Looks like Celiac disease will disqualify me from the military

[Kamoto]

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Does having Celiac disease disqualify me from becoming a military doctor for every branch of service? That would suck, and throw a wrench into my financial planning for med school.

Kindly

 

[DMBandFan86]

what the army doesn't know about you can't hurt 'em.

Actually I have no idea, and would never encourage you to not disclose medical information. Although there are some soldiers who do.

 

[Perrotfish]

what the army doesn't know about you can't hurt 'em.

Actually I have no idea, and would never encourage you to not disclose medical information. Although there are some soldiers who do.

This is a horrific idea. Fraudulent enlistment is a crime punishable by dishonorable discharge and multiple years in prison, and you are specifically suggesting for an active medical condition that is basically impossible to conceal. When he gets to ODS and they plop a meal tray in front of him is he supposed to casually ask for a gluten free option?

 

[HighPriest]

Just tell them you're "gluten intolerant," and they'll roll their eyes and just assume you're some hipster...

Seriously, though Perrotfish is right, it would be a huge, huge mistake to conceal something like this. Even if you could keep it concealed (which you won't), it's a hell of a risk. Because, as mentioned, if they find out you've purposefully hidden it they could easily decide to make a very serious example out of you for everyone to see. Not worth it.

If you've never been diagnosed with celiac, but you think you have it, that's one thing. Decide whether you want to get worked up before you join or not. But if you actually have true celiac (which I assume that you do), ask your recruiter if it's something for which you can be waived or not. I personally don't know. I wouldn't think so, but it also probably depends upon how desperate they are for docs (which at the moment is probably not very).

 

[DMBandFan86]

You just have to talk to each branch and see if there are medical waivers or not. You may end up spending a lot of time on this and then just be turned down for medical reasons. And no I don't recommend you hide anything from your application.

Worst case scenario, you get deployed somewhere where they only have MRE's which are packed with crackers and pound cakes.

 

[DrMetal]

Yes, it should DQ you, especially if severe, resulting in iron and vitamin deficiencies, could cause symptomatic anemia, coagulopathies, etc. Plus it may be hard to maintain a gluten-free diet in a deployed environment, and you need to be deployable to serve.

 

[Gastrapathy]

There is likely a small but increased of lymphoma in patients with celiac who consume gluten. There is no certainty of gluten free options in a deployed environment. So, I suspect you’re going to have a hard time getting a waiver. But, you won’t know without asking

 

[j4pac]

You just have to talk to each branch and see if there are medical waivers or not. You may end up spending a lot of time on this and then just be turned down for medical reasons. And no I don't recommend you hide anything from your application.

Worst case scenario, you get deployed somewhere where they only have MRE's which are packed with crackers and pound cakes.

The MREs are a big deal and most people in the military have to eat them from time to time. ODS wasn’t a big deal, as I was able to select my food options. I had to eat MREs in C4...an I honestly don’t know how I would have gone around that.

 

[deleted480308]

The MREs are a big deal and most people in the military have to eat them from time to time. ODS wasn’t a big deal, as I was able to select my food options. I had to eat MREs in C4...an I honestly don’t know how I would have gone around that.

I almost declared myself vegan during bolc because the spicy vegetarian penne was so much better than the rando beef crap I kept getting handed out of the pile

 

[colbgw02]

My old man used to bring MREs home when I was a kid because 10 year old me thought they were fun to eat. If you think today's MREs are bad, you'd consider the ones from 25-30 years ago to be inedible. They've come a long way.

 

[ArmyTiger]

My old man used to bring MREs home when I was a kid because 10 year old me thought they were fun to eat. If you think today's MREs are bad, you'd consider the ones from 25-30 years ago to be inedible. They've come a long way.

I'm pretty sure Country Captain Chicken should have been declared as a war crime.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[244913]

Beef patty FTW, delicious flatbread

 

[TheEarDoc]

Does having Celiac disease disqualify me from becoming a military doctor for every branch of service? That would suck, and throw a wrench into my financial planning for med school.

Kindly

That will be PDQ for sure. I seriously doubt you would ever get a waiver for it either. As others said maybe if you just think you might have Celiacs and have never actually been tested you could possibly slide through, but if you know sure you have it, then you would be a no go. As others have said the odds of always getting a gluten free meal in the field or in the real world of the military would be slim to none and it's not something that would not come up. This is not like "forgetting" to mention you had to see a psychologist for depression when you were a teenager or something minor, this is something that could kill you or make you a severe liability to your fellow soldiers on the battle field.

