Gluten is found in the protein of cereal grains. It can be found in a wide variety of foods and some people have allergies to it.

Allergies to gluten are found in women more than men and tend to affect those of European descent.

Gluten allergies can cause eczema, skin rashes, itching and hives. More severe sufferers may develop asthma. Nearly 43 percent of gluten allergy sufferers who never seek treatment will get arthritis. Fifteen percent who go on a gluten-free diet because of their allergies will get arthritis anyway.

Celiac, also known as Coeliac is a disease of the gastrointestinal tract that very often forms directly from an allergic reaction to gluten. Its symptoms are similar to those of a regular gluten allergy, but it can also cause brain dysfunction, arthritis and inflammation of the lungs. You might also notice a clay-colored greasy stool. It is much more serious than the allergies it came from and must be guarded against.

Symptoms that gluten allergies have turned to Celiac are diarrhea, weight loss, iron deficiency, bloating, abdominal pain and malnutrition. The latter is caused by a decreased ability to absorb essential nutrients like iron and vitamins K and D. Celiac sufferers are at higher risk for esophagus, pharynx and small intestinal cancer. Fibroid lung disease seems to occur at a higher rate in gluten allergy and Celiac sufferers.

The treatment for both gluten allergies and Celiac is avoidance of gluten. There is no cure for any allergy. One must simply avoid the allergen. When doing so, it’s a good idea to take some natural supplements to replace the nutrients you’re missing in your gluten-free diet. They’ll help build your body back up to its normal, healthy state.

So what is a gluten-free diet? It’s one in which you eat no food containing wheat, oats, barley or rye in any form whatsoever. It can be difficult, but once you start finding alternatives to grains, you’ll start feeling better quickly. It’s important to find other tasty foods in order to keep yourself away from those that will make you sick.

It’s important to note that if you have been diagnosed with a gluten allergy, it’s very likely you also are sensitive to dairy products. Milk or dairy allergies are sensitivities to proteins found in cows’ milk. Most cows eat a lot of grain and perhaps a link can be inferred.

Milk allergy symptoms can occur within minutes or hours after consuming the dairy product. They can be triggered by a very small amount of milk protein in the system. Like gluten allergy symptoms they can be skin reactions, like swollen lips, tongue, mouth, face or throat. They can also be digestive reactions, such as vomiting, stomach cramps or diarrhea. Respiratory reactions can include a runny nose, sneezing, watery eyes or shortness of breath.

The needed nutrient in dairy products that must be replaced when embarking on a gluten- and dairy-free diet is primarily calcium. Aside from natural supplements, increase your intake of calcium-rich foods like seafood, spinach, broccoli and salmon.

A gluten allergy is not the end of the world. There are plenty of fresh, colorful and tasty foods that contain no grain or dairy. But you must stay vigilant to keep your allergies from turning into something much worse.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Allergies

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Russell

http://EzineArticles.com/?Gluten-Allergies,-Celiac-Disease-and-Dairy&id=581915

This guest article is about dealing with the effects of Autism and a Gluten-Free Casein-Free Diet

The internet is full of testimonials from parents of autistic children touting the benefits of a Gluten-Free Casein-Free Diet. I’ve read everything from “I can’t believe I haven’t found this sooner, but am so thankful that we have it now,” to “Since he has been on the diet, he is a completely different child.” No doubt, testimonials like that are encouraging. But, as parents, it ultimately falls on us to make educated and informed decisions about what will be best for our family and our children in the long term. It is our responsibility to weigh the pros and cons for ourselves.

Here are two things that should be considered before implementing a diet this restrictive.

1) Perhaps the most important thing to consider when making the switch to a Gluten-Free Casein-Free Diet. is the lack of scientific research currently available to support the testimonials you’ll find.
While a lack of conclusive research is not enough to deter many parents eager to find something or anything that might help their child; it stands to be noted. It may be some time before
researchers can definitively connect the dots between diet and autism in this way.

2) This diet isn’t just a menu change-it is a commitment to a new way of life.

