Ok, so I was reading this latest supposed scientific "news" item (2006-08-11) about how Celiac tests in Down children may fail, and quite honestly, I just do not understand what is newsworthy at all in this article.
It talks about how ". . . early treatment does not appear to improve the child's quality of life or improve outcomes from one of the long-term consequences of celiac disease . . .", with regards to Down Syndrome patients with gluten intolerance issues (i.e., Celiac); but it never mentions a thing about what those "early treatment" items are. To my knowledge, there is no early treatment aside from absolute avoidance of gluten in one's diet. And, the article talks about how there are tests to detect whether a Down child has Celiac (or is prone to) before developing symptoms -- ok, how is that any different than the tests for any person??
I regularly scour the internet for scientific news that may be helpful to the gluten-free / wheat-free / celiac community, and when it came to this bit of "news", I just found myself asking: "and, how is this news?" Perhaps I am wrong, but I have to believe someone just happened to get some grant money to study a relationship between Celiac and Down Syndrome, and then publish "findings" that really are nothing more than common and well accepted knowledge about Celiac and gluten-free living that applies to all of the population, and not just Downs.
If somebody can clarify this, feel free to post here and help me understand. I can understand that Down patients may be more likely to have a genetic predisposition to Celiac, but that still would not change the point of my comments above.
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2 comments:
Please consider referring to people with Down syndrome at just that. There is no such thing as a "downs" or "down child". They are simply children who have Down syndrome. You wouldn't refer to a child who had leukemia or cancer by their diagnosis so please don't do it for children with Down syndrome. Language can make a big differnce in how people are seen and treated. Thank you.
Ditto to that earlier comment!
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