Just as food allergies can cause a variety of physical and mental conditions, some of them rather severe, food sensitivities can have serious effects on one’s health as well. I was diagnosed with celiac disease, which is caused by an allergy to gluten, many years ago, and as an author, researcher, and humanitarian, I have studied gluten allergies andgluten intolerance, to find that it is not uncommon that those who are sensitive or allergic to gluten often have additional sensitivities or allergies as well. Now I’m pleased to find there’s a test out there—the ALCAT—which thoroughly and accurately determines one’s sensitivities to various chemicals and foods.

The ALCAT (Antigen Leukocyte Cellular Antibody Test) is a type of blood test that dates back almost 25 years and is used by individuals and healthcare professionals to determine one’s food and chemical sensitivities and their degree of sensitivity – extreme or mild. While 1 in every 100 Americans has celiac disease, there are many who don’t have an allergy to gluten, and won’t test positive for the disease, but they do, in fact, have a gluten intolerance. Whereas celiac testing fails to determine sensitivities to gluten, the ALCAT can be administered to successfully determine this.This means that the millions of Americans who suffer from mental and physical discomfort from ingesting gluten can finally be helped.

What is the difference between an allergy and a sensitivity? ALCAT Worldwide says that the “inability to tolerate foods and environmental factors, also known as sensitivity or intolerance, induces chronic activation of the innate immune system and gives rise to inflammatory processes.” It is this inflammation that leads to health problems such as digestive difficulties, migraines, skin disorders, arthritis, and obesity, just to name a few. In other words, even if you just have a “sensitivity,” and not a full-blown allergy, it is important to your health and quality of life that you address this.

It is not uncommon to find that celiacs have allergies or sensitivities to additional foods, not just gluten, such as casein or soy. I personally am not able to tolerate dairy very well, and I have run into many celiacs with this same intolerance. If you’ve tested positive for celiac disease and have changed to a gluten-free diet, but you still don’t feel your best, there may be other sensitivities that need to be addressed. The ALCAT is highly useful for celiacs who fall in this group.

So what is the ALCAT? It is a blood test that identifies one’s type of reaction (extreme, mild, or no reaction) to over 300 foods, chemicals, and other substances by measuring cellular reactivity in whole blood, using “state-of-the-art” electronic technology. The results are presented in a simple, color-coded, easy-to-follow chart.

If you’re gluten-intolerant or celiac, and you’ve already made the change to a gluten-free diet, you have taken a critical step in protecting yourself from a wide range of health problems and diseases. If you suspect you may have other sensitivities, or if you’d like to go the extra mile in safeguarding your health, the ALCAT Test may be the answer you’re looking for.

Read success stories:

http://www.glutenfreehelp.info/gluten-free-and-allergy-tests/gluten-free-and-the-alcat

http://www.glutenfreehelp.info/autoimmune-disorders/alcat-success

Tina Turbin

www.GlutenFreeHelp.info

I am originating and authorizing Tina Turbin to share this story with you. Dr. Maureen Ellis

Maureen has generously offered to share her continued personal story. Check back for Part 2 or sign up for the RSS feed on this site on the right hand column. Read Part 1 now

Everyone has a story to tell and my journey toward living a healthy, gluten-free lifestyle is a unique story, one of which I hope will give other people hope for living a “ full” filled life after years of frustrations, tests, diagnosis and acceptance. From my personal experience, I can understand why someone would not feel fulfilled and would almost feel deprived being thrown into a situation where they can no longer eat the foods they have grown to love and share with their family and friends, but when the order was given for me to go gluten free, I was willing to do anything to feel better and bring a sense of normalcy and peace back into my life and that of my family. My name is Dr. Maureen Ellis, and I have Systemic Lupus Erythemtosus (SLE), which is a chronic autoimmune connective tissue disease that can affect any part of the body where the immune system attacks the body’s cells and tissue, resulting in inflammation and tissue damage. Lupus has affected my central nervous system, gastrointestinal tract, biliary tract and pancreas. Please join me in my adaptation to a “full” filling gluten-free lifestyle.

