What is the possibility that a coeliac would meet a fellow coeliac and get married? Have you even heard of two coeliac's even living together?
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pretender
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I don't think it would be particularly remarkable. Any small market town will have a couple of hundred; I've worked with other coeliacs; I have a friend who's coeliac.
In statistical terms it's no biggie. Just think about the number of times you've met couples who share a birthday, right?
In the last seven years I have met only two coeliac's other than the small local support group, (that I now believe has disbanded)."Any small market town will have a couple of hundred" this is very hard to believe and at the age of 65 I have only ever met one couple sharing the same birthdate but have one years difference in age. (She being the elder). So I think there are better odds winning the lottery than finding a coeliac couple.
Just do the maths! Yes, a couple of hundred in a small town.
I've only been diagnosed a year and I've met several coeliacs, in fact I've just remembered a couple more as I flick through my address book. There are two in my W.I.!
When my total intolerance was diagnosed the nurse I worked with was diagnosed with same condition ! There's a lot of it out there .
Please explain your maths theory as you are saying there are a couple of hundred in a small market town? are you referring to population or diagnosed coeliac's?. I have lived in a large Kent Coastal town since 1961 and know very very few. I have been diagnosed for 49 years, knew of a girl with it in 1961 who died from it, knew of one child in a primary school I worked at, a girl working in Boots other than that as said previously the local support group whom I only knew one female.
If the diagnosed coeliacs are 1-1.5% of population then even a small town of 15,000-30,000 people will have approx 150-450 of them.
I guess how many you meet depends on the size of your social circle. I work in a large office (1 other coeliac), I'm active in the WI (2 coeliacs, plus 3-4 different members' daughters/brothers etc) and a political party (another 2 in local branch), it's a sociable community with lots of school events, charity quizzes, church events etc that are supported widely by those who are not "members", I have links with local volunteer organisations, and I have friends ranging from student age to their 80s.
The more people you mix with, the closer you will get to meeting the average 1% (because a larger sample size will tend towards the mean). On the other hand you get people like my mother, who hasn't made any new friends since about 1958 and doesn't like joining things, who doesn't know any coeliacs outside the the family.
Where do all these statics come from? its all guess work. A survey of GP's surgeries will tell a different story, in mine only 2 Coeliac's and the surgery will have 10's thousands of patients on their books. I refer only to diagnosed coeliac's. This however is being distracted from the OP.
"What is the possibility that a coeliac would meet a fellow coeliac and get married? Have you even heard of two coeliac's even living together? "
Well I know how many I know!
Maybe the numbers are higher in certain communities where you get a high concentration of "pushy patients", which there certainly are round here as you can't move without tripping over teachers, solicitors, scientists and PhDs of this, that and the other.
Some patient demographics have too much awe of doctors and so never persist, hence under-diagnosis.
As to the OP, no I haven't heard of a coeliac-coeliac couple though I do know (like sallydogsmum) a coeliac-Crohns couple.
"Some patient demographics have too much awe of doctors and so never persist, hence under-diagnosis." This probably explains why there are far more females with the condition than men( diagnosed ones that is). I do not believe a persons status or profession dictates if they are pushy or not or if they have CD.
Agree with you about the male/female split - I'd never thought of that.
Re "pushiness" of patients it is fairly well documented that people with advantages in life (in terms of affluence, education, nice neighbourhood etc) are far more likely to treat the doctor as an equal and not as some type of omniscient expert; they are more likely to persist and insist on second opinions and referrals.
I can think of people in my own family who wouldn't dream of challenging their doctor, so as a result their ailments get dismissed, they are given the old "lose weight and you'll feel better" routine (i.e. I don't know what's wrong with you so I'll make it your problem) and not allowed to ask questions.
I know most docs are not like that, but there is a tendency, in fact I have seen this phenomenon so many times, I would put money on rates of CD diagnosis in an area being proportional to average incomes. Now there's a meta analysis project for someone!
On a bit of a tangent... Having had a trawl through PubMed, coeliac disease is apparently more common in women than men, as are other autoimmune diseases. Still trying to find out why.
Probably because females spend more time with their GP's than males do, this is fact. Which is why there maybe less reported cases in the male population and other conditions such as Non-hodgkinsons lymphoma are the cause of death rather than untreated CD.
Although women may go to the doctors more than men, the research shows more women than men being affected. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/1...
• in reply toDartmoorGuerrilla
Just to add to this folks apparently you only have to have 23 people in the same room for there to be a probability of 2 sharing a birthday.
As for finding a compatible gluten free partner if Victoria Beckham (who advocates a gluten free diet) got divorced and advertised for a male on a gluten free diet there would be a much bigger response than to one from a fat bald grumpy old git (this is not meant to be a reflection of any members of GFG)
Lastly is this a news year eve quiz as I love quizzes LOL or is pretender looking for a coeliac partner...
Jerry
PS here's the maths on sharing a birthday:
blogs.wsj.com/numbersguy/fi...
pretender• in reply to
Not a quiz not partner hunting just pure curiosity and looking for an answer. Thanks Jerry!
I have been diagnosed just over a year. I have 2 in-laws (from different branches of families), several friends and know of friends of friends with CD. Also I guess some people who are acquaintances will have CD and don't mention it so I will never know exactly how many people have it.
