The Digestive System Disease - Celiac

Celiac is an often undiagnosed disease that interferes with the absorption of nutrients from the food indivduals who have the disease eat. They cannot tolerate a certain protein called, "gluten". Gluten is found in common things that we eat because it is in wheat, rye and barley. We eat foods made from these grains everyday. Surprisingly gluten can also be found in the adhesive found on the back of postage stamps, the adhesive used to seal envelopes, in certain medicines and it can also be found in the vitamins that we take.

Exposure to products containing gluten or eating foods with gluten in them can have the immune systems of the individuals with Celiac Disease responding by damaging the small intestine. The destruction occurs in the small fingerlike protrusions that line the small intestine. They are called villi, and they are what allow the nutrients in the food we eat to be absorbed into the bloodstream. Individuals would become malnourished if what they ate never became absorbed by the bloodstream.

When our own body causes damage, the occurrence is considered to be an autoimmune disorder. Due to the inability of food to be absorbed, it is also classified as a malabsorption. The disease is recognized for being a genetic disorder, which means that the disease "runs in families". The disease can become active or noticed for the first time following life-changing events such as after a surgery, after pregnancy or childbirth, after having had a viral infection or after suffering from a severe emotional stress.

The symptoms of Celiac disease are not easy to recognize because they can be different for different individuals. The symptoms all have in common that they occur in the digestive system such as the occurrence of gas, abdominal bloating, pain in the abdomen, chronic diarrhea, chronic constipation, fatty and foul smelling stools, weight gain or loss that is not attributed to any other cause, extreme fatigue, unexplained anemia, bone or joint pain, muscle cramping, missed menstruation for women, delayed growth, aphthous ulcers which are pale sores in the mouth, and also a itchy skin rash that is called "dermatitis herpetiformis.

An individual with Celiac disease may also have absolutely no symptoms and still experience malnutrition due to the disease. Malnutrition is common when the disease goes undiagnosed and untreated. Anemia, delayed growth, a loss of weight that has an unknown origin is all signs that may precede the diagnosis of malnutrition.

Celiac disease can be detected in children or in adults.

There seem to be three main contributing factors to how and when symptoms may appear. The three contributing factors are: Whether or not a person was breastfed and for how long, the age the person was when they first had contact with gluten, and the amount of gluten in the diet. Studies have shown that the longer a person was breastfed, the later the individual was introduced to gluten, the later the symptoms of Celiac appeared in the individual.

It is difficult to make the diagnosis of Celiac disease because it mocks so many other illnesses including irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn's disease, diverticulitis, intestinal infections, chronic fatigue syndrome and iron-deficiency anemia.