Attack of the gluten intolerant sex addicts, Mark Morford

[Orrex]

117. Ah. A fair question.

It's true that anecdotal evidence is no substitute for scientific study. If I were dictating health policy or claiming that a product offered a particular health benefit, it would be unacceptable for me to base such claims upon anecdote.

When assessing a general trend based on personal experience, it is entirely appropriate to offer up anecdote in that context. I'm not prescribing a course of treatment; I'm describing what I have observed. If someone can cite a study that contradicts my experience, I will happily defer to it. That's very different from accepting anecodote in preference to empirical evidence.

If someone has symptoms consistent with gluten intolerance, that person should certainly seek evaluation by a medical professional because of the risk of something more serious. Last year my father thought that he'd pulled a muscle in his lower abdomen. When he went to the doctor three days later, he learned that his appendix had burst. If he'd gone with his self-diagnosis, he'd very likely be dead now.


The fact that I remain skeptical of the self-diagnosed gluten-intolerant pizza-eater absolutely doesn't mean that I don't take your problem seriously. Quite the opposite, in fact.