Now if you want to serve your country and want assistance with your student loan debt then there are plenty of options. Indian Health Services offers wonderful student loan forgiveness as does the VA. You might look into those options if you cannot serve in the military.

And to everyone else I must be a freak of nature because I love MRE's........I guess maybe because I don't have to eat them for 3 meals a day for months on end on deployment though. Enough chalula or tobasco sauce and you can eat anything.

 

[Atlas Shrugged]

I wish buffalo chicken would make a comeback. Word on the street was it actually degraded the packaging.

 

[colbgw02]

rock or something

 

[Ziehl-Neelsen]

I can't stand virtually all the MRE entrees, and you can only ratf*ck MREs around the entrees for so long, so I've taken to carrying Soylent packages with me in the field.

On my last FTX a young lieutenant asked what I was drinking. I told him people. The 1SG gave a chuckle, the lieutenant gave me a bewildered look. I am old.

 

[Kamoto]

Thank you all. I was diagnosed by a Gastrointestinal specialist at Stanford Medical Center. My hometown doctors couldn't diagnose the problem, but this guy was a rockstar. The celiac came on at twelve years of age, and I didn't get my diagnosis until I was thirteen. Imagine, an Italian with celiac disease. Barilla pasta company makes a pretty good gluten free pasta though. I have to think the prevalance of genetically modified corn in the American diet has to be the cause of this scourge. Having roundup ready seeds provided by Monsanto is just causing some of us to have bad reactions until we can evolve to handle this. One of the reasons I grow Heirloom vegetables in the back yard, even if they have to be constantly monitored against pests and mold. Regards

 

[deleted480308]

Thank you all. I was diagnosed by a Gastrointestinal specialist at Stanford Medical Center. My hometown doctors couldn't diagnose the problem, but this guy was a rockstar. The celiac came on at twelve years of age, and I didn't get my diagnosis until I was thirteen. Imagine, an Italian with celiac disease. Barilla pasta company makes a pretty good gluten free pasta though. I have to think the prevalance of genetically modified corn in the American diet has to be the cause of this scourge. Having roundup ready seeds provided by Monsanto is just causing some of us to have bad reactions until we can evolve to handle this. One of the reasons I grow Heirloom vegetables in the back yard, even if they have to be constantly monitored against pests and mold. Regards

Yeah, you are welcome to apply for the waiver but I wouldn’t approve it (no one will ask me though so that doesn’t matter)

Good luck with everything

 

[Perrotfish]

The MREs are a big deal and most people in the military have to eat them from time to time. ODS wasn’t a big deal, as I was able to select my food options. I had to eat MREs in C4...an I honestly don’t know how I would have gone around that.

I found that getting your C4 cancelled due to budget cuts works pretty well. Hard to plan for, though.

I actually like almost all MREs. I just bought a giant box of them for a civilian wilderness med thing I doing.

 

[Ziehl-Neelsen]

I have to think the prevalance of genetically modified corn in the American diet has to be the cause of this scourge. Having roundup ready seeds provided by Monsanto is just causing some of us to have bad reactions until we can evolve to handle this.

You do realize that celiac disease has a very specific association with certain HLA genotypes and other genes that deal with adaptive T cell responses, permeability barriers between intestinal enterocytes, and certain cytokines that cause a maladapted response to gliadin right? And how would round-up ready corn that has no gliadin protein have anything to do with the development of celiac disease?

 

[TheEarDoc]

You do realize that celiac disease has a very specific association with certain HLA genotypes and other genes that deal with adaptive T cell responses, permeability barriers between intestinal enterocytes, and certain cytokines that cause a maladapted response to gliadin right? And how would round-up ready corn that has no gliadin protein have anything to do with the development of celiac disease?

YEAH SCIENCE!!!!

 

[pgg]

I have to think the prevalance of genetically modified corn in the American diet has to be the cause of this scourge. Having roundup ready seeds provided by Monsanto is just causing some of us to have bad reactions until we can evolve to handle this.

