Some people spend their childhood going on vacations, going to the park or to the pool without a care, but for one BYU student, his childhood days were filled with lengthy hospital stays and frequent illnesses.

Finally, at the age of 14 Bobby Marion, now 22 and a member of the BYU Celiac Club, was told by doctors that he was allergic to wheat, oats and barley. At the time, doctors did not diagnose his disease; they just told him not to eat foods with gluten.

Gluten is a substance found in wheat, oats, barley and rye. There are traces of gluten in many foods people do not realize. Pizza, breadsticks, cookies, cakes, pastries and pasta are some of the foods people with celiac disease must refrain from.

People who have celiac disease are born with a gene that is typically triggered by a traumatic event such as a tragedy or illness.

The result is an allergic reaction to gluten in the small intestine. If anyone with the disease consumes gluten, the tissue of the small intestine becomes damaged. Once diagnosed with the disease, people must completely change their diet.

"It was a huge blessing that I was diagnosed because now [I'm] healthier than ever," Marion said.

An estimated 230 students at BYU have the disease but may not know it.

"I had been very sick the latter half of my mission," said Justin Grover, a member of the Celiac Club. "I had pneumonia, and I think that is what triggered the disease."

After paying many visits to the doctor, Grover went back one last time on Dec. 17, 2004 when a biopsy proved he was positive for celiac disease. He said it was the day one life ended and another began — a gluten-free life.

Diagnosis is relatively new according to members of the BYU Celiac Club; currently the only cure for the disease is a gluten-free diet.

The BYU Celiac Club has been organized to offer support for students diagnosed with celiac disease, which is the most under-diagnosed illness in the United States.

As president of the Celiac Club, Tiffany Oaks has made it possible for students with the disease to meet for activities and organize gluten-free dinners.

"[The Celiac Club] hopes to support those that have the disease by giving them recipes, or help them by letting them know there is information out there, and there are other people with it, and it's not hard to cope with," Oaks said. For Oaks, transitioning from one eating lifestyle to another was much easier than for most who have been diagnosed with the disease. She learned to eat a salad instead of pasta and replace flour with starch in gravy.

"I don't think about it anymore," Oaks said. "It's not a worry during my daily life like it used to be. For the first two weeks or so, before I found other people with the disease, it was stressful."

Oaks has been diagnosed for a year, but her parents became aware that something was wrong when she was 6 years old, and had severe stomach aches, she said.

Common symptoms include weight gain or loss, seizures, dental enamel defects, anemia, fatigue, painful skin rashes, headaches and premature osteoporosis, depending on the person and how his or her body reacts to the disease.

Oaks and members of the Celiac Club agree that being diagnosed is not as daunting a procedure as one might believe. They say it is a simple blood test.



Copyright Brigham Young University 1 Dec 2005