Digestive Diseases News
Winter 2008
Additional Resources
Awareness and Prevention Series
The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) has created a new health information series to raise awareness about digestive diseases, diabetes, and kidney and urologic diseases among people not yet diagnosed with these illnesses.
The Awareness and Prevention Series, which the NIDDK developed for health fairs and similar venues, features two-page fact sheets about a wide range of health topics. Each fact sheet gives readers a snapshot of an illness, highlighting risk factors, symptoms, prevention tips, and where to go for more information. The fact sheets are written in English on one side and Spanish on the other. Digestive diseases fact sheets address foodborne illness, celiac disease, colon polyps, hepatitis, irritable bowel syndrome, and lactose intolerance.
“The series is designed to encourage readers to ask ‘Could this be me or someone I care for?’” said Kathy Kranzfelder, director of the NIDDK Information Clearinghouses. “Raising awareness of these illnesses will hopefully help people learn to prevent them or see a doctor if they have symptoms.”
Copyright-free Awareness and Prevention Series publications can be downloaded or ordered through the National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse website at www.digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/ap.htm. The website also has fact sheets and booklets with more complete information about these topics and many others related to digestive diseases.
Celiac Disease
The easy-to-read booklet that explains what celiac disease is and outlines its symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment is now available in Spanish. The Celiac Disease Awareness Campaign publication Lo que usted debe saber sobre la enfermedad celíaca (What you need to know about Celiac Disease) includes an updated chart from the American Dietetic Association that lists which foods to avoid and which ones are safe to eat on a gluten-free diet.
Celiac disease is the inability to digest gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. An estimated one in every 133 Americans suffers from celiac disease, though many have never been diagnosed and are not receiving treatment. To download a copy of the 20-page publication, go to www.digestive.niddk.nih.gov/spanish/index.asp.
Updated Fact Sheets
The National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse has updated the following publications:
- Autoimmune Hepatitis
- Gas in the Digestive Tract
- Rapid Gastric Emptying
- Viral Hepatitis: A through E and Beyond
- What I need to know about Gas
- Your Digestive System and How It Works
These publications are available at www.digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/a-z.asp.
Necrotizing Enterocolitis
“New therapies and preventive approaches for necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC): report of a research planning workshop” was published in the October 2007 issue of Pediatric Research. The workshop was held in July 2006 by the Digestive Diseases Interagency Coordinating Committee of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
NEC is the death of intestinal tissue, a condition that primarily affects premature infants or sick newborns. Workshop participants agreed that finding ways to prevent NEC would be more rewarding than trying to treat the condition.
Correction: In the Fall 2007 issue of Digestive Diseases News, the sentence in the story “NIH Launches Study to Assess Bariatric Surgery in Teens” that reads “The 200 teens who will be enrolled in Teen-LABS will also be participants in adult LABS” should read as follows: “The 200 teens who will be enrolled in Teen-LABS will not be participants in adult LABS.” Two hundred adults who have consented to be part of adult LABS and have a history of obesity since their teenage years will be enrolled in Teen-LABS as a comparison group.
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NIH Publication No. 08–4552
March 2008
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