With any real disorder, there are the grifters and the wannabees who come along for the ride. For example Lyme Disease is real, and some people have acute symptoms after a tick bite. But the many more people on Tik-Tok talking about "Long Term Lyme Disease" with a host of vague symptoms that don't show up in any medical tests--are suspec…
With any real disorder, there are the grifters and the wannabees who come along for the ride. For example Lyme Disease is real, and some people have acute symptoms after a tick bite. But the many more people on Tik-Tok talking about "Long Term Lyme Disease" with a host of vague symptoms that don't show up in any medical tests--are suspect.
Some people had terrible reactions to Covid infection, that landed them in the hospital, and caused permenent damage. But many, many others are just blaming a host of problems--ones that nobody can objectively diagnose on anything other than patient reports--on "Long Covid".
We've seen this time and time again with things like "Electromagnetic Sensitivity" (which nobody has), Celiac disease, where for every real person with it (which bring along serious medical issues that can be confirmed with a small intestine biopsy!) there's 100,000 grifters going "gluten free", Lupus, etc. And then there are the fake Tourette's people on Tik-Tok! Nobody doubts there is real Tourette's.
I think both the Left and the Right are subject to these. Look at all the ads on Info Wars for "miracle cures".
Let me start with saying that I believe long covid is real, but it's not one disease. I know several people who have gotten it, though none of them have severe symptoms.
Kaiser Health News recently profiled three women with long covid. One of them had COVID and then ended up with depression. It's unclear how and infection with SARS-COV2 would trigger depression; her depression could have been triggered by the pandemic isolation. Even though she is a therapist, long covid is probably less stigmatized than depression triggered by pandemic restrictions. I know several people who will tear you a new one for saying that pandemic restrictions worsened your mental health.
When you read the other two patients' stories, there are puzzling omissions from their stories. One had a treatment plan with a cardiologist who then discharged her as a patient with no explanation. She then notes that she's seeing a cardiologist who still requires masks. The third one was a fitness instructor until covid and eventually ended up with breathing problems and ended up with brain damage -- though we don't know what the test was that determined she had brain damage and whether it was even valid. There's no mention of how severe their Covid was -- if you had a mild case, the likelihood is extremely small that you would end up with damage to your lungs or cardiac damage.
I don't think any of these patients are lying or griffin. However, it is possible that they have other illnesses and have been misdiagnosed with long covid. If it turns out the they have something like MS, they're going to get sicker because they're treating a disease they don't have instead of one they do have.
How is going gluten free grift? I have IBS and going GF has really helped me due to it being a soluable fiber diet. And not only did the popularity of the GF diet make GF foods better, it has made them more available and lower cost.
I think the prevalence of people eating it who do not have allergies does result in some people taking gluten intolerance less seriously which can be a real problem for people with severe allergies. A friend who has coeliac disease told that she couldn't eat gluten-free sandwiches from a mainstream UK cafe chain because they did not actually make them separately, which could make her ill. (This was a few years ago so, it may be different now.)
Finding restaurants that have a separate place to prepare GF entrees to avoid cross contamination hard, I would guess because it is expensive for a restaurant - more expensive than just using GF ingredients. Guaranteeing no cross-contamination is hard and also somewhat of a liability - if you say there is no cross contamination and someone with coeliac gets sick, it can result in bad reviews or even worse. So its always been hard to find restaurants that can do that. I have been GF since the mid 2000s and I can say it's so much easier to find restaurants that have GF entrees, label not just for GF but for vegans and vegetarians as well (my mom has dairy allergies so she chooses vegan because she knows it won't have dairy). So it seems to me a stretch to blame non-coeliac GF consumers for your friend not being able to eat a sandwich at a local cafe because of cross-contamination issues. Those are real issues for sure but they have always been issues due simply to the expense and logistics.