Gluten and casein are found in an exhaustive list of foods. Thankfully, as awareness grows, recipes and products are becoming more widely available-with many local and chain grocers now stocking gluten and casein free items.

About the author: Jean Brooks
I am a seasoned blogger and life coach who dabbles in internet marketing in my free time. I am also the proud mother of two beautiful baby boys.

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You may have noticed your local grocery store carrying a larger
variety of gluten free cookies and other gluten free snack
products than they did a few years ago. This is most likely due
to the increase in awareness of Celiac disease and information
regarding measures that individuals can take to ease the effects
of the condition.

Celiac disease is considered to be both an autoimmune disorder
and a digestive disorder. The body becomes unable to absorb
much-needed vitamins and nutrients, such as calcium, fats and
iron, when the small intestine’s lining becomes damaged from
ingesting products containing gluten. Oftentimes this will cause
the eater to become very sick, sick enough to end up in the
hospital. In rare instances, Celiac disease is even fatal.

Because gluten is a type of protein contained in many grains,
eating a diet without any gluten products was once very
difficult. Today, more and more products like gluten free
crackers are making an appearance on the market. Products such
as these allow individuals living with Celiac disease to
continue to enjoy many of their favorite foods, without the
health risks associated with eating traditional gluten filled
products.

However, grocery store shelves are not the only place that
individuals with this disorder can find their favorite cookies
and gluten free snack products. Many bakers are now providing
fresh baked gluten free bakery products to their patrons,
allowing a larger variety of items to be available. These gluten
free cookies and snacks are also vegetarian friendly.

It’s important to remember that Celiac disease is more than just
an annoyance to those individuals who have it. If this disorder
goes unattended, it can cause severe health issues for patients.
In order to function properly, the human body must absorb
vitamins and minerals effectively. If it does not, malnutrition
can occur, as well as severe damage to the small intestine. For
this reason alone, individuals who cannot properly tolerate
gluten products should be sure that they are only ingesting
foods that will not exaggerate their condition.

Of course, living with Celiac disease can become a little easier
if the individual is not completely deprived of the all of their
favorite foods, allowing them to keep some normalcy in their
lives. Having products such as gluten free snack foods and wheat
free cookies can go a long way in helping those facing this
disorder lead not only a healthier life, but a happier one as
well.

Now, people with Celiac disease can still eat what they love,
but rest assured that these products in particular are gluten
free and safe for them to eat. It’s always a good idea to make
sure the company or business you buy the food from is ELISA
tested and certified by the CSA (Celiac Sprue Association). This
insures that the gluten free snack items are as safe as the
store or website is claiming.

About the author: Mark Etinger
www.JoSefsGlutenFree.com is a gluten free bakery
that provides a variety of delicious gluten free crackers, wheat free cookies
and gluten free snacks.

Why Gluten Free Baked Goods are an Important Part of a Gluten
Free Diet. Gluten free baking requires that not only the
ingredients, but also the processing equipment and the kitchen
be entirely free from gluten in order to prevent cross
contamination with other gluten containing products.

What is the secret to making gluten free baked goods without using normal
baking flour? The answer is that potato starch flour, tapioca
flour, soy, corn, and rice flour are used as excellent
substitutes.

All of these alternative forms of flour have their own advantages.
Potato starch flour is a nice thick flour that is often used in gravy,
soups, or stews in addition to baked goods. Tapioca flour is a light,
white, very smooth flour that comes from the cassava root.

This source of flour has a nice
chewy taste that makes it superb for use in white bread and
rolls. Soy flour contains a high protein and fat content with a
delicious nutty taste. It is best when used in combination with
rice, corn, potato, and tapioca flours as a blend. Corn flour is
used as a substitute for wheat flour in recipes that call for a
mixture with cornmeal to make breads, cakes, and cookies. People
often use it to make waffles or pancakes. Corn flour generally
requires a mixture with xanthum gum or guar gum to improve its
texture. Rice flour may be made from either white rice or brown
rice and also comes as sweet white rice flour. When making this
flour, the husk of rice or paddy is removed and raw rice is
obtained. In order to create flour the raw rice must be ground
to form rice powder.