After my children were born I decided to get my master’s degree. I fell in love with higher education and decided to pursue my Ph.D. I successfully defended my dissertation the month before I turned 41 and started my first tenure-track position two months later at a research institution. I felt like everything in my life had fallen into place and it was finally time to enjoy the fruits of my labor. We had a beautiful home, two great kids, my husband loved his job and we were starting to make our new environment feel like home. In April 2005, I went in for my annual exam and my doctor found a lump in my left breast. Without delay I had numerous tests and ended up in a surgeon’s office who immediately scheduled me for a lumpectomy to remove the tumor. He was 95% sure that my lump was cancerous. Believe it or not, the tumor was benign, but something went terribly wrong during surgery; it appeared as if my computer had decided not to reboot because when I woke up on May 7, 2005, nothing in my life would ever be the same. Now that I have been fully diagnosed, the doctors believe that Lupus had been a sleeping giant waiting to be woken up and we have been able to go through my childhood and realize that the symptoms of gluten intolerance and GI disorders have been a part of my life since I was a small child.

Following the lumpectomy, I couldn’t keep food down, had constant diarrhea and eventually became dehydrated so I was admitted back into the hospital. They hooked me up to an IV and some good drugs then sent me home to recuperate, only to find myself readmitted twice in the next couple of weeks. The doctors in the hospital said it was time to get to a specialist that there was definitely something strange going on inside. One doctor mentioned Crones Disease and Colitis so next step was making an appointment with a gastroenterologist. I went in expecting to get help and start feeling better soon as I was teaching summer school and it was tough when I didn’t have any energy. Right away he was positive it was Crones Disease, which is an inflammatory bowel disease or Celiac Sprue, which is an autoimmune disorder of the small intestine causing a mal-absorption syndrome from the ingestion of gluten-containing foods . I had the usual battery of tests like a sigmoidoscopy, upper GI, several blood and stool tests, all of which came back negative, except I had exceptionally fast transit and was trans-absorbing nutrients, which meant that my food was moving through my GI tract so fast that I wasn’t able to absorb any of the nutrients so I was suffering from malnutrition. Since I was continuing to lose weight from the chronic diarrhea and I was losing my appetite for food, I started pushing the doctor for answers, especially since we were already into early August and I wanted to be well before the new school year started. Looking back now, that was such an unrealistic goal as it took four years to get a complete diagnosis. In the meantime, the doctor suggested we start eliminating lactose to see if that helped and sadly enough, getting rid of my morning latte did help some with the gas and bloating but diarrhea was still running my life. I knew that as soon as I ate, within 20 minutes I would head straight to the bathroom with severe cramping and watery diarrhea. My life was literally revolving around what I ate, when I ate and then my distance to a bathroom. I started to feel isolated and was afraid to go out in public for fear there wouldn’t be a bathroom close enough when the trots came on. I had severe debilitating pain in my upper-right quadrant to the point I felt like I was being stabbed by a knife. One night I lay in bed planning my funeral because I was afraid to wake my husband and tell him I thought I was dying.

About a week before the fall semester began I prepared and had my colonoscopy and an endoscopy. And yes its true, the prep is far worse than the actual procedure because I remember nothing. The problem was that I never recovered and started becoming very, very sick. The results were basically inconclusive for everything. He took several biopsies and said he could rule out Crones for now, but it could be Celiac, but for now he would go with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). When I woke up, I about went insane because I knew in my heart of hearts this was something more serious than IBS. This was not stress related or because of something I ate, but something had gone terribly wrong with that surgery and I needed someone who would get to the bottom of it. I felt very alone and scared. Unfortunately at this point I didn’t have any energy to fight this doctor. By the end of the weekend, I was too weak to get out of bed so my husband called the doctor’s office and thankfully, he was on vacation. This gave my husband the idea to call our former landlord who was a Gastroenterologist. He explained what was going on and said, “Maureen is dying can you do anything for her”. My new doctor rode in on his white horse with his white hat on and very gently took over my case. Here is my first tip to anyone going through a difficult diagnosis: go with your instincts and find a doctor who you trust, who is kind, compassionate and willing to listen to you as a person. Switching doctors saved my life – I have no doubt in my mind.

