Tag: celiac disease
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The secrecy behind JFK’s autoimmune disease
Jude Tunyi Columbus, Ohio, United States John F. Kennedy leaving on gurney from hospital following spinal surgery, as his wife Jacqueline stands over him. Dick DeMarsico, 1954. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Most Americans are familiar with the life and death of John F. Kennedy (JFK), but they may not know about…
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Our celiac boarder
Charles HalstedDavis, California, United States I listened with care to her history of weight loss, grain aversion, abdominal cramps, and frequent diarrhea. Her great-grandfather was an early California settler who had experienced the same symptoms for many years before he died. My patient, now in the middle years of her life, appeared normal, except for…
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The novice
Charles HalstedDavis, California, United States Living in the convent at age eighteen, the novice practiced vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. All she ate was in vain, the more she prayed, the more weight she lost, the weaker she became. I discovered her thin and frail in my clinic. Her stature was a striking feature,…
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Another look at the medical problems of Jean-Paul Marat: searching for a unitary diagnosis
Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden L’Assassinat de Marat / Charlotte Corday. Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry. 1860. Musée d’Arts de Nantes. Via Wikimedia. Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793) was a practicing physician, scientist, and a leader of the French Revolution. He also suffered from a chronic, intractable skin condition, which troubled the last five years of his life. A tormenting…
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Celiac disease, Areteus, and Samuel Gee
Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder in which eating gluten proteins damages the villi of the small intestine causing food malabsorbion. It was described around the first part of the second century A.D. by Aretaeus of Cappadocia as a state in which the food is not broken down in the stomach but passes on undigested and…
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Not just a fad diet
Jessica A. Ness Aberdeen, South Dakota, United States “You just ate chocolate cake.” Photo by Jessica A. Ness Gluten is the new answer to all that is wrong with what people are eating. You want to lose weight? Go gluten free. You cannot sleep, have frequent stomach aches, or want to rule the world?…
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Pediatric pishogues
C. Anthony RyanBridget MaherCork, Ireland Although superstitions abound in all societies, Irish tradition has an especially long and rich tradition of folk beliefs and superstitions. Thus, when a newborn infant was recently diagnosed with Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber syndrome,1 a triad of port-wine stain, varicose veins, and hypertrophy, his mother burst out crying saying: “My mother says that…