Our bakers normally use fine textured white
rice flour. The exception is in the producing of mock whole
grain breads where brown rice flour is used. This is because
brown rice flour contains bran. Rice flour is unequaled as a
basic flour for gluten-free baking. It mixes well with the other
flours and is flavorless. Gluten free bread can also contain oil
(normally a canola oil), fresh eggs, honey, salt, dry yeast,
apple cider vinegar, and occasionally sesame and other seeds.
Since raw honey is used instead of sugar in our breads,
diabetics may also find our delicious breads to be satisfactory
for their special food regimen.

Gluten free desserts often
contain rice flour, tapioca flour. potato flour, cocoa, sugar,
eggs, pure vanilla, baking soda, and baking powder. Some gluten
free desserts that contain no sugar are safe for diabetics. Katz
Gluten Free has some of the best celiac disease safe white
bread, challah bread, whole grain bread, cookies, and cakes.
Rose’s Bakery has some of the best tasting gluten free brownies
around. If you have you been searching for baked goods that are
entirely gluten free because of celiac disease or gluten
intolerant problems, then look no further.

A1glutenfree.com has
a variety of breads, cookies, and cakes that are delicious as
well as gluten free. A1glutenfree.com offers products that are
certified gluten free and have no cross contamination. So enjoy
all the great nutritious, delicious, and celiac disease safe
baked goods A1glutenfree.com has to offer.

About the author:
Sam Hilton is COO of http://www.a1glutenfree.com

When I first began to tell people I had Celiac Disease I had
some pretty odd reactions. Most people had never heard of it. If
they had they didn’t know what it meant. Most don’t want to ask,
after all, it does have that word “disease” in it. It’s not
catchy, doesn’t spread like the common cold or the flu and you
can’t get it from anyone, anywhere. Except, probably, from your
long passed grandparent, aunt, uncle or some other distant, or
perhaps, close relative. Celiac Disease is usually an inherited
disease, in the same family of diseases as diabetes, lupus,
rheumatoid arthritis, etc. All autoimmune diseases. It just
means the body turns on itself. There are little soldiers inside
beating each other up. The more gluten you take in the happier
they are.

I generally am amused at the reaction I receive when asked how I
possibly EAT! My rheumatologist, who I have seen for all these
years and who diagnosed me after several years of trying to
figure out why this crazy lady had so many really odd symptoms
that no one else has, still asks me how do I live without pasta.
He knows I come from a large Italian family & have big Sunday
suppers, mostly of pasta with homemade sauce and homemade
everything else. People always say they know they couldn’t do
it. Oh yes you can. I just think of the alternative and now I’ll
never go back to “toxic pasta” and “illegal bread”. No way. You
see, bloating, cramping, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, on and
on, is always in the back of my mind. I can’t tell you how many
times I have attempted to order a meal at a restaurant that I
could somehow manipulate to be gluten free by the time it
arrived at my table.

There are no restaurants where I live with the words “gluten
free” on the menu so I must prod the server for information
related to what might be in the food I want to order. Since most
people don’t know what I mean by gluten free, I just ask if it
contains wheat. If there is nothing visible on the plate that
looks like wheat the answer will always be no. Don’t blame the
server, they don’t know they are deceiving you. Always follow
that up with something like…is there gravy?….is it
breaded?….have those fries been dusted in flour?….is there
croutons on the salad? The reaction I usually get when I say
that I can’t have bread is this…”oh, there’s no wheat in it,
it’s white bread”. I don’t laugh, that would be rude. I just
follow that up with, sorry, can’t have it. We Celiac’s will
never be able to educate the masses on what it really means to
live without gluten. We just have to accept that this is our
job, no pay of course. When someone doesn’t get it, just smile
and say no thanks, and order the salad with oil and vinegar and
dress it yourself. http://www.vickisglutenfreeforlife.com

About the author, Vicki Mattera:
Diagnosed with Lupus in 1991 followed by Celiac Disease in 1995.