My new doctor put me on some meds to get me through the weekend and I went in to see him the next Monday.  After looking at my medical history and test results, he said, I think I know what’s wrong with you but you’re going to have to trust me on this. And this is the moment when my journey changed. The first step was to start pain killers for the abdominal pain, sleeping pills so I could get a decent night’s sleep because as he said, you can fight the pain when you are rested, and we started in with a new battery of tests to determine gallbladder function. After a trip to the ER and several tests later, in October my gallbladder became infected and inflamed, which had to be removed. After surgery I didn’t seem to improve and continued to decline in health. By this time my diet consisted of saltine crackers, soup and oatmeal. The doctor suspected I had developed Sphincter of Oddi Dysfunction, which affects the valves in the biliary tract. The sphincter of oddi is a muscular valve that controls the flow of bile and pancreatic juice through the bile tract (area from the liver, gallbladder and pancreas to the stomach) and flows into the first part of the small intestine. Sphincter of Oddi Dysfunction (SOD) happens when that valve doesn’t relax and causes severe spasms. This causes the bile juices to back up and causes episodes of severe abdominal pain.

Typically, doctors wait 90 days after gallbladder removal to perform an ERCP, which is a type of endoscopy, to measure sphincter pressure. Unfortunately, my body didn’t wait that long and the sphincter valve ruptured on its own sending me to the ER in excruciating pain. The doctor explained that that valve is held together with what appears to be rubber bands and I was feeling each rubber band snapping free. The doctor performed emergency surgery to repair the sphincter valve and pancreatic valve. Recovery went very slowly from the SOD surgery and the upper-right quadrant pain was still present, although not as bad as it was before the surgery. My gastrointestinal symptoms continued on through the spring and in early summer of 2006, my doctor repeated the ERCP to clean out scar tissue he thought was causing the continued pain. Since my GI symptoms failed to improve, he decided to do the capsule endoscopy to test for celiac damage. This procedure required me to swallow what looked like a capsule. There was a tiny camera implanted in the capsule so when I digested it, it took pictures of my digestive system. I also wore a contraption all day that logged the pictures being taken inside of me. I am a technology geek and I have to admit, I thought it was pretty high-tech and very interesting. Although the blood tests did not come back positive, the capsule endoscopy did indicate that I probably did have Celiac Disease or at least I had intestinal damage to support that diagnosis so he determined the best course of action would be to remove all gluten from my diet. Through elimination, we also determined it was best to eliminate lactose and egg yolks as well. Following the gallbladder surgery and Sphincter of Oddi surgery I have not been able to process much fat and by this time I had pretty much eliminated most meat and nuts because they caused too much pain and distress and my body just refused to digest them. With my new diet in hand; a trip or two to a registered dietitian, in August 2006 I began my journey into living a fulfilled life without gluten, lactose, egg yolks, raw fruits and vegetables along with a low-fat diet.

To be continued….

Dr. Maureen Ellis, Ph.D.
Business and Information Technologies Education Department
East Carolina University

Thank you Mareen. Maureen has generously offered to share her continued story as time progresses. Check back for Part 3. Read Part 1 now

Tina Turbin  Please visit this site for more information

There are many ways we with celiac or gluten intolerance can help others. One way is to head a group. Janet is an exceptional woman with her story and running a group for many years now. Here is her story and a link to a news article about her and her experiences. Really worth reading. Janet has recently attended my GF taste testing party to assist in my Reviews. She is FUN!

Janet Heitler joined a pre-existing group (Tampa Bay celiac Support Group) in 1995 two weeks after she was discharged from the hospital with her celiac diagnosis. She had a long time of misdiagnosis and no diagnosis. Things did not look good up to that final day of being correctly diagnosed.

Two women initially founded the group and Janet ended up in the group after they resigned from being Co-chairs. A husband and wife team took it over and I wanted to contribute because everyone was so wonderful – so Janet said she would be the Treasurer, easy to do. Everything was fine until two months into their “reign” I got a call that they were moving to Nevada.  Bam – she got in 1998 and I has had it ever since.

