Celiac Disease
Celiac disease is a disorder that causes severe symptoms when you eat gluten.
Stop eating gluten, and the short-term symptoms are reversed.
Celiac disease is hereditary. If you have the genes for it, inherited from either or both of your parents, then you have celiac for the rest of your life.
This sounds bad, but unlike many other hereditary diseases, it is relatively easy to manage: just stop eating gluten.
True, avoiding gluten is easier said than done. However, it is possible to avoid gluten and still eat well.
In fact, you will find that your diet is much better without gluten.
Gluten is found in wheat, barley, rye and oats. There is debate about how harmful the gluten in oats actually is for celiac, but I recommend you avoid oats as well. Most celiac do not do well on oats.
Processed food uses a lot of highly-refined wheat flour, which quite frankly, is bad for everyone’s health.
By avoiding gluten, you will find yourself gravitating towards more healthy foods.
The challenge is less available convenience foods, but this is changing as more and more manufacturers supply gluten-free snacks and foods.
Warning: if you have celiac disease and continue to eat gluten for an extended period of time, you will do permanent damage to your body.
Celiac Damage
If you eat gluten, the first set of effects is in your small intestine.
The villi become damaged, leading to poor absorption of essential nutrients from your food, but at the same time, the body absorbs partially digested food, polluting the blood stream.
Poor absorption of nutrients leads to deficiencies in key vitamins and minerals. Anaemia is common amongst celiacs who continue to eat gluten-containing foods.
Eventually, extensive long-term damage can effect all the internal organs, and can be fatal.
There is also a higher incidence of bowel cancer among celiacs who fail to eliminate gluten from their diet.
Celiac Symptoms
See celiac symptoms for a list of symptoms associated with celiac disease.
Gluten-Free Diet
A gluten free diet is the only known way to manage celiac disease. See gluten-free and gluten-free diet for more information.
Celiac Disease Management
News Flash! A new drug, larazotide, is being tested for its ability to control some of the damage caused by gluten. See Celiac Disease Cure? for details.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I love nutritional supplements. Is there any that one can take in order to either forestall gluten production in the body or be free from gluten allergy?Besides, is the connection between gluten and celiac disease undeniable?
Hi Timothy,
Gluten is not produced in the body. It is produced by plants, specifically wheat, oats, barley ,and rye.
Celiac disease is, by definition, the connection between the damage caused by gluten and the genetics that makes some people to susceptible to this damage.
In other words, not everyone has a problem with gluten, but if you have celiac disease, there is no doubt that you must eliminate gluten from your diet.
HI TIMOTHY gluten is highly nutritional part of grains our body should be not deprived of it but the trick is when one is candidaly infected what ever is consumed it is fermented not digested this creates toxins and ethanol more nutritious food is stronger toxins this creates whole body inflamation litle guys in our gut called willies are responsible for food absorbtion they get inflamed cant perform further more candida affects liver kidneys brain and most important one are involuntary nerves vhich are responsible for whole body function also every cell in our body is affected it practicaly feeds on rot which is end producd after fermentation
Never the less, gluten causes huge problems for many people. Often, people have health problems with more than one cause. Celiac disease is the worst example of gluten intolerance. In other words, many people must ‘deprive’ themselves of gluten in order to be healthy. At the same time, it is well worth looking into candida (yeast infection) as well.