Phobias are the most easily treated of all psychological issues, with successful treatment being achieved in some cases within a few hours. They are seen as maladaptive learned responses which are able to be corrected by learning new ways of responding. The general symptoms of phobias include the following: Feelings of panic, dread, horror, or terror; recognition that the fear goes beyond what is considered normal and is out of proportion to the actual threat of danger; reactions that are automatic and uncontrollable, and seem to take over the person’s thoughts; rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, trembling, and an overwhelming desire to escape the situation. Extreme measures are often taken to avoid the feared object or situation.

Sometimes they start in childhood for no apparent reason; sometimes they emerge after a traumatic event; and sometimes the develop from an attempt to make sense of an unexpected and intense anxiety or panic (e. Some individuals can simply avoid the subject of their fear and suffer only relatively mild anxiety over that fear. When the anxiety has gone, remind yourself that you have survived, and have not gone mad, lost control or died. When and where to seek further help If your phobias are interfering with your ability to lead a full, normal life and you don’t make any progress in challenging them yourself. If you are experiencing a lot of anxiety or distress, and you seem to be feeling like this often. If you are avoiding situations that matter or if you suffer from overwhelming blushing/trembling/sweating in social situations or feel that you lack social skills, you may be more prone. Studies have also shown that the occurrence or anticipation of stressful life events, anxiety in childhood, over-protective parental behaviour and substance abuse are common among people with panic disorder.

Treatment exists to help people with phobias and panic disorder, and research into new therapies and techniques continues. During therapy, a person can slowly learn to become comfortable with the situation or object through exposure treatment or reconditioning. If the object of fear is easy to avoid, people with phobias may not feel the need to seek treatment.

Most individuals understand that they are suffering from an irrational fear, but are powerless to override their initial panic reaction. Even professional entertainers can experience cold sweat, nausea, vomiting, and light-headedness when they step out in front of an audience. Group therapy has also been successful in providing social phobics with a supportive circle of people who can empathize with their experience and serve as a significant first rebellion against the very nature of the disease.

Psychologists have categorized as many as 500 phobias, and according to the estimates of some health professionals, as many as 50 million individuals in the United States suffer from some kind of phobia.

Glossophobia, a fear of public speaking, is one of the most common of phobias and one that must be overcome by many individuals who find themselves in the position of having to make a speech to a group of people for business, professional, or educational reasons.

Phobias are in fact a fear of being afraid and demonstrate the brain’s ability to learn instantly, potentially a very effective survival mechanism. If you are interested in finding out more about phobias and what you can do to relieve them, they are listed alphabetically and indexed by their definitions on the website.

Peter Fisher is an expert Author and webmaster for WAHM-Info.com where you will find help with overcoming your fears and anxieties

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peter_Fisher
http://EzineArticles.com/?Fears-and-Phobias-Defined&id=620562

• More and more people are dropping out of the rat race to provide services and/or goods from home. Start part-time and build until you can drop the “day job.”
• For many, working from home is the best choice (ex., the stay-at-home spouse, or those who are retired).
• For others, working from home may be the only option (ex., house-bound due to health or to care for elderly parents).
• And it has even proven to be an excellent (if unexpected) opportunity for hundreds of thousands (ex., the “downsized”).

But…

This area is fraught with “get rich quick” schemes. So evaluate the opportunities carefully. Anything that offers great rewards for no-or-low work is a fraud. Think about it — why would they need you?

Bad News, Good News

Building a real business, no matter what kind of business, requires work. “That’s the bad news.”

The good news is that there has never been a better time to start a business from home. The Internet makes it a low-cost (i.e., low-risk), high-potential route.

Forget the long string of “classic work-at-home” dead-end jobs (ex., envelope-stuffing and telemarketing). Use the Web to build something terrific that excites you, a business to be proud of, that you own, and that earns you substantial income.

Do you have any idea how proud the small business people on our Family Bulletin Board are when they tell friends what they NOW do for a living? Join thousands just like them — take control and start your own home-based business.

