The Cinderella Allergy

 

I read with interest the front page article in The Times on allergy sufferers with interest.

But as a coeliac, or someone allergic to the gluten in wheat, barley and rye, I am totally surprised at the omission of any mention of this allergy. According to statistics compiled by Nottingham University it affects about one in a hundred of the population of the United Kingdom. They also said that diagnosed coeliacs are at a lower risk of getting cancer as opposed to the general population.

Perhaps it has acquired this Cinderella status, because once diagnosed, sufferers generally lose all of those awful symptoms, like migraines, wind, chronic dandruff, diarrhoea, joint pains, infertility in women, mild depression etc. that they’ve endured for years. With the exception of the odd check-up and injection, you are not a heavy drain on the NHS. Some might argue that because coeliac disease shows itself in very peculiar and almost unrelated places, diagnosis saves money by cutting unnecessary visits to the doctor and mis-prescribing of drugs.

But at least things are changing.

Some doctors are now looking to see if the migraines, joint pains or infertility are caused by the allergy.

We need much more of this all-round and open approach to health.

For instance could some of the well-publicised mystery illnesses and loss of form of some sportsmen, be down to undiagnosed coeliac disease? If you take the thousands of professional sportsmen and women in this country, it is surprising that only one is known to be a coeliac. On the law of averages there should be quite a lot more.