View the Transcript for the Celiac Episode to Air on Second Opinion

Recently, I blogged about the Celiac Disease Episode to Air on Public Television on October 15 or 16.  The transcript can now be viewed online. This great episode includes Alice Bast from NFCA and Dr. Daniel Leffler.  The patient, a 42-year-old man, presents with swelling in his hands, joint pain, and lactose intolerance. Later, he develops GI symptoms.

This episode is truly amazing awareness! One of my favorite parts is this quote from Alice.

"Yeah, malignancies, and I ended up seeing twenty-two doctors before I was diagnosed, but in my case I also had reproductive health issues.  So when you say how can it affect you, I had a full-term stillborn child, I had three miscarriages, and my youngest daughter was two pounds when she was born.  So she fit into the palm of my hand.  I’m five foot nine and I weighed a hundred and thirty pounds now.  I was down to about a hundred pounds. My hair was falling out, my teeth were breaking, and the doctors were telling me that I had postpartum depression and telling me I had psychiatric problems, you name it, anemia, so a lot of this — I had, you know, swelling in my joints.  I had such diarrhea that I couldn’t even go to work."

All aspects of celiac disease are discussed, including testing, related conditions, complications, and the gluten-free diet. Celiac is even referred to as "a multi-symptom chameleon disease."