To say that a way of eating that helps multiple conditions is somehow trivializing one particular condition to me is absurd. Back when I started GF, I had one store in a 100 mile radius that sold food I and my son could eat and I had to order in bulk and buy a separate freezer to house it. Now I can get what we need at our local grocery store. Most of the time back then, I had to explain to people what gluten was. People seem to know a lot more now about gluten sensitivity - which is a misnomer: its not gluten in general but a specific gluten called gliadin - and coeliac disease.
Thanks for your reply. I am very interested to hear about the issues for restaurants in dealing with allergies as it is not an aspect I know much about.
I do think you slightly misunderstood the thrust of my comment though. Someone had referred to going gluten-free as 'grift'. So, it would seem that some people take gluten allergies less seriously because of a large number of people going gluten-free without strictly speaking needing to.
I think that that attitude does lead to some danger for people with serious allergies although, I certainly was not blaming anyone for my friend not being able to buy a sandwich in a mainstream cafe chain.
As you are GF you see the scale of good and bad effects tipped decidedly in favour of good and I am not arguing with that just mulling over other potential consequences.
People who have serious allergies are in some danger for sure, but I am skeptical its it's caused by people who claim to have those allergies when they do not. Coeliac disease requires that you ELIMINATE gliadin from your person - ingesting via your digestive system, skin and respiratory system. It's very difficult and its a high level above needing to be on a GF diet because you have a wheat allergy or IBS. And silent coeliacs have it especially hard because they don't have any discernable outward symptoms. It's not just that I see it as a net benefit that more people are seeking out a GF diet, others I know see it that way too, including those I know who have coeliac disease. But these are not data points we are talking about, they are anecdotal examples. You say that a "large number of people are going gf" - based on what data? This line of thought seems oversimplified and scapegoaty. If you took all of the so-called obnoxious people who claim a gluten sensitivity they don't have out of the equation, coeliac disease would still be really hard to live with because the bar of elimination is so high.
Calling it grift is hyperbole and inaccurate. Sure there are people obnoxiously making a big deal out of eating GF - there are people who do that about just about everything. That doesn't mean they are trying to swindle anyone.
Thanks for your reply. It's really interesting to learn about coeliac disease from you. Frankly, it sounds like it is still not that well understood by the general public as I did not know that it could be ingested through skin or the respiratory system. I am definitely going to be going down the rabbit hole finding out more about this subject!
You are right that I probably should have said 'it would seem that some people take gluten allergies less seriously because of a perception that a large number of people are going GF without actually needing to' rather than stating it as I did not have data for that at the time. It was my speculation as to why the other commenter and others I have seen called it 'grift'.
As is always good in life you have encouraged me to look further into it and I have found some interesting information which gives me some thinking to do but, I am sure will be familiar to you.
Whether that is the reason for the view that some people like the other commenter see it as 'grift' is admittedly less clear. I agree it's hyperbole and inaccurate but, I am curious why you think the other commenter called it 'grift'? Maybe this is just an early example of culture war type stuff?
Anecdotally, my aunt went GF without waiting for a proper diagnosis. She figured that as her doctor had suggested it was a possibility she might as well stop eating it rather than continue making herself unwell while waiting for the test. I actually think that was a perfectly reasonable thing to do and that is probably true of other people in the 'undiagnosed' category as well.
With any real disorder, there are the grifters and the wannabees who come along for the ride. For example Lyme Disease is real, and some people have acute symptoms after a tick bite. But the many more people on Tik-Tok talking about "Long Term Lyme Disease" with a host of vague symptoms that don't show up in any medical tests--are suspect.
Some people had terrible reactions to Covid infection, that landed them in the hospital, and caused permenent damage. But many, many others are just blaming a host of problems--ones that nobody can objectively diagnose on anything other than patient reports--on "Long Covid".
We've seen this time and time again with things like "Electromagnetic Sensitivity" (which nobody has), Celiac disease, where for every real person with it (which bring along serious medical issues that can be confirmed with a small intestine biopsy!) there's 100,000 grifters going "gluten free", Lupus, etc. And then there are the fake Tourette's people on Tik-Tok! Nobody doubts there is real Tourette's.
