the killer argument

I'd say I'm a pretty rational type; I tend to believe in things I can see or experience or realistically imagine, and dismiss the rest (such as religion ). But when I experience something that rational solutions don't seem to recognise or apply to, I'm willing to expand my horizons and broaden my beliefs. Which is how I originally became interested in naturopathic / homeopathic therapies.

After many years suffering from various complaints which were apparently unrelated, undiagnosable and untreatable (by regular medicine), I took a side-track to a naturopath ... whose apparently illogical and un-rationalisable treatments did make a difference.

Over the years, I saw a number of naturopaths, and eventually found Gordon, whom I consider to be the world's greatest naturopath!

Among the things that Gordon told me was that I was gluten-intolerant, and that by undergoing a detox program and avoiding foods containing gluten, many of the complaints that had dogged me for most of my adult life would improve or vanish.

I didn't want to believe Gordon, at first. After all, my staple diet then revolved around bread, pizza, cake, pastries, pies, biscuits, scones, pasta, cereal - I couldn't imagine life without those basic necessities and mouth-watering delicacies.

But I was desperate, so I agreed to give it a month or two, and see how it worked out.

It was tough! Suddenly, my staples were forbidden to me, and I had to learn to eat rice crackers and gluten-free muesli, rice, dry, crumbly gluten-free cake, rice, pallid, gluten-free pasta, rice, and oh, did I mention... rice?

Eating became a boring drudge, trying to find new ways to prepare rice and rice-based meals, and avoiding things like soy sauce and other condiments, which invariably contained the dreaded gluten.

But I didn't have to wait long to realise it was the right thing to do. Within a few weeks, I could feel the difference, and I knew I was doing the right thing, no matter how distasteful it was. Gluten was poison. Gluten was out!

I was well and truly confirmed as gluten-intolerant when, around two years or so later, I first visited my current GP, Ben.

When I told him my medical history, he immediately turned up his nose at the thought of my diagnosis by an 'unqualified' practitioner, and recommended that I do a blood test to confirm that advice.

The only catch was, that in order to do the blood test, I had to go back onto gluten for a period of 3 or 4 weeks.

After all I had gone through in training myself to not eat that stuff, I couldn't stand to backtrack, so I politely but firmly ignored his suggestions. Again. And again. And again. And then, he hit me with the killer argument!

At my last appointment with Ben, I was talking about my planned trip to Europe next year. One of my concerns about travel had been around how I would find gluten-free foods in non-English speaking countries; I had heard anecdotally that it was not so easy to find, in parts of the continent. He suggested that maybe I had 'recovered' from my gluten intolerance after my lengthy gluten-abstinence, and that it would be worthwhile doing the test to find out 'for sure'.

With the thought of travel in mind, and hope of an allergy-free future in my heart (and stomach), I agreed to prepare for the test.

After all, how bad could it be?