The meeting calendar was all over the chart and the first thing she did was announce to meet on the second Saturday of every other month – Feb/Apr/Jun/Aug/Oct and Dec.  We meet at 1 – 3 PM at the Jimmy Keel Library on Bears Avenue in Tampa, unless a luncheon is arranged.

They have done 2 GF Beer and Pizza Parties, when Pei Wei first opened they had a luncheon, and a luncheon at Trang’s Viet-Nam Cuisine — 90% of the menu is GF – it is not a GF restaurant it just works out like that, she says.

There are 200 people on her mailing list, but the most she has ever had at meeting (Beer/Pizza luncheon) was 70 people yet normally there are 20-25 people attending.

According to Janet, a lot of times newbie’s come once and think they know everything there is then fall aside. Then she gets a call and they talk as they are in trouble. She reminds them of the meetings and she tells them the new things that are out there and having the emails has helped people to reconnect and stay connected.

Janet’s email –  jchtbc42@tampabay.rr.com

Janet’s latest article:http://www2.newsadvance.com/lna/lifestyles/food_cooking/article/sifting_through_the_options/4033/

Thank you Janet!       Tina Turbin

A Black Swan is something that is unexpected or highly improbable. That’s how art arrived in my life, as a black swan. I didn’t have a long time dream of becoming an artist. Like many others, when it comes to artistic expression, I would have said that I couldn’t draw a straight line. I’ve never had an art lesson. The art comes from a peaceful place in my heart. I started experimenting with glass as a way to unwind after my usual 12 hour work day in event marketing.

Soon, I had a house filled with brightly colored glass plates and bowls. When I had friends over, they offered to buy my work or would request a special item for a wedding gift or other celebration, which was a complete surprise to me! My first exhibit was a big success and resulted in a commission of twenty pieces of glass art by the local museum store. I’ve continued to grow as a glass artist and will always enjoy that medium.

I had another black swan experience when I had a dream about drawing and painting these beautiful, flowing ladies; I didn’t paint or draw before that dream. I began to draw these simple figures, all with the desire to express love, beauty, connection and the radiant heart of a woman. Sometimes the trials and concerns of life cause women to close in, hide their hearts and shut down, however, I know inside of each woman is a beautiful treasure. This art calls out to the treasure and the beauty.

That’s what I want to capture in the celebration ladies, the unhindered spirit of a woman. Long open arms, generous hearts and a reflection of peace. People often cry when they look at the simple paintings and drawings because they are touched in a deep place inside. I’m always humbled and blessed when that happens, when a heart is touched or inspired by my art.

At this time in my life I have the joy of living my creative passion and I’m taking it to the next level by working with women, helping them to tap into their own creative identity. Creative expression comes in many forms; sometimes it’s in the arranging of a delightful garden or a fun and vibrant patchwork quilt. Other times it’s more subtle, like the ability to write an endearing letter or card.

Creativity is a part of each person, however sometimes you have to look for clues to how it is expressed through your life. Your unique creativity always leaves clues and those clues are waiting to be discovered.

Through the art and my passion for radio, my mission remains the same, helping others to have their own black swan experiences that shift life to a new level of fulfillment, health, love, connection and freedom. I love being an artist…and I still can’t draw a straight line! www.JordanMercedes.com

Please visit me every 2nd Monday of the month at 12 noon, EST. Next show is November 9th, so mark your schedule and connect up. The topic of conversation is Gluten Free and Celiac Disease! http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Thrive-In-Balance

The next show is November 9th, so mark your schedule and connect up. The topic of conversation is Gluten-Free and Celiac Disease! http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Thrive-In-Balance Please send me any suggestions of topics and I will be sure and share them with Merecedes for her consideraton.

Listen to the previous show in which she interviewed me on a variety of topics and suggested tips to balancing life.

Click here to listen to the previous show.

November 9th, EST 12 noon: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Thrive-In-Balance