Welcome to the Southern Arizona Celiac Support Group

This is the official web site of the Southern Arizona Celiac Support Group, CSA/USA Chapter 15. We are dedicated to assisting Southern Arizona residents and visitors with celiac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis, as well as their family and friends.

• SACSG Constitution and Bylaws
• New Member Packet (PDF)
• Membership (Join or Renew)
• Meet Our Medical Advisory Board
• Gluten-free Mentor Program
• SACS Online Group
• More Documents and Forms

Our Objectives

Support SACS

• Educating newly diagnosed patients with CD/DH on how to switch to a gluten-free (GF) diet: i.e., no wheat, barley, oats or rye or other grains containing harmful gluten.
• Aiding members in self-education by assisting in their search for information, finding hidden sources of gluten, and determining safe sources of food.
• Alerting members to recent research concerning CD.
• Educating the medical community about recent research that indicates that CD is drastically under-diagnosed in the US because it actually occurs in about 1 out of 133 people instead of the one in five thousand that are actually diagnosed.

Celiac Disease Survey

If you have been diagnosed with celiac disease or gluten intolerance you probably have a story about your experiences. Please share it with us by taking our survey.

Symptom Checklist

With the kind permission of Dr. Peter H.R. Green we are able to reproduce the symptoms checklist from his book Celiac Disease—A Hidden Epidemic. Use it to see if you should talk to your doctor about testing for celiac disease. We've also attached a diagram showing the steps to arrive at a diagnosis. Note that not every doctor will follow exactly this sequence, but you should be insistent on following up with all tests needed to establish for certain if you do or don't have celiac disease.

GoodSearch will donate to the Celiac Sprue Association

Want to donate to our parent organization (CSA) every time you search the Web? Well, you can by using GoodSearch and setting up CSA as the charity you want to support. Just go to http://www.goodsearch.com/ and enter "celiac sprue association" in the "WHO DO YOU WANT TO GOODSEARCH FOR" box and click the "Verify" button. You should see "Celiac Sprue Association USA - CSA (Omaha, NE)" appear and you're good to go. There's a link (http://www.goodsearch.com/Toolbars.aspx) with instructions on how to add it as a search option for the search box in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome. You can even download a toolbar for Internet Explorer.

A Reminder from Your Support Group

We want to remind everyone with celiac disease or on a gluten-free diet that ALL types of wheat contain gluten at levels harmful to anyone who is sensitive to it. This includes: Bulgur, common or bread wheat, Durum, Einkorn, Emmer, Kamut, Semolina and Spelt and any other type of wheat (any member of the genus Triticum). Be wary of any claims to the contrary.

Our parent organization, the Celiac Sprue Association, has a web page outlining the different gains and their gluten-free status.

Gluten-Free School Lunches

The diet.com blog recently posted an article on school lunchs and making sure they are gluten free. The include suggestions on how to ensure that your child receives gluten-free meals at school. There's also a good article from the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness on gluten-free lunch guidelines and how to navigate the requirements of your school.

Tucson Cel-Kids (formerly R.O.C.K. Tucson Chapter)

Cel-Kids - For assistance with a newly diagnosed child or just to connect with families that have celiac kids, contact Diana, 520 574-0777.

Collecting Ideas on a living facility with a gluten free kitchen

Suppose you could no longer live independently, had no relative, friend, or group able to share housing, food preparation, etc.
Suppose there were a facility featuring a gluten-free kitchen. that was affordable to you, had room/apartment that would accommodate you where the staff were knowledgeable about GF food prep.

Suppose there were *NO* facility featuring a gluten-free kitchen available to you.

Would you like to add your name(s) to a list of others who have expressed interest in locating or creating such a facility? If so, contact Pat Hirsch at (520) 971-9595, patriciahirsch1@aol.com or Phoenix Wheeler at (520) 751-2332, fenx23@cox.net.

Contact Us

Your comments and requests for information are welcome. Contact us at info@southernarizonaceliacsupport.org, use our online form or you can call us at 520 722-9490.

To join or renew your membership, register online (Pay by credit/debit card or PayPal account) or download and print the membership form in PDF format.