Celiac Disease Statistics
copied from Celiac.com:
"Celiac disease is one of the most common chronic health disorders in western countries. It is also one of the most under-diagnosed. Up until ten years ago, medical schools taught that celiac disease was relatively rare and only affected about 1 in 2,500 people. It was also thought to be a disease that primarily affected children and young people. Recent studies and advances in diagnosis show that at least 3 million Americans, or about 1 in 133 people have celiac disease, but only 1-in-4,700 is ever diagnosed.
The National Institutes of Health shows the prevalence of celiac disease to other well-known conditions as follows:
• Celiac Disease affects 3 million Americans
• Epilepsy affects 2.8 million Americans
• Crohn's Disease affects 500,000 Americans
• Ulcerative Colitis affects 500,000 Americans
• Multiple Sclerosis affects 333,000 Americans
• Cystic Fibrosis affects 30,000 Americans"
The full article (by Jefferson Adams) includes correlations between Celiac Disease and other diseases. It's the usual roster of cancers and complications that you'd expect from autoimmune and malabsorption issues.
At first glance, what I find most annoying is that of all of the "conditions" listed above, Celiac Disease should be the simplest and easiest to treat. Like phenylketonuria or nasty food allergies, it boils down to "don't eat X,Y,or Z." Granted, that's not as easy as one might hope in American hypercarbo/prepackaged society... but compare that to some of the other diseases listed where the mechanisms aren't well understood, there are "promising treatments" but no cure, and/or patients may be taking a small suitcase of pills a day. In that perspective, keeping CD under control is pretty simple. Complications from untreated CD are serious, expensive, and lethal. From the whole preventative medicine and cost analysis perspective, just think how much agony, frustration, and money could be saved if people were more effectively screened for CD. Oh, yeah, and lives, too. Just a thought.