Bottom Line? Use the Web to Build Something Real.

Only One Question…. How??

Let me show you here: SBI Review

Or view this short video…

Have you ever felt like your mind was spinning on a hamster wheel? You know; you get caught in an endless loop, running over the same old fears again and again, feeling unable to just stop the ride and get off?

I think we have all felt this way at one time or another, and if you have a history of anxiety or panic issues, you have surely done a few laps on the old hamster wheel. I know I have!

This obsessive re-examining of a fearful or worrying situation is what some people call a “cognitive loop.” It is uncomfortable at best, and at its worse, can have a negative affect on every area of your life, including your actual physical health.

That’s right. Research shows that over time, mental distress of this type can actually cause physical distress, quickening the pulse rate, raising blood pressure, and even weakening the immune system. All the more reason to learn how to “jump off the hamster wheel.” So let’s define what this “loop” actually is, and how you can put an end to this vicious cycle.

I think of a cognitive loop like a computer “hang up.” Remember the last time your computer froze on you? It became unresponsive and all forward progress came to a screeching halt, right? Probably your only alternative was to “reboot” and start over, because as everyone knows, once that endless loop starts running, you’re not going to get anything done until you do!

And that is exactly how you handle a loop in your thinking!

Once the loop of fear or worry begins, all progress stops. Your mind has basically “hung up,” and you’re not getting anything productive done until you call a time out and “re-boot” your system. And just how do you re-boot your mind?

Physical Change = Emotional Change

Our physical state and our mental state are very closely linked. For example, I notice that I always feel calm and centered when I exercise regularly and drink plenty of water. So to change a faulty (but temporary) mental state, like the cognitive loop, I recommend immediately changing your physical state.

The easiest way to do this is to just notice what you are doing with your body, and then do the opposite of that. If you’re sitting–stand up, or even go for a short walk. If you’re slouching, straighten your posture-chin up, chest out, back straight.

Notice your breathing. Are you taking short, shallow breaths? Take a few slow, deep breaths, breathing out slightly longer than you breath in. Do a few slow and deliberate stretches with your arms and legs to increase circulation.

Anything you can do to change your physical state will immediately begin to affect your mental state. And the more extreme the change in your physical state, the more extreme the change in your mental state will be. That’s one reason that exercise is so good for your mental health-especially as a preventive measure.

Walking or bike-riding are both really good for the nerves, but any movement that changes your physical state will have a positive effect. One easy way to remember this:

“When you change what your body is doing, you change what your mind is doing.”

© Jon Mercer — www.easycalm.com

The preparatory phase will take you through a few steps that normally precede anxiety attacks. Some of these are preventive measures, while others are meant to equip you to cope with the anxiety attack if it develops to a full-blown form. As mentioned earlier, it is very critical to the success of these steps that you understand you would not get rid of anxiety until and unless you apply yourself fully to the reverse the symptoms and expel negativity from your mind and life.

Learn To Recognize The Warning Signals

When you are about to have an anxiety attack there would be little warning signals that would tell you it is coming. Most people tend to ignore these signs because they account it to their stressful lives or initial stages of a disease. You need to hone your mind to recognize the warning signals that precede your anxiety attack and when you do so, reiterate to yourself with full confidence that, “It is nothing more than an anxiety attack, which would pass in no time.”

Stop Negative Thinking

Anxiety attacks thrive on negative thoughts. You start with a tiny worry, which would gradually escalate out of proportion paving the way to a full-blown anxiety attack. When you consider the fact that this could feel as bad as a heart attack, you would agree that this is definitely something you should try to avert. When you realize that you are feeding yourself negative thoughts, stop. Will yourself to think positively. Put in all your efforts to change the negative thinking into positive thinking.

Breathe In, Breathe Out

Yoga and many forms of meditation would teach you how to breathe in and out with intense concentration. You would need to watch your abdomen raise and fall steadily while you focus entirely on your breath as it goes in and out. After some time, you would be aware of nothing else but a sweet nothingness in your head and the awareness of your breathing.  You will find that your body relaxes and the anxiety, which was threatening to strike, has long since disappeared.