I think both the Left and the Right are subject to these. Look at all the ads on Info Wars for "miracle cures".
Let me start with saying that I believe long covid is real, but it's not one disease. I know several people who have gotten it, though none of them have severe symptoms.
Kaiser Health News recently profiled three women with long covid. One of them had COVID and then ended up with depression. It's unclear how and infection with SARS-COV2 would trigger depression; her depression could have been triggered by the pandemic isolation. Even though she is a therapist, long covid is probably less stigmatized than depression triggered by pandemic restrictions. I know several people who will tear you a new one for saying that pandemic restrictions worsened your mental health.
When you read the other two patients' stories, there are puzzling omissions from their stories. One had a treatment plan with a cardiologist who then discharged her as a patient with no explanation. She then notes that she's seeing a cardiologist who still requires masks. The third one was a fitness instructor until covid and eventually ended up with breathing problems and ended up with brain damage -- though we don't know what the test was that determined she had brain damage and whether it was even valid. There's no mention of how severe their Covid was -- if you had a mild case, the likelihood is extremely small that you would end up with damage to your lungs or cardiac damage.
I don't think any of these patients are lying or griffin. However, it is possible that they have other illnesses and have been misdiagnosed with long covid. If it turns out the they have something like MS, they're going to get sicker because they're treating a disease they don't have instead of one they do have.
Here's the article.
https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/long-covid-patients-end-of-pandemic-emergency/
"She then notes that she's seeing a cardiologist who still requires masks." Around here all medical facilities still require masks!
How is going gluten free grift? I have IBS and going GF has really helped me due to it being a soluable fiber diet. And not only did the popularity of the GF diet make GF foods better, it has made them more available and lower cost.
I think the prevalence of people eating it who do not have allergies does result in some people taking gluten intolerance less seriously which can be a real problem for people with severe allergies. A friend who has coeliac disease told that she couldn't eat gluten-free sandwiches from a mainstream UK cafe chain because they did not actually make them separately, which could make her ill. (This was a few years ago so, it may be different now.)
Finding restaurants that have a separate place to prepare GF entrees to avoid cross contamination hard, I would guess because it is expensive for a restaurant - more expensive than just using GF ingredients. Guaranteeing no cross-contamination is hard and also somewhat of a liability - if you say there is no cross contamination and someone with coeliac gets sick, it can result in bad reviews or even worse. So its always been hard to find restaurants that can do that. I have been GF since the mid 2000s and I can say it's so much easier to find restaurants that have GF entrees, label not just for GF but for vegans and vegetarians as well (my mom has dairy allergies so she chooses vegan because she knows it won't have dairy). So it seems to me a stretch to blame non-coeliac GF consumers for your friend not being able to eat a sandwich at a local cafe because of cross-contamination issues. Those are real issues for sure but they have always been issues due simply to the expense and logistics.
To say that a way of eating that helps multiple conditions is somehow trivializing one particular condition to me is absurd. Back when I started GF, I had one store in a 100 mile radius that sold food I and my son could eat and I had to order in bulk and buy a separate freezer to house it. Now I can get what we need at our local grocery store. Most of the time back then, I had to explain to people what gluten was. People seem to know a lot more now about gluten sensitivity - which is a misnomer: its not gluten in general but a specific gluten called gliadin - and coeliac disease.
Thanks for your reply. I am very interested to hear about the issues for restaurants in dealing with allergies as it is not an aspect I know much about.
I do think you slightly misunderstood the thrust of my comment though. Someone had referred to going gluten-free as 'grift'. So, it would seem that some people take gluten allergies less seriously because of a large number of people going gluten-free without strictly speaking needing to.
I think that that attitude does lead to some danger for people with serious allergies although, I certainly was not blaming anyone for my friend not being able to buy a sandwich in a mainstream cafe chain.
