Unmasking One of the Most Underdiagnosed Autoimmune Diseases

Do you suffer from gastrointestinal complaints, fatigue, headaches, joint pain, anemia, and/or itchy skin conditions? Have you consulted numerous doctors, and been prescribed drugs and diets that have only temporarily alleviated some symptoms? If so, you may have celiac disease, a hereditary autoimmune condition that affects nearly one in every hundred people—97 percent of whom remain undiagnosed and untreated.

If you are one of these people, the real answer to your medical problems may lie in this book. Dr. Peter Green, director of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University and internationally renowned expert on the disease, together with Rory Jones, an accomplished science writer who was diagnosed with the disease in 1998 and has been researching it ever since, have written the first and only authoritative guide on how celiac disease is properly diagnosed, treated, and managed. The disease is triggered by gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. Gluten damages the lining of the small intestine so that it cannot properly absorb food. Without essential nutrients, the entire body begins to suffer. Complications from celiac disease can include infertility, depression, liver disease, other autoimmune diseases (such as type 1 diabetes and thyroid disease), and even cancer. This is a disease that you do not outgrow. At present, the only way to treat it is to follow a lifelong gluten-free diet.

This revised and updated edition contains the most current information on celiac disease, gluten intolerance, and gluten sensitivity. It examines the disease's many manifestations and includes an entire section devoted to coping with the psychological aspects of living with a chronic illness and the gluten-free diet. There is new information about testing for the disease; a closer look at the causes, as well as related conditions; the latest scientific research toward a cure; an updated guide to ingredients and safe grains; and an expanded list of gluten-free manufacturers and national and international support groups.

An "inside-out" examination and explanation of celiac disease, this is a must-read for both patients and the medical community.