A charity with a different flavor
Posted on October 6th, 2007 | by Billifer | celiac disease, charity, ProBloggerMost of you who are reading this know that my mom has recently been diagnosed with celiac disease, which is a condition where the body is incapable of digesting gluten, the protein found in wheat, barley, rye, and oats. (It goes beyond the inability to digest; gluten is actually a toxin to those with celiac disease.)
As it stands, there’s much work yet to be done with increasing awareness of this horrible illness. Physicians are uninformed about it, and therefore it often is misdiagnosed as a host of other ailments. When a patient is correctly diagnosed, only one small step battle is won. Then the lifetime of radical dietary modifications begins.
To this end, the Celiac Disease Foundation works to promote awareness of the disease, assist patients in dietary management, and lobby food manufacturers to produce gluten-free products. Their work is very important — some estimates place the prevalence of celiac disease at 1 in 133 Americans, obviously most of which are undiagnosed — and the current situation is still rather grim for those with the disease.
I urge you as we head into the holiday season to consider giving a few dollars, even just five dollars, to the CDF, in the hopes of helping those who are plagued with this horrible disease. Your contributions will help to ensure that people like my mother will not have to suffer in the future.
Disclaimer: Although this is a genuine and sincere post, I’m writing it partly as an effort to secure a thousand dollar donation to the CDF as part of ProBlogger’s $54,000 Birthday Bash. That does not diminish my request that readers of paXóò also consider donating what they are able to the CDF. ⌘
