Joy Behar can't be that ignorant about celiac disease given the fact that she worked for years with Elizabeth Hasselbeck, a known celiac that's had many discussions about the disease on the television show, The View. So I believe it's obvious to those who know her and the show, that she is simply using the subject to draw attention to herself. Sad because, she's an attractive lady with a lot of talent, so why use ignorance to showcase one's self.
Because of her comments I've decided to tell a bit about what I deal with due to my intolerance of wheat and gluten. Everyday I work hard to keep from being exposed to wheat and gluten when I have to eat out or travel; but when I do and discover I have managed to get the stuff in my system, the following are issues that happen as a result of being exposed to wheat and gluten:
The symptoms can range from what may seen to be insignificant, such as my headaches, swollen glands, diarrhea, reflux, bloating and stomach pain, cramping, gas, itchy redness of the skin, eczema, hair loss and move on to more significant problems such as malabsorption, inflammation, anemia, and cause my other autoimmune disorders to flair up to say the least.
Even when I'm not traveling or eating out, I can and have found myself having problems with being exposed to wheat and gluten or problems that occur due to these issues. For example, I have Hashimoto Disease, as do many celiacs. When this was discovered I was placed on thyroid medication but continued to have many problems with taking this particular medication until I discovered that the generic thyroid medication was the cause of my problems. Although I have many other immune issues not taking the generic thyroid was the answer for some of my problems.
After many years of taking Synthroid with some improvements, about a year and a half ago, I started feeling tired, seeing swelling around my neck, puffy face, hoarseness, headaches, severe hair loss, weight gain, cold all the time, weakened adrenals, muscle weakness, hoarseness, dry skin issues with my feet and irregular menstrual periods. Many of these were the symptoms I had prior to finding out that I had Hashimoto Disease, so I just couldn't understand why this was starting to happen again until I discover that after many years of receiving my Synthroid from a Pharmacy called Pharmaca, someone had decided to change my prescription to generic (you see the gluten intolerant must be careful with the various generic brands of Levothyroxine, only two are gluten-free).
Moving forward nine months, my body was starting to get back to normal (whatever normal is for those of us dealing with gluten intolerance). However, once again I started feeling bad only to discover this time it was Good Day Pharmacy who took it upon themselves to switch my thyroid medication to generic even though I personally had them place it in their records that I was allergic. So once again I moved on, this time down the road to Walgreens Pharmacy and they were successful at giving me my first bottle of Synthroid, but the following month they had switched my medication to generic and the individual we spoke to blamed me and the Doctor's office for their error. The individual stated that we did not fill out paperwork properly in order for them to give us the proper prescription, which was not true or I never would have received the first bottle of Synthroid. It was also requested that it be placed in their files that I was allergic to the generic version and it was confirmed being done. So once again, I'm presently recovering from being exposed to generic thyroid medication, which has cause hair loss and many of the other issues to resurface (I'm starting to wonder if someone has it out for me, but I know God/The Universe has my back).
Many of the gluten intolerant have other autoimmune illnesses as a result of the damage that has been done to their system. In fact, many are sensitive to multiple ingredients like dairy, soy, corn, eggs, grains, etc. As you can see there are so many layers to this condition, so hopefully you can understand why it's both painful and upsetting to see and/or hear someone demonizing people who suffer from celiac disease or gluten sensitivity. It's especially upsetting to watch celebrities use their platform to spill out misinformed and damaging information to create controversy in an effort to draw attention to increase their fame.
For many of us, gluten intolerance is not a fad diet and we are on a continuous journey for better health. Recently it was brought to my attention that the manufacturer of Synthroid is not able to guarantee gluten-free status due to cross contamination issues. Please find below a list of Gluten Free Thyroid Medications:
Let's remember to continue to educate the ignorant. Lovely Is As Lovely Does!
- Armour
- Cytomel
- Levothyroxine (Lannet, Mova brands only)
- Levoxyl
- Nature-Throid
- Tirosint
- WP Thyroid (formerly Westhroid Pure)
Let's remember to continue to educate the ignorant. Lovely Is As Lovely Does!