Once a Coeliac always a Coeliac?

I was diagnosed with coeliac disease at the tender age of five months old.

From the perspective of a child, having a nurse for a mother is not what you might expect.

Most children of nurses will probably tell you that their broken arm would have to be hanging by a thread before their mothers would administer tender loving care. Bruised knees or a thumped head would be dealt with efficiently, but rarely with any comfort.

However, when it came to my diagnosis of coeliac disease my mother was all over it. It was 1970 and very few had heard of coeliac disease. But my mother knew that my bowel movements (or what she termed as my 'cow pat poos') were not normal. So she sought to find a doctor who would agree with her.

Coeliac disease is when the immune system reacts to gluten and leads to damage of the lining of the gut. It affects people in varying ways, from very mild to severe. Some people experience chronic diarrhoea, stomach pains or crippling fatigue. Others suffer from constant mouth ulcers, bloating or anaemia. I had 'cow pat poos' and it was severe.

We are told that coeliac disease is a lifelong condition. However, I am now symptom free.

My journey from coeliac disease to symptom-free tells a tale that hinges upon the story of wheat production and changing agricultural practices over the past forty to fifty years, coupled with poor nutritional school education and misinformation.

Why is gluten such an issue?

Gluten is a protein mix, designed to help maintain the shape of certain foods. Our breads today aren't just made with refined flour; we also throw away the bran (where all the fibre is) and we throw away the germ (where all the micronutrients are) and we have hybridised our wheat so many times to increase the gluten level (as it makes nice, soft, fluffy bread) so it's not really a recognisable food by the human gut.

When we put white flour in our gut it turns to glue, and when we mix in processed meat products it's a recipe for a build-up of rubbish in our gastrointestinal tract.

It's no wonder that wheat and gluten intolerance is causing a huge amount of gut dysfunction and subsequent auto-immune conditions.

The treatment for coeliac disease is a gluten-free diet and if gluten is introduced back into the diet at a later date, the immune system will react and the gut lining will become damaged again.

My experience of living with coeliac disease is that by the time I was a teenager I had bizarrely forgotten I even had it. And by the time I left home at eighteen I was so oblivious to the requirements of my gut that I lived a regular student life of bingeing on late night burgers and subsisting on a diet of cereal, toast, pastries and pasta. All wheat, gluten and sugar. Every day. All day. For years.

I use the word 'subsisting' because I might have been able to ignore the needs of my gut but I paid the price for this by spending most of my student years fighting off repeated bouts of tonsillitis and other acute infections -- oblivious to the link between my gut and immune system.

At the age of twenty-eight my gut had finally decided it had had enough and it stopped functioning properly.

That was the beginning of my health journey, when I first discovered Kinesiology, and when I decided to take charge of my health and educate myself about nutrition. I quit sugar and gluten and started to take my health seriously - which, unwittingly, and undoubtedly, saved my life.

Did Kinesiology save my life? Probably.

The fact that I am where I am today (i.e. symptom free) and feel the way I do, feels nothing short of a miracle.

But most importantly this story reveals how amazing our bodies are.

A recent blood test revealed that I don't have an auto-immune response to gluten. This is a remarkable result. It means that I can eat gluten today and my body would not see it as an invader.

It reveals that my diligence towards eating well over the past twenty years has paid off and truly validates the years I've spent as 'the fussy foody'.

It has taught me that no matter what happens in our lives, if we want to change, we have the ability to heal ourselves, from pretty much anything.

Will this alter the way that I eat?

This hasn't changed my attitude towards wheat and gluten and I will stick to a gluten free diet. I will always need to take care of my gut lining.

But then again, who doesn't?

And when I say 'a gluten free diet' I don't mean 'gluten free flours'. It's hard to find good gluten free products which are actually healthy. I always steer clear of them and opt for more nutritious flours (that are naturally gluten free) such as almond, gram (chickpea), coconut, buckwheat, tapioca or rice flours - all full of healthy fat, fibre and protein.

So when someone asks me if they will always suffer with coeliac disease, or Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Hashimotos or chronic back pain, I always tell them my story.

As I've said before, miracles can happen. We just need to be ready and open and willing to change.