NOTHING IN THIS SITE IS INTENDED TO OFFER MEDICAL ADVICE. PLEASE CONSULT YOUR PHYSICIAN FOR MEDICAL ADVICE

I am a 67 year old male, and was married to the same wonderful lady for 46 years. She passed away this last December, and I will miss her.

Until 6 years ago with the budget cuts that California went through, I was a Part Time College Professor in our Community College District. I taught, Personal Finance, and Personal Investing. I recently retired from my full time activities as a Financial Planner and Tax Preparer.

My medical history includes, celiac sprue, hypertension, heart attacks, (2), bypass surgery (14 years ago), peripheral vascular disease, angina pain, balloon and scalpel angioplasty with stents, arthritis, swollen prostate hay fever, bronchitis, allergies of many types, double hernia surgery, hemorrhoids, blood in urine, psoriasis, lactose intolerance, esophageal reflux, diverticulitis/osis, colstridium difficile, gout, essential tremor, corneal dystrophy (progressing to where I have trouble seeing) cataracts, very high triglycerides, depression. and raynouds phenomenon. Recently after angioplasty, I burst the femoral artery and needed emergency surgery; then the wound refused to heal and additional surgery was needed. I currently have some diminished kidney function. (Protein in Urine) In September 2000, I had my second TURP.

In the last few years cooking has become a necessity and fun beside. I had to learn to bake so that I could continue to enjoy food, but now it is all Gluten Free.

AND NOW TRYING NO INJURED FLESH

Our biggest problem is that most Doctors in the US are not willing to even consider this as a real problem, yet most scientists that are working in the field predict that one in 300 folks have this problem. Most of us go undiagnosed for many years doing permanent damage to our guts. Simple blood tests and a gastrointestinal biopsy can quickly make a diagnosis that allows people to live an almost normal life on a great diet. I have learned to make donuts, cake, bread, pasta and recently good old-fashioned blintzes. As my cooking skills improve there is nothing that I want to eat, that I don’t, as long as it is made without the offending grains.

When I first found out that I was a Celiac, (early 1990) my doctor handed me a one-page reprint from an old medical journal. He suggested that I talk to the nutritionist at the Hospital for diet information. The Nutritionist said stay away from Wheat, Rye, and Barley. She never mentioned Oats, or any of the derivatives of these grains. The Doc did provide one great piece of material; he gave me the phone number of a group of Celiacs in Seattle WA. They shortly after gave me the name of a contact in the Los Angeles Area. This is when I first started looking at the sources available in the cyberworld. There was one Internet source in England that was very limited. Around 1992, I found the Food BB on Prodigy and there was a Topic on Bread, and some subjects on Gluten or the avoidance of it. Soon we had a merry band of Celiacs communication on the Food BB but not really feeling that we belonged there. At the same time Shirl (my wife) and some Epileptic friends found that they could communicate in the Writing BB. Both of us continued to press for a Medical Support section within Prodigy and eventually with the help of many folks, Our wonderful home in cyberspace was established.

Today, there are over 100 Web sites dealing with Celiac Disease in all its ramifications. We have a great chat facility. We have a library that is growing all the time with information for the new folks that just heard the words Celiac Disease for the first time. The library of course is available to the old timers who want to refresh their memories or learn something they might not have heard before. We started a Celiac List Serve, and now have over 2500 members world wide who communicate as friends, but more important share the latest medical information available. And probably most important, we continue to have our little group in Prodigy that keeps us sane, and allows us to give hugs to each other whenever necessary. It is not professional, but I for one could not have made it without the friends I have made here. .

Because of Shirl (my wife) I have become very knowledgeable about Epilepsy, and some other neurological subjects.

Some of my favorite Web or e-mail sites dealing with Celiac Disease.

I hope these are of some value to you and that you will give me feedback. As you explore, please let me know if you find any other good sites.

To subscribe to the Celiac List Serve (the best source of all) send an Email message to LISTSERV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS,EDU In the body of your post (the message) type Subscribe Celiac, your first name your last name. You should get a welcoming message within a few days telling you how to use this wonderful source.

Authentic Foods, the provider of GF breads Mix, Pancake Mix. Cake Mixes, the bean flour in Bette Hagmans and Carol Fenster’s book, and other great stuff. His entire facility is devoted to GF products and there would be no possibility of cross contamination.

De-Ro-Ma: Home Page this is a commercial site selling Gluten Free Foods http://www.cosmo2000.ca/deroma/accueil_en.html

Gluten-Free Bounty (a distributor in Canada, that ships Pastariso’s pasta products with no shipping charge. http://www3.sympatiaco.ca/gf_bounty/index.htm

Dietary Specialties Inc. One of our oldest and best suppliers of GF foods. http://colorwheel.com/ds/index.html

American Medical Association - Publishing search tools http://www.ama-assn.org/sci-pubs/pubsrch.htm

Dictionary of Medical Terms http://163.130.200.1:8001/=@=:www.healthgate.com:80/healthy/dict/glossA.html

THE MERCK MANUAL http://www.merck.com/!!rRT1e029drRT6o1vMo/pubs/mmanual/

Celiac Mailing List Archives http://www.fastlane.net/homepages/thodge/archive.htm

HealthGate - Home Page http://www.healthgate.com/

Kinnikinnick - Welcome to Kinnikinnick Foods, this is a commercial site selling Gluten Free Foods http://news.sas.ab.ca/kinnikinnick/

MedSupport FSF International Home Page, lots of info an all medical subjects, plus a different type of live chat. http://www.medsupporr.org/

The Finnish Coeliac Society http://www.uta.fi/~sl42913/fincoel.htm

Celiac Disease, Don Wiss's web page. One of the best http://www.panix.com/~donwiss/

CSA/USA, Inc. HOME PAGE http://members.aol.com/celiacusa/celiac.htm

DRUG DATABASE http://pharminfo.com/drugdb/db_mnu.html

Index to Gluten-free and Wheat-free Diets Pages HTTP://www.demon.co.uk/webguides/nutrition/diets/glutenfree/index.html

Celiac Disease http://www.online.edmonton.ab.ca/~jmay/celiac.html

Celiac page http://www.cosc.brocku.ca/~cc94cm/celiac/begin.html

WWWeb_Guides Main Index HTTP://www.demon.co.uk/webguides/

Welcome to Jam's Home Page! http://www.online.edmonton.ab.ca/~jmay/index.html

Epilepsy FAQ for Shirls Friends http://debra.dgbt.doc.ca/~andrew/epilepsy/FAQ.html