Is There A Logical Justification Backing Up Your Worries

Look carefully at the things that are causing you to worry. Are your worries logically justified or are you blowing things out of proportion? It would be difficult for you to remove yourself from the present and look at the situation objectively, but with practice you would be able to separate instances where worry is justified and where it is not.

Reorganize Your Thoughts

Look at the worse possible scenario and ask yourself what you can do best to avert it. If there is any action that you could take, do so. If there is nothing you can do, will yourself to stop worrying and even thinking about whatever worries you. Tell yourself that you would cross the bridge when it comes. For all its worth, it often happens that the things you worry about most never happens. Why torture yourself in advance for something that might never happen? Why invite an anxiety attack for something imaginary?

Apply The Writing Therapy

The best would be to talk with someone about your feelings, not as a confessional but as a sounding board. When you are stressed, you might not like to talk, but you need to ventilate your thoughts to release the tension that has built within you.

At such times, take out a paper and write down your thoughts – what bothers you the most? What you would want otherwise? How much you can help the situation if you apply yourself to it?  You would be surprised about the clarity you would get by just voicing your thoughts (speaking with someone) or penning them down. Often, when your worrisome thoughts are crammed in your mind, they seem much more terrible than when they are ‘taken out to light’. This is something like a cluttered table; at first it looks like there 10 thousand things on it and nothing makes sense, but oncethings are arranged and the desk is de-cluttered, tasks do not look scary and impossible to do anymore.

Establish A Safe Place For Yourself

You need to mentally allot a place in your home and/ or workplace where you declare it ‘safe’. This should be like a sanctuary where nothing bad or harmful can ever reach or touch you. This could a room, your bed, a large armchair, your garden, your coffee lounge, or even bathroom.  When you feel the anxiety rising within you, just rush to your safe place and let the feeling of security and safety wash over you.

Imagine that you have reached a place where every bad thing would be turned away – like you would be under the direct protection of God Himself or Providence or whatever super power you believe in. This would give you time and scope to rest your mind and find relief from stress for a while, enough time to enable you change your negative thoughts into positive ones.

Make A List Of Your Pet Worries

Let your worries escalate a little and when you feel that they are about to take a good grip of you, take out a pen and paper and write them down one by one. Write exactly what you are afraid of in bullet points and allot each one a number. Once you have exhausted your sources of worry, take a long look at each one of the points you wrote and then crumple the paper and burn it. At that time, imagine that you have burnt away all your worries and they have left you forever. Repeat this exercise every time you feel an anxiety attack is about to strike, and gradually you would observe that the number of your worries and their intensity decrease.

Force Your Thoughts On To Realty

This works best when you are free of anxiety or any of its symptoms. Take a pen and paper and make a table with two columns. In one of the columns enumerate carefully all the worries that plagued you until date and in the other write ‘yes’ against the worries that came true and ‘no’ against those who never materialized. When you complete the list, the realty would be quite clear to you as you would be able to see it in black and white on your paper. It would be heartening and so reassuring to see and realize that only a very tiny number of worries ever materialize. So, why worry at all?

This Too, Shall Pass

These four words represent a very deep truth of life. Everything in life is transient – both good and bad. We all feel that bad things are harder and emotionally more draining because they hurt, while the good things pass much too fast because they make us happy. The truth is that life is indeed ‘like a box of chocolates’. You need to keep in mind when you are happy as when you are sad that ‘this too shall pass’. They say, ‘You are never as good as they say when you succeed, nor as bad as they say when you fail.”  The secret to prevent anxiety attacks is often this simple.

About the author:

Click Here to grab your FREE Stress Relief Manifesto Report. It’d show you how you can achieve inner calm and eliminate stress from your life forever. For more information on dealing with anxiety, panic attacks and stress. Visit the  anxiety help blog today.

Learn how to eliminate anxiety and panic attacks for good