About

Well hello and welcome!

My name is Brooke! I'm a university student in my early twenties and I have Celiac Disease. Now, if you're finding this blog, chances are that you probably already know a bit about what Celiac Disease is. For those of you who don't, I'll try to sum it up for you! Celiac Disease is an incurable autoimmune disease related to the consumption of gluten! That means that those people afflicted with Celiac Disease have immune systems that, when triggered by the consumption of gluten, attack your own body's cells. Fortunately, Celiac Disease can be treated and complications prevented by the lifetime adherence to a completely gluten-free diet. Turns out, gluten-free diets aren't just for hipsters.

Symptoms of Celiac include gas, bloating, abdominal discomfort, diarrhea, fatty stool, joint pain, headaches, skin rashes, and reproductive problems. Sounds nice, right? The reason I'm making such a big deal about it is because of the whole "reproductive problems" bit. Though not super well researched, women with undiagnosed Celiac Disease can experience problems with infertility, multiple miscarriages, low birth-weight and premature births, and stillbirths. Over five years ago, my own son was stillborn and doctors told me that I would probably never know what caused it to happen. Now years later and hours spent researching, I finally have the most probable answer to the question I was told I could never answer. Because we don't know a lot about why this happens, we can't predict it happening. I hope that perhaps by raising awareness, women experiencing these problems can get tested for Celiac Disease and stop these events from occurring to them in future. Maybe some day, in a perfect world, Celiac screening will happen for all newly pregnant or infertile women as a standard precaution. Just in case you think I'm making this shit up, here's some references:

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/celiac-disease/basics/definition/con-20030410
http://www.celiac.nih.gov/reproductiveproblems.aspx

Anyways.... so why a blog about all this stuff? Well, because I'm the first person in my family diagnosed with Celiac Disease. It's going to involve a lot of changes and hurdles and hiccoughs and this journey is bound to be a little bit intimidating! So my goal is to share my stories, my tips and tricks, my favourite recipes and resources... all as I come up with them! Because I'm new to this and am flying by the seat of my pants! So I hope those of you on a similar path will stick along for the ride and please get in touch with me to share your stories and secrets!