What is Celiac Disease?
Celiac Disease is an autoimmune disease that impacts the digestive tract of individuals who have an intolerance to gluten. The disease damages the small intestines and interferes with a person’s ability to absorb nutrients. An intolerance to gluten means that an individual can not breakdown the gluten protein which is found in wheat, rye, and barley. Individuals who have Celiac disease must avoid consuming any product, food or beverage that contains the gluten protein. Gluten is found in many commons foods and also is in some vitamins, medications and beverages.

When an individual with Celiac disease ingest a food that contains gluten, their immune system responds by attacking the villi, which are tiny protrusions that line the small intestine walls. Villi helps with the absorption of nutrients into the bloodstream. With Celiac disease, the patient is unable to absorb nutrients, leading to malnutrition.

Celiac disease can become active at any time in the affected person’s life. Often it is triggered due to a major life event such as surgery, pregnancy, infection, stress or childbirth. Celiac disease in children can significantly affect their growth. Malnutrition can lead to delayed growth, delayed puberty and dental issues.

Other names for Celiac disease are Celiac sprue, nontropical sprue, and gluten-sensitive enteropathy. Celiac disease is a genetic disorder, meaning that if one family member is affected by the disease, then another family member typically also has Celiac disease.

How Common is Celiac Disease?
The prevalence of Celiac disease continues to rise across the world. In the United States, more than 2 million people are diagnosed with Celiac disease, or 1 out of every 133 person. If a parent or other direct relative has Celiac disease, the chance of diagnosis rises significantly, up to 1 out of every 22 person.

What Are the Symptoms?
The symptoms of Celiac disease vary from person to person. There are often standard symptoms that individuals experience and these typically include digestive distress. Symptoms of Celiac disease can vary depending upon the age of the patient. Digestive symptoms for children often include:

  • Abdominal pain
  • Diarrhea
  • Weight loss
  • Constipation
  • Vomiting
  • Irritability

Digestive symptoms for adults that are typically witnessed are:

  • Abdominal Pain
  • Gastrointestinal distress
  • Anemia due to iron deficiency
  • Arthritis
  • Seizures
  • Itchy rash called dermatitis herpetiformis

There are cases where the affected person experience little to no symptoms but the disease continues to develop and the patient may be experiencing some forms of malnutrition. This eventually can lead to cancer or liver diseases among other health issues.

Other Health Issues Connected to Celiac Disease
Due to Celiac disease being an autoimmune disease, the immune system of the patient is weakened. Researchers are unsure if the connection between Celiac disease and the following diseases are genetic or not. Other diseases that individuals usually have are:

  • Autoimmune thyroid disease
  • Autoimmune liver disease
  • Rheumatoid arthritis
  • Type 1 diabetes
  • Addison’s Disease
  • Sjogren’s Syndrome
  • Down Syndrome
  • Turner Syndrome

How is Celiac Disease Diagnosed?
Doctors often have a difficult time diagnosing Celiac disease accurately and swiftly, due to the variance of symptoms. Other diseases that doctors often confuse the symptoms of a Celiac disease patient with are irritable bowel syndrome, anemia, diverticulitis and chronic fatigue syndrome. The main methods that doctors utilize to diagnosis Celiac disease are:

  • Blood Tests
  • Intestinal Biopsy
  • Screening
  • Dermatitis Herpetiformis

A patient typically is tested initially through blood tests. These tests are designed to determine if a patient has an elevated level of certain proteins in their blood. These proteins exist due to the occurrence of the autoimmune disease attacking the patient’s cells and tissues. If a blood test is inconclusive but the symptoms still appear to be that of Celiac disease, then the doctor may take an intestinal biopsy. An intestinal biopsy is when the doctor removes a small piece of tissue from the intestinal wall. This is typically done through an endoscopy.

What are the treatments for Celiac Disease?
The only treatment that exists for Celiac disease is for the patient to carefully follow a gluten-free diet. A gluten-free diet is a diet that eliminates foods that contain or have a trace of wheat, rye or barley. This means that foods such as pasta, bread and cereals will have to be eliminated from the patient’s diet. In recent years, many food manufactures and grocery stores have recognized the increase in consumer’s affected by Celiac disease and they have designed and produced foods, such as pasta, bread and cereals that are free of gluten.

The gluten-free diet can be difficult for some to follow and patients often need to meet with a dietician to learn the intricacies of the new diet that they will have to follow for the rest of the life. In addition to food, patients will also need to be aware of gluten in many medications that they may take. The best way to avoid ingesting anything with gluten is to carefully read the label and to discuss with a pharmacist if a particular medication contains gluten.

Unfortunately, at this time, Celiac disease is incurable. It is a disease that is manageable once the patient has learned to live a gluten-free lifestyle.