at the weekend!
Should All Hospital In-Patients Be Tested For Coeliac Disease?
I went to a medical lecture tonight and I came home on the tube with a cardiologist. As we chatted, the title of this post occurred to me.
Consider.
- A diagnosed coeliac on a gluten-free diet tends to have a stronger immune system.
- I am a diagnosed coeliac on a gluten-free diet.
- An undiagnosed coeliac tends to have a poor immune system.
- It would certainly mean, you got the right diet in hospital.
I also have some further more detailed thoughts.
My Son, George
NHS advice on those, who need to be tested for coeliac disease includes this sentence.
Testing is also recommended if you have a first-degree relative (parent, sibling or child) with coeliac disease.
When I was diagnosed as a coeliac in 1997, I told my three sons to get tested. None did!
A month or so before he did, George ended up in Trafford Park Hospital.
If they had tested him, would they have picked up his pancreatic cancer earlier?
Probably not, but it’s a question that must be asked.
Research From The University Of Padua
This paper on the US National Library of Medicine, which is from the University of Padua in Italy.
The University followed a group of 138 patients with coeliac disease, who had been on a gluten-free diet for at least six years, through the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in Padua.
This sentence, sums up the study.
In this analysis we report a real life “snapshot” of a cohort of CeD patients during the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in Italy, all followed in one tertiary centre in a red area of Northern Italy. Our data show, in accordance with Emmi et al., the absolute absence of COVID-19 diagnosis in our population, although 18 subjects experienced flu-like symptoms with only one having undergone naso-pharyngeal swab.
It says that no test subject caught Covid-19, in an admittedly smallish number of patients.ost
But it reinforces my call for more research into whether if you are a diagnosed coeliac on a long-term gluten-free diet, you have an immune system, that gives you a degree of protection from the Covids.
Conditions Linked To Coeliac Disease
This page on the Coeliac UK web site is entitled Conditions Linked To Coeliac Disease, has the following subsections.
- Autoimmune Disease
- Type 1 Diabetes
- Autoimmune Thyroid Disease
- Down’s and Turner Syndrome
- Osteoporosis
- Lactose Intolerance
- Lymphoma And Small Bowel Cancer
- Autism
- Fertility
Some of the keywords are linked to other pages on the Coeliac UK web site.
Testing For Coeliac Disease
Testing for coeliac disease is not an expensive process and just involves a simple blood test, where the blood goes to the lab.
My now-retired GP reckoned in nearly all cases, the test is decisive.
The Anonymous Widower 