As you are GF you see the scale of good and bad effects tipped decidedly in favour of good and I am not arguing with that just mulling over other potential consequences.
People who have serious allergies are in some danger for sure, but I am skeptical its it's caused by people who claim to have those allergies when they do not. Coeliac disease requires that you ELIMINATE gliadin from your person - ingesting via your digestive system, skin and respiratory system. It's very difficult and its a high level above needing to be on a GF diet because you have a wheat allergy or IBS. And silent coeliacs have it especially hard because they don't have any discernable outward symptoms. It's not just that I see it as a net benefit that more people are seeking out a GF diet, others I know see it that way too, including those I know who have coeliac disease. But these are not data points we are talking about, they are anecdotal examples. You say that a "large number of people are going gf" - based on what data? This line of thought seems oversimplified and scapegoaty. If you took all of the so-called obnoxious people who claim a gluten sensitivity they don't have out of the equation, coeliac disease would still be really hard to live with because the bar of elimination is so high.
Calling it grift is hyperbole and inaccurate. Sure there are people obnoxiously making a big deal out of eating GF - there are people who do that about just about everything. That doesn't mean they are trying to swindle anyone.
Thanks for your reply. It's really interesting to learn about coeliac disease from you. Frankly, it sounds like it is still not that well understood by the general public as I did not know that it could be ingested through skin or the respiratory system. I am definitely going to be going down the rabbit hole finding out more about this subject!
You are right that I probably should have said 'it would seem that some people take gluten allergies less seriously because of a perception that a large number of people are going GF without actually needing to' rather than stating it as I did not have data for that at the time. It was my speculation as to why the other commenter and others I have seen called it 'grift'.
As is always good in life you have encouraged me to look further into it and I have found some interesting information which gives me some thinking to do but, I am sure will be familiar to you.
1) There is some data to support the idea that at least some people are going GF without a diagnosis https://www.beyondceliac.org/research-news/mayo-clinic-80-of-people-on-gluten-free-diet-do-not-have-celiac-disease-diagnosis/#:~:text=An%20estimated%201.6%20million%20Americans,study%20from%20the%20Mayo%20Clinic. Although, clearly that is not the same as saying 'not needing to go GF'.
2) There is some data to suggest that 25% of Americans follow a gluten free diet when only 1 in 20 Americans have a sensitivity. But, how good is that data? I have learned to be a bit sceptical after Jesse's exposés. https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/study-concludes-americans-self-diagnose-to-adopt-gluten-free-diets/.
Whether that is the reason for the view that some people like the other commenter see it as 'grift' is admittedly less clear. I agree it's hyperbole and inaccurate but, I am curious why you think the other commenter called it 'grift'? Maybe this is just an early example of culture war type stuff?
Also on a tangent, I just learned that women suffer from coeliac disease 2 to 3 times more than men https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/aug/07/not-just-a-fad-the-surprising-gut-wrenching-truth-about-gluten (which fits with the fact that 78% of auto-immune disease sufferers are women https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-nearly-80-percent-of-autoimmune-sufferers-are-female/). Which is fascinating. Someone here or the reddit page had suggested that might play into the sex disparity with long Covid as well. I wonder if that could be right?
Anecdotally, my aunt went GF without waiting for a proper diagnosis. She figured that as her doctor had suggested it was a possibility she might as well stop eating it rather than continue making herself unwell while waiting for the test. I actually think that was a perfectly reasonable thing to do and that is probably true of other people in the 'undiagnosed' category as well.
Anyway, thanks for opening my eyes up about the realities of allergies and restaurants etc. I actually saw something similar come up about sesame seed allergies but, hadn't quite put it together. https://www.allergicliving.com/2022/12/20/bread-suppliers-adding-sesame-as-seed-becomes-top-allergen/
No thanks, I'll leave that to you since you sound just as hysterical as they do.