Tag: inflammation

A Family Approach To Celiac Disease

For protein lovers, Celiac disease is one thing they wouldnt want to inherit from the family genes. Fortunately, its treatment can also be ensured within the family and in the home.

Celiac disease is a digestive order that can run from one generation to another. The disease causes severe damage to the small intestines as a reaction to gliadin or a gluten protein, and results to inflammation and flattening of the lining of the small intestines.

The person with Celiac disease is unable to absorb gluten, which is a group of protein common in wheat, rye, oats and barley. Hence, the disease imposes a gluten-free diet for those who are affected. This proves to be a difficult task since gluten is the second most consumed ingredient next to sugar, and hence difficult to avoid. Also, it is difficult to monitor since some may not experience any symptoms. But already knowing that the person and his or her family are prone to the disease can provide a head start on how to mitigate the damages.

Indeed, the home is the best place to start addressing Celiac disease. A family approach to knowing the disease and understanding how it affects everyday life will provide the battle gears for coping. This is especially helpful for the children, who would need all the support and guidance they could get.

A family that eats together heals together. This can be a reasonable motto for families afflicted with the history of Celiac disease. Several measures can already be taken if these families consider carefully their eating habits. One step is taking into heart what food to buy, grow, store, prepare or eat at any time of the day. By this, it is not just about ensuring that food is gluten-free but also ensuring that the needed nutrients are sourced from other food groups.

The family can also seek help from dieticians for the information on gluten-free foods. This includes help on how to read labels that may not specify gluten but contains it nonetheless. An example is the hydrolyzed vegetable protein that may be sourced from wheat. Familiarization with these gluten-free foods may be hard at first, but with the aid of a food diary and the collective memory of the family members, it will soon be easy.

Remember also that it is not just about knowing what to avoid, but rather knowing what to eat. For example, fruits are very much encouraged since these reduce other stressors to the digestive system, such as constipation. Further, in planning what meals to prepare and what other food to stock in the kitchen, the family can treat this as an opportunity to monitor and ensure balanced nutrition and sufficient calorie intake.

But what happens when family members, especially the children, need to eat outside of the home?

Again, it is important for the family to plan ahead. Children and teens should be part of the whole process of learning about gluten-free food. To engage their interest and to ensure that they like what they eat, children and teens may be entrusted with the responsibility of choosing what gluten-free meals to prepare. In this way, they would be able to prepare for food they can either eat at home or have as packed lunch or snacks. But in cases when they have to buy food outside the home, their knowledge about gluten-free food would enable them to discriminate which meals to buy. For young children with Celiac disease, their parents can also talk to teachers about the food requirements of their children. Or talk to the parents of their childrens friends, in case they visit or sleep over at houses of their friends.

In the end, a realistic talk among family members is the best approach. Each member, especially the children and teens, needs to know the consequences of eating meals with gluten.

A Celiac Disease Urban Legend

Now urban legends are urban folklore that were created by stories weaved together and circulated around until most people have accepted them as truths. There are different kinds of urban myths and covers a wide range of subject matter. Its not impossible to find that even diseases have their own folklore. A celiac disease urban legend revolves around tea bags containing gluten which can trigger the disease.

For those who do not know, celiac disease is a condition where the small intestines get inflamed due to the consumption of food containing gluten. Gluten is a protein commonly found in food made from wheat, barley, and rye. So such foods like bread, pizza, and pasta can contain gluten. The condition can be really bad in the long run. The inflammation that the disease causes in the intestines prevents the body to absorb the nutrients that it needs. So the end results would be malnutrition. Malnutrition itself can then cause more ailments.

I dont actually know where and when it started, but stories have already circulated that some makers of tea uses tea bags made from gluten. This is obviously bad for tea drinkers that have contracted the celiac disease. Word gone out and people with the disease now started to avoid tea just because of the stories or are selective of the tea brands that they buy.

Reinforcing the stories is the fact that tea manufacturers began labeling their products as using only gluten free tea bags. This of course is a reaction from the stories which probably resulted to tea sales going down. Thats the problem with urban myths, despite how absurd they might sound, people will tend to be wary since they would treat stories coming from credible sources as truth. The effects can sometimes be quite devastating.

Now, there has not been a solid shred of proof that manufacturers indeed used gluten as an ingredient for making their tea bags. Some say that making tea bags with gluten does not make sense at all since gluten can be dissolved with water. Although, there are research which indicates that gluten has poor water solubility properties. But still stories circulated.

Tea in itself does not contain gluten. It contains caffeine and other antioxidants but definitely not gluten. However, the tea brands that are available in the market today are often a blend of other ingredients. The reason for blending different kinds of tea and other stuff is to develop a unique taste. There are times that barley is added to tea blends to enhance taste and to offer something different. But barley contains gluten. Maybe, a tea brand that contains barley was consumed by someone with celiac disease. The symptoms recurred and that person might have generalized that the tea was the cause not analyzing it more closely.

That can be the start of the urban myth of the tea bag. I am not aware of any tea blends, today or in the past, which uses barley or even wheat as part of the ingredients. In the same way, I havent read any conclusive study which defunct this urban legend once and for all.