I used to be surprised when I heard people say things like this, but now it just makes me sad.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I actually like almost all MREs. I just bought a giant box of them for a civilian wilderness med thing I doing.

Many of our ship meals are essentially MREs dumped into a warmer. The first time I ate an actual MRE, it was tortellini. I took a bite and was like, “Hey, chili mac!”

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

You do realize that celiac disease has a very specific association with certain HLA genotypes and other genes that deal with adaptive T cell responses, permeability barriers between intestinal enterocytes, and certain cytokines that cause a maladapted response to gliadin right? And how would round-up ready corn that has no gliadin protein have anything to do with the development of celiac disease?

Don’t try to confuse him with your fancy big words.

 

[HighPriest]

You do realize that celiac disease has a very specific association with certain HLA genotypes and other genes that deal with adaptive T cell responses, permeability barriers between intestinal enterocytes, and certain cytokines that cause a maladapted response to gliadin right? And how would round-up ready corn that has no gliadin protein have anything to do with the development of celiac disease?

You probably vaccinate your kids, too, you monster.

 

[siliso]

Sucks but they want to be able to deploy you and can’t guarantee special meals in BFE I suppose. There are other financial options in the end that will even out, but I sympathize if you were wanting to serve and found out you can’t, that is a bummer. You can serve your country working in VA in future if that’s a goal for you.

All the good celiac research (and GF pasta) comes out of Italy or Italian expats, is apparently common and obviously very culturally inconvenient. Maybe they’ll figure the cure or workaround one of these days. My celiac kid is hopeful, anyway.

 

[DrMetal]

Thank you all. I was diagnosed by a Gastrointestinal specialist at Stanford Medical Center. My hometown doctors couldn't diagnose the problem, but this guy was a rockstar.

Then you have a crappy PCM at home....Celiac is not hard to recognize and diagnose. The only thing you need the GI for is endoscopy with biopsies, which one might argue you don't really need [if you have a high enough clinical suspicion, and with some labs, you can attempt a gluten free diet and see what happens].

 

[Perrotfish]

Then you have a crappy PCM at home....Celiac is not hard to recognize and diagnose. The only thing you need the GI for is endoscopy with biopsies, which one might argue you don't really need [if you have a high enough clinical suspicion, and with some labs, you can attempt a gluten free diet and see what happens].

I have always been told specifically not to do a gluten free diet befire sending ti GI as the biopsies don't work as well.

Real celiac is incredibly restrictive and is a lifelong diagnosis. In studies they have a much higher rate of medical related stress than type 1 diabetics. I feel like you need the gold standard (biopsies) to make the diagnosis.

 

[HighPriest]

Just send them all to Monsanto. I heard they already have a cure, but they’re covering it up.

 

[Gastrapathy]

I have always been told specifically not to do a gluten free diet befire sending ti GI as the biopsies don't work as well.

Real celiac is incredibly restrictive and is a lifelong diagnosis. In studies they have a much higher rate of medical related stress than type 1 diabetics. I feel like you need the gold standard (biopsies) to make the diagnosis.

May no longer be true if these results are validated:
HLA-DQ-Gluten Tetramer Blood Test Accurately Identifies Patients With and Without Celiac Disease in Absence of Gluten Consumption. - PubMed - NCBI

Even now, I offer bx to anyone who wants it but a high TTG that responds to a GFD would be good enough for me (and Europe)

 

[precisiongraphic]

Does having Celiac disease disqualify me from becoming a military doctor for every branch of service? That would suck, and throw a wrench into my financial planning for med school.

Kindly

Yep - another Italian here who is also celiac. I've heard that it does disqualify for every branch. MREs are not ever gonna be GF. In case anyone wonders while reading this thread in the future, I've also heard that if diagnosed while serving, some people have received waivers but it's not too common.

 

[precisiongraphic]

May no longer be true if these results are validated:
HLA-DQ-Gluten Tetramer Blood Test Accurately Identifies Patients With and Without Celiac Disease in Absence of Gluten Consumption. - PubMed - NCBI

Even now, I offer bx to anyone who wants it but a high TTG that responds to a GFD would be good enough for me (and Europe)

This new test is cool. Though everyone in my HLA/DQ2 family tested negative (n=3) with the blood test while eventually having positive endoscopy results. The current TTG test leaves a lot to be desired as to reliability.