What I don’t like about this piece is that it ignores the obvious trigger of antibiotics not followed by proper probiotics or fecal transplants, but otherwise its pretty good. The antibiotics thing is something I noticed personally. When I was six years old my appendix ruptured. It took a long time to realize what happened and I had peritonitis. So I got penicillin injected four times a day for three weeks. From that day forward I ate like a truck but remained skinny as a rail, I all but stopped getting taller and I had problems in the bathroom.

For my son it was a series of ear infections that led us to penicillin. Then he got sick.

I have friends from India who tell a similar tale. A family has four children. Two stay in India. One goes to America. One goes to Australia. The grandchildren in Australia and America get food allergies and celiac and autism.

The ones who remain in India with iffy water do not.

The article describes a similar situation in Finland and Russia. Same DNA. Finnish kids have money and great medical care…and autoimmune disease. Russian kids have less money and dirtier homes and one fifth the rate of autoimmune diseases.

Here is the thing. In America we also know that autism is linked with wealth. What do affluent parents do that broke ones do not? We take our children to the doctor for non life-threatening situations. Like ear infections and strep throat. We get antibiotics for bacterial infections.

And after our children get relief from the strep, the gut flora changes. And because our homes are clean, our children never get reinfected with “good” microflora. And so it goes.

What is so disturbing about this is that the fix is so simple. The fix is either probiotics or a fecal transplant post antibiotic use.

Anyway, until then, it is nice not to be the only voice screaming into the wind and the study of the Finns and Russians is interesting…plus this is a short read…I promise!

And give your babies probiotics. We take them every day now. I consider them our single most important supplement.

Read the article here
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/opinion/sunday/what-really-causes-celiac-disease.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0