Celiac Stats

I am continually discovering things that astound me.  These days, most of these 'things' seem to involve Celiac disease and/or gluten intolerance... or somewhere in between.
This is just a sampling:

Data

Between 5% and 10% of all people may suffer from a gluten sensitivity of some form.

1 out of every 133 Americans (about 3 million people) have Celiac Disease

97% of Americans estimated to have Celiac Disease are not diagnosed

Celiac Disease has over 300 known symptoms

30% of the US Population is estimated to have the genes necessary for CD

The U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that the Gluten Free industries revenues will reach $1.9 Billion by 2012

Gluten free foods are, on average, 242% more expensive then their non-GF counterparts

There aer currently 0 drugs available to treat Celiac Disease

People with CD dine out 80% less than they used to before diagnosis and believe less than 10% of eating establishments have a ‘very good’ or ‘good’ understanding of GF diets.

The average cost of a misdiagnosis is $5,000 – $12,000 per person per year.

Celiac disease is a hereditary condition and if you have celiac disease, you can expect that 4 to 12% of your first-degree relatives will also have the condition.

60% of children and 41% of adults diagnosed during the study were asymptomatic

Statistic Verification

Source: National Institutes of Health, Univ. of Chicago Celiac Disease Center

Date Verified: 3.19.2012

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What's the point?

As much as I'd love to start today's blog with gushing and profuse apologies to all of you that follow my blog for my absence... that might be just a little optimistic. The truth is that I haven't written in months because I lost focus and began to question why I was blogging in the first place.  To satisfy my own selfish needs?  To tell my daughter's story?  To educate the public about Celiac disease?  To vent and rage against the machine? er,  I mean against this stupid disease?  To develop and share recipes? To hear myself think?  Maybe a bit of everything. After all, who doesn't blog these days? I almost hated to tell people that I had a blog.  It seemed ridiculously self absorbed to think that I would write something and tell people to go and read it!  So I stopped.  I kept thinking about it however.  But I wanted it to have a purpose, a point.  I'm not sure if I have one even now, but I at least know that I want one.  That is a start. So I decided to begin again.

My daughter's disease is ever present in her life, in my life and in our family's life.  It guides us daily. It holds her back from things.  It holds us back.  It makes her think twice before she does what most people do without thinking once!  It educates her.  She educates me.  It makes her very angry sometimes. It makes me very angry always. It makes me feverishly read daily anything I can on Celiacs. But what do we do with this?  We live with it.  And living with it simply means that we eat differently. Differently than we used to certainly, and differently than most other families. And that is okay. Really. It's still hard but it could be worse. Much worse. We are lucky. Lucky beyond words to have her. Lucky and thankful to have these two lovely, funny, witty and crazy little girls in our lives.  So we go forward. 

My goal, at least with my current mindset, is to focus on recipes, restaurants (ruthlessly!), current findings, helpful information and of course, sharing still, our story as a family living gluten free out of necessity and not by choice.  

I hope you continue to follow us and check back often.