Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder that is characterized by an intolerance for gluten (a protein most commonly found in wheat, barley, and rye). Consuming gluten triggers an immune response that causes inflammation in the lower intestine that can permanently damage the intestinal lining. This damage results in malabsorption of essential nutrients and can lead to stomach … [Read more...] about Fact Sheet: Celiac Disease
Issues
The Great Hunger and the Celtic Gene
Thomas P. Duffy MD of the Yale School of Medicine explores why certain people survived the Great Hunger and reasons that the answer may lie in their gene pool. Shortly after the great Irish famine of 1847-49, the initial description appeared, in 1865, of a fatal disorder that compromised the liver and pancreas and resulted in bronzing or hyperpigmentation of the skin. Many … [Read more...] about The Great Hunger and the Celtic Gene
Fact Sheet : Hemochromatosis
Hemochromatosis (he-moe-krome-uh-TOE-sis) Hereditary hemochromatosis is a disease caused by a recessive genetic mutation that makes the body absorb too much iron, resulting in excess amounts being deposited in vital organs, most commonly the liver, heart, and pancreas. Luckily, only a small number of people with the genetic mutation develop serious problems, but even so, … [Read more...] about Fact Sheet : Hemochromatosis
Sisters Sharing Musical Talent and Health Issues
Joyce and Ruth O’Leary are your average pair of young Irish sisters in their early twenties. They share outfits, finish each other’s sentences, and cheer each other up when one is having a hard day. There’s just one difference: together, Joyce and Ruth make up Sephira, an Irish crossover act that combines passionate violin playing, ethereal singing and showstopping choreography … [Read more...] about Sisters Sharing Musical Talent and Health Issues
Irish Herbal Medicine
The oldest form of healing, long practiced in Ireland, proved just the thing for writer Jonathan Self. A leafy lane, not much more than a boreen really, dissects the middle of the Kingstons’ farmyard in Church Cross near Skibbereen. On one side lie the whitewashed farmhouse, weathered stone barns and tidy vegetable gardens typical of a traditional West Cork smallholding. On … [Read more...] about Irish Herbal Medicine