Plus my next door neighbour. He was the first coeliac I was aware of.
Not coeliac disease, but my hubby has crohns' disease. I also have a friend with CD who has a partner with Crohns' too, which I think is oddly coincidental.
It's possible , but rare . With more " correct diagnoses " a person with abdominal problems can be misdiagnosed . I've worked in health service 46 years . Working with Doctors . When my symptoms ( rash ) flare up they think its eczema or psoriasis ! It's a great teaching tool . People need correct investigations , but sadly gp,s don't refer as they should .
I agree with your statement re investigations, when I saw a Professor (Coeliac his specialist subject) having had symptoms (rash/urticaria) since diagnosis and issues with the GF diet, it took a further two years to get a diagnosis of a formaldehyde allergy through being persistent and at the same hospital. Sadly when I come across other healthcare professionals it is the Coeliac Disease that is more understood than the allergy and that is only vague. I have Urticaria/eczma as well as Urticaria.
I think I have shamed my GP into doing his reading. I joked he must have overslept for the one lecture that covered it in med school! I now send him links to research (and the gluten summit info).
I think it's actually quite likely. I know 2 people with Type 1 diabetes who are married (one diagnosed a while after the marriage). I was at a dinner recently and out of 10 people at the table 3 had coeliac disease and 2 had type 1 diabetes (none of us were related) and one person was a guest so we knew nothing about her health problems before the meal. I am amazed at how many people with CD I know - and some I didn't know anything about till I was diagnosed myself.
Well commonalities make it easier to make a connexion. More people seem to be finding that their path to health is linked to sorting out what they eat which then leads to a trip to get a diagnosis. Online groups like this only increase the chance that you may meet a fellow coeliac.
I found it really encouraging how many of my friends on FaceBook identified themselves as coeliac or gluten sensitive when I posted about it on my wall.
The question was:
What is the possibility that a coeliac would meet a fellow coeliac and get married? Have you even heard of two coeliac's even living together? "
• in reply topretender
I know a coeliac mum with 2 coeliac children and whether you realise it or not, you know a coeliac who lived with another coeliac and obviously I know of them too.
What interests me is if 1 in 100 are coeliac but the majority are undiagnosed then how many couples are there out there that are undiagnosed coeliac?
pretender• in reply to
Only officially diagnosed Coeliac's not wannabe's or those who have a choice, living with a coeliac does not make them diagnosed. The golden rule being the endoscopy/biopsies etc. Undiagnosed are not a statistic but guess work for marketing purposes.
I don't know any.
1% of 70 million people
Highest concentration would be in big cities therefore the possibility would be higher that two may meet and marry in London than in Hebdon Bridge.
Only dating Coeliacs would also increase the possibility of marrying one.
Or are you after actual statistics? I don't think any data companies have surveyed on that and anecdotal stories are not evidence either way on real figures
The question,"What is the possibility that a coeliac would meet a fellow coeliac and get married? Have you even heard of two coeliac's even living together?" No statistics no data just fact....do you know a married/living together couple who are both coeliac's?
Personally I think that if you knew you were genetically a coeliac and you chose a similar mate then you shouldn't have children. Who would wish this on their offspring?
PS Fat coeliac? How does that happen?
I have two daughters who I am assured do not have it so my thinking is that in some families it may follow the male or the female side, my dad, his brother and my half brother have it. My sister is intolerant. Fat Coeliac's? I have gone from 68 kilo's to 92.5 kilo's by totally avoiding gluten/gluten free and derivatives. An enlarged abdomen was also a CD sign.
I'm not diagnosed coeliac, but I think the fat coeliac thing can happen. From a fairly normal weight I suddenly shot up by more than three stone in a short period in my early forties and had big food cravings. Shortly after, I was diagnosed with pernicious anaemia but my weight didn't change on treatment, and my attempts at dieting didn't really get anywhere. However, from the point when I stopped eating gluten the weight just came off steadily without me even trying. I'm reminded of a quote I read that said something like "obesity is a symptom of malnutrition"!
My weight only came off when the coeliac became active and by totally removing gluten from my diet my weight increased which was also helped by giving up smoking at the same time as diagnosis. Not sure about your quote From what I see its junk food & McDonalds.
Yes, the only coeliac person I've known around the time of her diagnosis was as thin as a rake, but I think there's quite a lot of evidence that that's not always the case. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/224...
Coeliac disease may not be spread evenly through the population. My Irish friends have a higher than average number of coeliacs amongst their extended families. I guess the possibility of two coeliacs getting married may be more likely in certain populations.
My last work place had only a small number of workers, and there were two coeliacs. The other person was from Denmark, which also appears to have quite a lot of coeliacs.
Yes. There is a couple in my support group who discovered they were both celiacs after one of their children was diagnosed. It wouldn't be all that unusual, actually. And I knew of another couple where the spouses were having similar health issues; one was diagnosed with celiac, the other got tested just because their symptoms were similar and sure enough, both had celiac. Also, especially in the university setting and where there are support groups, celiacs can meet each other either in groups or while staring hopelessly at the GF selection of their local store.
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