Celiac Disease - New York Times

The New York Times has printed another ordinary article about celiac (coeliac) disease. Why does medicine continue to pursue a course of treatment that works for so few?

Three days ago, the New York Times included an article about celiac disease ("With This Disorder, No Cheating on the Diet") which is at odds with my recent review of Elaine Gottschall's book, Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Health Through Diet.

Mainstream views of celiac continue to go mostly unquestioned - even by alternative health practitioners - even though a gluten-free diet doesn't completely work for most celiacs.

In Breaking the Vicious Cycle, Gottschall debates the merits of the tests used to establish that someone is celiac - tests which, she asserts, can be easily fooled by other digestive and malabsorptive issues.

She also introduces the Specific Carbohydrate Diet - a plan that eliminates the specific, complex carbs she believes are the source of celiac disease, as well as the gluten protein. This diet, she asserts, will completely heal celiac and other intestinal disorders within one to three years - provided the diet is followed absolutely. Dozens of people who have healed their celiac disease and other digestive problems with this diet enthusiastically back her up.

Compare this to the medical model, in which patients are advised to follow a diet that is completely gluten-free, and to follow it absolutely to prevent further damage to their intestine - for life, with no prognosis for improvement.

Most celiac patients on the mainstream diet experience some relief from symptoms (diarrhea, digestive upset, fatigue, bone degeneration, weight loss) but for most this plan does not give complete relief. I suppose celiac sufferers should consider themselves lucky compared to those living with Crohn's and other digestive ailments - the medical system doesn't (yet) have a drug to perscribe them.

Instead, they are told to expect to experience digestive issues for the rest of their lives. How not? The recommended gluten-free diet for celiacs is full of rice, rice flour, tapioca, soy, and other refined, high-glycemic processed carbs. These foods contribute to excessive blood sugar highs and lows (white rice, tapioca) as well as hormone imbalance (soy products).

Yes, the specific carbohydrate diet (or SCD) is a bit trickier to follow than the gluten-free diet - but it yields results. Gottschall's former patients insist that her approach represents a real cure.

Celiac patient Jennifer Stenberg writes:

"Unfortunately for both my daughter, another sister... and I, the gluten-free diet did not work. Some symptoms were arrested, but none of us were thriving and we just weren't absorbing food.... To make a long story short, we found the diet (for whatever reason) to be a godsend....

I have never been healthier. My daughter, once a sickly (often whiney) withdrawn child with thin heair and dark circles under her eyes is outgoing, rosy cheeked and happy. Everyone has noticed her thick, shiny hair. In fact, she ran a marathon in Owen Sound this year and placed 15th out of 79 children. Last year she ran the same race (before the diet) and placed 53rd, arrived weepy and slept all the way home in the car.

Tackling the diet is overwhelming to be sure. Anything different is a challenge. Instead of diving in headfirst, I tried one recipe at a time. My sister (skeptical of your diet) visited me last summer and I showed her how to change her kitchen, shopping habits and cooking. She loved the food but didn't notice that some of her symptoms had disappeared until she went home and went back on the gluten-free diet. She is now back on your diet and happy with it." (SCD Testimonials, accessed July 26, 2007)

Mike McReady of Pearl Jam is not a Celiac sufferer, but he has Crohn's disease (another intestinal disorder) and has experienced marked benefits with the SCD. He is quoted as having said:

"It's different for each patient. The thing that has really been working for me right now is my diet and this book by Elaine Gloria Gottschall, called "Breaking the Vicious Cycle." And this doesn't work for everyone but, for me, it's worked. And it's basically a diet, of no sugar, no starch - so, no potatoes, no fries, no refined sugars. And it's tough. We have to make bread out of nuts and all sorts of stuff, but it's the only thing that's put this [Crohn's] thing in remission without being on a ton of drugs. Actually, it's the best I've felt since I was probably 15 or 16." (Breaking the Vicious Cycle website, accessed July 26, 2007)

See also: Elaine Gottschall's celiac lecture: WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE CURE FOR CELIAC DISEASE?