I take this one personally.
According to a new study in the journal, Clinical
Gastroenterology and Hepatology, people with celiac disease are not getting
adequate follow-up after their diagnosis.
The study collected data on 122 patients diagnosed with
celiac disease between 1996 and 2006 in Olmsted County, MN (which is the home
base of the Mayo Clinic, so you’d think that medical care in that community
would be state-of-the-art) and it noted that the large majority of patients did
not receive the follow-up care that’s recommended by the American
Gastroenterological Association (AGA).
Well, as a person’ who has known about his celiac disease
for nearly 40 years, I can tell you that there are some pretty good reasons
that celiacs don’t often follow up with visits to their doctors.
First, although this is changing, thank God, I can attest
that for many years (and still to a large extent, I’m sure) a well-educated
celiac knew more about his/her condition than most doctors did.
Further, unless symptoms don’t improve, when you think
about it, there’s no real reason for regular follow-up.
After all, the only treatment is to avoid
gluten-containing foods, so what benefit would there be in being told a 2nd
or 3rd time that “Hey, you need to follow a gluten-free diet if you
want to get better.”
A celiac knows what he/she must do and a physician will
not make any difference in that regime.
However, if there are other problems that show up (celiacs
are much more prone to other auto-immune disorders like Type 1 diabetes, and
thyroid problems, for example), or if the symptoms fail to improve, or if the
celiac disease has been a long-standing problem (which raises the risk of many
other conditions such as osteoporosis, for example), then follow-up visits with
a doctor who knows what this condition is
about are a good idea.
