Allow me to begin by saying what an honor it was to be chosen as an official blogger for the 2013 CDF Expo and Conference in Pasadena, California.  I was among vivacious people who all shared a common interest that bonded us together.  That interest was to raise celiac awareness.  No better time to do so than during the month of May which is also known as Celiac Awareness Month, right?

I’ll have to admit that I was a bit nervous about meeting a slew of people that I didn’t know.  In the end, it felt like a small family made up of extroverts.  

Introducing the cast of official event bloggers in alphabetical order so you can’t tell who my favorite is:

Alison from A Girl Defloured

Andrea from Rockin Gluten Free

Brian of East Bay Celiac

Chrissy of Glam Without Gluten

Erica of Celiac and the Beast

Kim from Thriving Gluten Free

Sarah of Can I Eat Here  

The first day featured a full day of learning via educational sessions by guest speakers such as Dr. Joseph A. Murray and Dr. Peter Green.

During these sessions, we all picked up interesting facts.  Since I’ve attended a couple of conferences, I zoomed in on some that I hadn’t heard before and some that I had that are really important to everyone.

From Dr. Murray’s slides, I learned that people from certain regions and origins lack the genes for celiac disease.  Something I had never thought about until that moment as I live in my own narrow world.  I found the cultural diversity for the genetic predisposition of celiac to be completely enthralling.  I may be the only one but thought I would share that tid bit.

Dr. Murray also spoke at length about the “Celiac Iceberg.”  He stated that although it is pretty above the surface it is very dangerous underneath.   Kind of like the berg that sunk the Titanic.

Murray also discussed some very crucial information.  CELIAC DISEASE CAN DEVELOP AT ANY POINT – IN ANY ONE’S LIFE!  He suggested retesting often because you are NEVER too old to develop celiac REGARDLESS of whether you have tested negative in the past.

Remember folks, undiagnosed celiac is not benign.

During his presentation, Dr. Murray recommended testing for all of those with type 1 diabetes.  He also mentioned that something has changed in our environment to promote celiac disease.

Dr. Peter Greene’s informative lecture began afterwards and divulged a plethora of information about silent celiac disease with numerous supportive slides.  Just a few of the symptoms that have no typical gastrointestinal manifestation are down syndrome, osteoporosis, anemia, dermatitis herpetiformis and a myriad of other symptoms including neurological presentations.

Dr. Green also discussed the gender difference in why more women than men are diagnosed.  It doesn’t come as much of a surprise to me that women are more often diagnosed with this or any illness as we are more likely to seek medical attention.  We are just smarter.  Ok, low blow but wanted to make sure you were still reading.  Check out the slide to see why Dr. Green thinks this is the case.

If you want to know all about the products from CDF’s stand alone gluten free Expo, part 2 will be coming soon!  Stay tuned.

****Would you like more information about the Conference?  Please visit any of the above mentioned blogs or find #CDFExpo on Twitter/Instagram for slides from the presentations

Thank you to CDF for this fantastic opportunity to blog about your Annual Celiac Conference and Expo.  We can’t think of a better way to kick off Celiac Awareness Month!