Celiac Disease Research Study

If you have celiac disease you may be interested in a research study being conducted by the Celiac Team.   They are dedicated to connecting people with celiac disease to clinical trials in an effort to produce new and more effective treatments.  Celiac disease damages the small intestine after an adverse reaction in the body to ingesting gluten which is found in wheat, rye and some oats.

If you are interested in taking their short questionnaire to see if you qualify please visit their website and let me know if you will be participating in the study.

Celiac Team

Good luck!

Got Milk?

Several weeks ago when my colitis was acting up I started looking into foods that can aggravate it.  It seems that there can be many triggers that can cause your tummy trouble like caffeine, chocolate and dairy.  Since I don’t really ingest much caffeine and there was NO way in hades that I was giving up chocolate I decided to cut cow milk out of my diet.  I had become accustomed to having a glass of the cow juice every morning with my breakfast either in a bowl with cereal or in a glass by itself.  I had tasted soy milk before and I gotta say…..NOT a fan!  I decided to try some of this almond milk that I had been hearing so much about.  The “original” flavor did not impress me.  The smell and lack of flavor did nothing to win my taste buds over so I tried the “vanilla” flavor next.  YUM-O!  Okay….I can deal with this!  It was creamy and I loved the hint of vanilla flavor.  I have been drinking this brand now for a couple of weeks and I am happy to say my stomach has not had any bad reactions.  As a matter of fact, my colitis hasn’t acted up in a while now…..YIPPEE!

I’m not sure if I have found the solution to all of my stomach issues, but for now I am loving the almond milk.  I buy the Blue Diamond brand because it goes on sale quite frequently at Publix and Kroger and coupons are usually very easy to find.  If you haven’t tried it yet check it out and let me know your thoughts.

I just have one question though…..do those little nuts have udders?  I don’t know how they get the milk out of them, but my stomach is thankful!

Sometimes I hate my colon…

About 2 years ago I was diagnosed with lymphocytic coilitis (LC).  This is a form of microscopic coilitis that can only be diagnosed by reviewing tissue samples of the colon lining under a microscope.  LC is an inflammatory condition in the colon that causes chronic diarrhea and an accumulation of white blood cells in the colon lining.

Shortly after receiving this diagnosis I removed gluten from my diet and my stomach had actually been acting normal.  I had no abdominal cramps and I was feeling good….until recently.  Lately my stomach has been cramping and the trips to the bathroom have increased.  I have tried removing dairy, caffeine and chocolate to see if that would help, but so far no luck.  I want to curse my colon some days!  This is an embarrassing, frustrating ailment.  There is no known way to prevent it and some people have the effects for years, while others have their symptoms spontaneously disappear.  I wish I could say some magic words to bring my digestive system back to normal.

Alakazam!!  Nope…..didn’t work.  Is anyone else out there a sufferer of the dreaded coilitis?