16,860

In March 2009, I wrote a blog post entitled 15,900.  The post was an explanation on the estimated number of Triangle residents with Celiac Disease.  See below for my new estimate - almost 2 years later and we've added approximately 1,000 Celiacs to the count.  We're almost to the capacity of the RBC Center.

15,900

15,900 - That's my estimate on the number of Celiac's in Triangle area.

15,423 - If you go by the NFCA's estimate that 97% of Celiacs are undiagnosed, this is my estimate of undiagnosed Celiac cases in the Triangle.

So here we are, 477 of us - with more coming each day thanks to increasing awareness and better diagnosis. From the statistics kept on visitors to this blog and the number of RSS subscribers, I would estimate that about 120-140 of the 477 are reading this blog each day.

I didn't just make these numbers up of course, new information was released today (see this article from the N&O) about Triangle population estimates. The Raleigh-Cary area now tops the nation in growth.

The Raleigh-Cary metropolitan area, which includes Wake, Johnston and Franklin counties, grew by 4.3 percent from July 2007 to July 2008, and is now home to close to 1.1 million people. It well outpaced its closest rival, the Austin, Texas, area, which grew by 3.8 percent, to become the national leader.

The national growth average was just under 1 percent.

The Triangle has been near the top of the nation's growth chart for more than a decade, as newcomers poured into the area to take jobs in technology, tourism and academia. The resulting building boom, and the jobs that came with it, drew hundreds of thousands of new residents.

The Durham-Chapel Hill metropolitan area, which includes Durham, Orange, Chatham and Person counties, didn't make the Top 10, but its population continued to swell at a steady 2.5 percent, up slightly from the year before. Just fewer than 490,000 people live in that area.

So there are 1.59 million Triangle residents. Some estimates say that 1% of the population in the US has Celiac. So what does this mean to all of us? The Triangle has a formidable number of Celiacs and this information should help drive the market for Gluten Free products. I hope to see more and more restaurants, grocery stores, etc... catering to us in the future. With almost 16,000 of the most loyal customers ever created, how could they not?

Celiac Disease Awareness Month: Celiac Disease by the Numbers

Here is some information you can share with others while you are raising awareness this month. Some of these numbers are pretty shocking. I've also added these facts to the right hand side of this blog and will continue to add to them as I find more.

Celiac Disease by the Numbers

• 1 out of every 133 Americans (about 3 million people) has CD.
• 97% of Americans estimated to have CD are not diagnosed.
• CD has over 300 known symptoms although some people experience none.
• Age of diagnosis is key: If you are diagnosed between age 2-4, your chance of getting an additional autoimmune disorder is 10.5%. Over the age of 20, that rockets up to 34%.
• 30% of the US population is estimated to have the genes necessary for CD.
• 2.5 babies are born every minute in the USA with the genetic makeup to have CD.
• There are 15 states in the US with populations less than the total number of Celiacs in the US.
• CD affects more people in the US than Crohn’s Disease, Cystic Fibrosis, Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease combined.
• 500,000 new Celiac diagnoses are expected to occur in the US by 2012 -- thanks to efforts to raise public awareness of the disease.
  
• People with CD dine out 80% less than they used to before diagnosis and believe less than 10% of eating establishments have a 'very good' or 'good' understanding of GF diets.
• It takes an average of 11 years for patients to be properly diagnosed with CD even though a simple blood test exists.
• The average cost of misdiagnosis is $5,000 - $12,000 per person per year. Improving the time to diagnosis could save the health care system millions of dollars annually in unnecessary medical care.
  
• The US Department of Agriculture projects that the GF industries revenues will reach $1.7 Billion by 2010.
• GF foods are, on average, 242% more expensive then their non-GF counterparts.
• The Food Allergen Labeling & Consumer Protection Act became law in 2006 allowing for easier reading of food labels for those with CD. What took so long?
• The smallest amount of gluten which has been shown by a biopsy to cause damage to a Celiac is 0.1 gram per day - or 1/48th of a slice of bread.
• 12% of people in the US who have Down Syndrome also have CD.
• 6% of people in the US who have Type 1 Diabetes also have CD.
• Among people who have a first-degree relative diagnosed with Celiac, as many as 1 in 22 people may have the disease.
• There are currently 0 drugs available to treat CD.