Ataxia

What is ataxia? It is defined as a lack of coordination while performing voluntary movements, which may appear to be clumsiness, inaccuracy, or instability.

I have had ataxia in the past and I still have it from time to time. It manifested itself in me by making me unbalanced when I walked and I would literally smack right into walls. That would make me cuss and later, bruise. I am sure that the cussing wasn't gluten-induced. I just like to cuss. I had no idea why my balance was so off . . . . until I got myself educated on some of the harmful effects gluten can have on a person sensitive to it.

I know there are worse problems that can manifest in gluten sensitive people; for example, I could have developed schizophrenia, as my maternal grandmother Mimi did. All in all, I will take falling into walls over schizophrenia, and it is my bet that you would as well.

I have been off gluten (mostly -- I still get accidentally glutened now and again) for more than 10 months and I am happy to say that I have hit nary a wall in the past few months. I still can't pull socks on my foot without falling over . . . that one may be a life long side effect. It's okay though as I find socks to be a lot softer than walls.

I read the article below and I found it to be quite alarming. I always assumed that once I got on the straight and narrow and removed the harmful gluten (and dairy and corn) from my diet, most if not all of my gluten-related health issues would slowly begin to clear up. This article, "Research: Celiac's Connection with Neurological and Psychatric Symptoms," questions that theory.

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• Ataxia (findmeacure.com)
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Autism and the Gluten Connection

We don't have children, and that was a conscious decision Jeff and I made together. If I did have a child and he/she had Autism, I know I would be beside myself with worry for that child twenty-four seven.

There is -- sadly -- a decent chance that our child could have/would have suffered from Austism. Autism, like Celiac's Disease, is on the rise. Autism Spectrum Disorder affects 1 in 150 children today with a new diagnosis being made every 20 minutes. Read this blog, get up and make yourself some hot tea, let your dogs outside, check in on Facebook and 20 minutes have gone by before you know it. And in that time, another child will receive the diagnosis of Austism.

Celiac's Disease is increasing as well. And how. A study from the Mayo Clinic (and several other partners) concluded that young people today are more than 4 times more likely to have Celiac's Disease than were young people in the 1950's.

What else is on the rise for unlucky kids today? Fatness. Super fatness, actually. Obesity rates for all of us, but particularly for children, are increasing by the moment.

Yet scientists still scratch their collective brain and say they can't say for sure tell us why any of the above is happening. I will give them a hint:

OUR FOOD IS UNHEALTHY

Do we really need years and years of study to figure this one out?

We can feed more people cheaper on the front end of food production now more than ever. Only problem is, on the back end, more and more of us are suffering from debilitating immune disorders.

I feel for parents with children who have Austism, Celiac's or who are obese. I feel worse for the children themselves. I wish I could scoop them all up and feed them whole foods with no gluten, dairy, corn or any of the other top food allergens.

I wish some parents would stop waiting for "a miracle cure" and act now for the health of their children. I wish restaurants would wake up and realize that there are millions of us with immune problems and special diets with cash on hand to eat out. We would flock to your restaurants if you made us safe food.

I wish most of all that the medical establishment would WAKE UP and look at food as a primary starting point of so very many autoimmune diseases.

I guess today is a day of wishful thinking.

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• 1 in 110 children have autism, study finds (msnbc.msn.com)
• No Evidence for or Against Autism Diets, Experts Say (abcnews.go.com)