Dr Chris Steele Diagnosed with Coeliac Disease

News Desk
Monday, January 18th, 2010
Dr Chris Steel
Dr Chris Steele MBE announced today, 18th January 2010, on ITV's This Morning where he is the show's resident doctor, that he has been diagnosed coeliac disease.

Coeliac disease is an autoimmune disease caused by intolerance to gluten. Damage is caused to the gut lining when gluten is eaten. There is no cure or medication for the condition and the only treatment is life-long adherence to a strict gluten-free diet. Without a gluten-free diet, the disease can lead to other conditions, such as malnutrition, osteoporosis, infertility, multiple miscarriages and can cause bowel cancer.

Ironically, Dr Chris has been an ambassador of Coeliac UK, the national charity for people with coeliac disease for the past three years. However, over the past few months he has been suffering with abdominal symptoms and his own GP referred him to a gastroenterologist.

Following blood tests and then a biopsy the results came back to confirm he does have coeliac disease - at the age of 64.

"I was very honoured to be asked a few years back to be Ambassador of Coeliac UK as I wanted to give as much support as I could to help raise the awareness of the condition in the media and to the general public," Dr Chris explained.

"However, I never dreamt that I myself would then be diagnosed! I think I have been having symptoms of diarrhoea, abdominal pain and fatigue on and off for many years but it wasn't until they got so bad recently that I did anything about it and I will be encouraging everyone with similar symptoms to see their GP and be tested rather than suffering in silence," he said.

At least 1 in 100 people in the UK has coeliac disease. However only 12.5% of those have currently been diagnosed and Coeliac UK estimates that there are over half a million people undiagnosed in the UK.

The symptoms of coeliac disease range from being mild to severe and can vary between individuals. Symptoms include bloating, abdominal pain, nausea, constipation, diarrhoea, wind, tiredness, anaemia, headaches, mouth ulcers, weight loss - but not in all cases, skin problems, depression, joint or bone pain and nerve problems.

For more information please go to www.coeliac.org.uk or call our Helpline on 0845 305 2060

Comments

coeliac suffering possibly

I am showing alot of the signs of having problem with gluten ( Pain cramping, severe swelling, nausea, depression, dermatitus, mouth ulcers, joing pain, numbness in my fingers) which all disapear when i am on a strict gluten free diet, i also suffer with dairy and high fibre foods. Ther are a few foods that i now have to avoid even though i have been fine in the past (garlic onion spices).I had pencillin alot as a child but when i reached 18 yrs i had a severe allergic reaction, so i know that you can become allergic to items that were once tollerated. I am being tested at the end of July but unfortunately the doctor i saw wasn't very forthcoming with my questions and i felt i was being a nuicance. I have had a blood test a few years ago that did not show i had coeliac. Can the body change, or are you a Coeliac from birth???
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 15/06/2010 - 10:10.

Don't believe them when they say 'there is no cure'

Saying there is no cure for coeliac disease is the biggest load of cobblers ever. When people understand that illness is the body's way of communicating to the person that it is not happy with something in their life, resulting in internal imbalances, and they are actually start to interpret what their body is telling them (which does take skill), then they can start to heal. The body is a self-healing mechanism, it is designed to be healthy. It is our habits and lifestyle, together with the effect of past events, which cause our body to move into a state of 'dis-ease'. There is always hope, there are many avenues to healing, you just have to understand the principles of life. www.mickeltherapy.co.nz www.taohealth.co.nz
Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 21/01/2010 - 22:41.

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