Personally, I would believe the fact that protein based or gluten based tea bags is not a commercial viability. I would choose to believe that this is indeed a celiac disease urban legend. However, for you who chose to be cautious, there are numerous tea brands today that claims to be gluten free. With regards to choices, you wont be restricted. You can continue enjoying your tea.

Eczema Treatment for Newbies

Have you been recently diagnosed with eczema? Are you having trouble dealing with it? Here are a few tips on eczema treatment and what they can do for you.

When diagnosed with eczema, your doctor will also most likely tell you what kind of eczema you have. He will also most likely tell you how bad your case of eczema is and prescribe you with medications and how to go about treating your condition. To do this you usually have to provide your doctor with your medical history to make sure hes not prescribing you with anything that can cause an allergic reaction.

Basically you treat eczema to control itchiness, avoid inflammation of the affected area of your skin, to clear infections, to decrease those scaly lesions and try to prevent or at least reduce new lesions. All of these things arent cured with just one type of treatment. It usually requires a combination of one or two treatments to relieve you from your eczema woes.

Treating your eczema isnt something that happens overnight. It usually takes a certain period to reduce the severity of your condition. It has also been proven more effective to keep a number of treatments working to complement each other to help ease irritation. This works for all cases of eczema. This usually entails changing your habits and routines that may be causing allergic reactions.

You either have to do really simple things like changing the things you keep around you, the types of soaps or lotions you use to even maybe changing your job or your whole environment. You have to be really careful about finding out what triggers flare-ups. If you can successfully identify it you will be able to increase the efficacy of your treatment and even lessen the side effects you may feel when youre on medication.

The kind of medication you might need will depend on a lot of things. These of course include what case of eczema you have, your medical history (which also includes the different kinds of treatments youve already had) and of course your preferences. Most often topical medications like lotions and creams are what are prescribed. However, for those with a much more severe case of eczema they give you options for phototherapy or systemic medication. Phototherapy is a procedure where light therapy is used while systemic therapy is a medication that circulates throughout your body.

Recently treatments for eczema have largely improved and there are a lot more choices to choose from. There are a number of very popular and effective treatments for all kinds of eczema and most cases can be controlled.

However, it has to be said again that eczema is a condition that will take a certain amount of time to relieve. Eczema treatment can be a pain in the pocket but if your symptoms do not go away you should consult your doctor to make sure you are using the right treatment. You also have to remember that relaxation is a key player when treating eczema. Avoid stress because this triggers your flare-ups.

Always take note of the things that may trigger your eczema problems. The best way to control these instances in a safe and fairly easy manner is to be on a healthy diet. It is also best to stay in a clean, relaxing and safe environment that wont cause you any stress that may worsen your condition.

Eczema Treatment for Kids Keeping the Skin Moisturized

As a parent, its extremely difficult to see your kid having to put up with the symptoms of eczema. This is where you need to make the most out of an eczema treatment. Your kid needs relief from his or her skins inflammation, scaling and itching the nasty symptoms of this skin disease.

The best way to help your kid from going through these symptoms is to know what triggers them. There are triggering factors which aggravate the symptoms or cause flare ups; being able to point them out and prevent them from causing flare ups do more to your kid with eczema than alleviating the symptoms when they are already there. Some of the known triggering factors may include exposure to: detergents, shampoos, dust mites, extremes in temperature, wool, polyester and others. Of course each kid afflicted with eczema may have other substances that their skin condition is reactive to, resulting to flare ups.

However, its not at all times that you can prevent your kids from coming in contact with such triggering factors. With this the case, its best to maintain your kids skin well-moisturized. Skin dryness makes his or her eczematous skin even itchier. Read on to get some important pointers on how to keep your kids skin well-moisturized.

It is recommended to give your kid a bath rather than as shower. Water from the shower head brushing against the eczematous skin will only irritate it. Many doctors advise giving your kid a bath daily for at least 10 minutes lukewarm water never hot water. Hot water will only aggravate the dryness of the skin. Do not shampoo his or her hair in the bath tub; its best to do the shampooing prior to soaking your kid in bath water. This is because some of the ingredients in the shampoo may irritate the skin. Use a mild, unscented moisturizing soap. When it comes to drying, pat the skin gently with towel and never rub it, especially on the affected areas.

Within 2-3 minutes after you give your kid afflicted with eczema a bath, you should moisturize the skin. Like mentioned earlier, itchiness is triggered by skin dryness. Immediately after bathing, do not expose your kid to flowing air because it will hasten water evaporation on the skin, resulting to dryness. There are many types of moisturizers you may use on your kids eczematous skin. Some of them are even formulated especially for the skin disease. However, a greasy ointment works best in moisturizing the skin. It takes a few trials to find one moisturizer that your kids eczema does not react to negatively. Its recommended to reapply moisturizers at least 2-3 times throughout the day.

During winter time, when the air is cold and dry, you must apply a more generous amount of moisturizer on your kids skin. Also, try to not expose affected areas to the frigid air to delay skin drying. During summer time, sweating also contributes to the worsening of the symptoms. It is best to have your kid stay mostly indoors, if possible. If your house has air conditioning, you should make sure that the skin is kept moisturized at all times. Also, you should install a humidifier.

Eczema treatment and prevention of flare ups is not at all that tricky, if you know the culprit. Just remember, the best way to minimize itching of the eczematous skin of your child is to prevent it from drying.