What Is Celiac Disease?
Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune disorder, caused by a reaction to gluten (a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye).
Also, it’s estimated that 1 in 100 people around the world, is affected by celiac disease, and about 30% are only diagnosed.
However, the quality of gluten itself might also play a contributory role.
Gluten triggers your immune response, to attack the small intestine, and leads to damage to the mucosa in the small intestine.
Where the small intestine loses its ability to absorb nutrients and causes nutritional deficiency.
Causes
Celiac disease is caused by wheat consumption in any form, including rye, and barley, also a small number of people react with oats (2)
Studies have shown that triggering a certain type of physical stress that overexcited the immune system that causes celiac disease.
It also observed that celiac often raise after physical incidents such as illness, pregnancy, infection, and surgery.
Celiac can also appear at any age even at a young age in your children, whenever, children begin to eat foods including gluten.
Who Is at More Risk of Celiac Disease?
There are certain people who are more at risk of celiac disease which include:
- Type I diabetes
- Down syndrome peoples
- IgA deficiency (3)
- genetics or family history of celiac disease
- thyroid disorder
- microscopic colitis
- Addison’s disease
- autoimmune disorder
- gender, females at birth are more at risk of it
However, this disease is most commonly found in people with Northern European, and American.
Signs and Symptoms
There are several signs and symptoms, however, some people don’t notice any symptoms at all, which include:
Gastrointestinal signs and symptoms include:
- Indigestion
- diarrhea
- distention
- abdominal pain
- loss of appetite
- lack of absorption
- gas
- constipation
- fatty poop
- mouth ulcers (4)
Generally, the symptoms are responsible for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), only later to be recognized as coeliac disease.
Non-classic symptoms are more common in children, especially in under two years old (5)
Malabsorption-related symptoms are:
- Weightloss or gain (6)
- reduce the growth rate in children
- fatigue
- lack of energy
- anemia
- calcium and vitamin D mala absorption may lead to bone issues
- copper and since deficiency leads to coeliac disease
However, celiac disease also is associated with other conditions, which include:
- IgA deficiency
- puberty delay or growth failure later in childhood due to a severe lack of absorption in the body
- dermatitis herpetiformis (a chronic autoimmune blister skin condition) also known as celiac rash, and gluten rash
- pregnancy complications can also occur if celiac disease is already exited, which causes premature birth, low birth weight, miscarriage, etc
- hyposplenism (mark as an absence of normal spleen function) is also associated with celiac disease, where
- abnormal liver function
There are several medical conditions where celiac disease may also interfere such as:
- Diabetes
- underactive thyroid
- primary biliary cirrhosis (an autoimmune disorder of the liver)
- diarrhea
- ataxia
- psoriasis
- vitiligo
- hepatitis
- liver and gallbladder inflammation (7)
Check Out – The Immune System: Disorder, Response, And More
How Doctor Test It?
The diagnosis of CD may be difficult because its symptoms can differ from patient to patient.
There are several tests that can be used, and the symptoms help in indicating celiac disease which includes:
- Blood tests
- Intestine test through Endoscopy (a long, thin tube with a small camera inside it passed into your body through the mouth)
- the specific test for checking iron deficiency, folic acid, and vitamins tests
- low calcium level check
- thyroid function tests because this is more common in celiac disease
- blood antibody tests
- biopsies (a process, where a piece of tissue from the body is taken to be tested)
- genetic tests
Remember, see any of the symptoms if that is not acceptable, then consult the doctor immediately, before any serious issue.
Treatment
There is no specific treatment for celiac disease, however, the most important step to treat it is to avoid eating a gluten diet.
No medicine or drugs are available to prevent the body from being damaged by gluten (8)
Follow life long, strict gluten-free diet, which will lead to improvement in quality of life.
You can also see that when you stop eating a gluten diet, your small intestine will start to heal, which soon able to absorb nutrients.
Larazotide acetate is an anti-zonulin that functions as a gut vulnerability regulator for the treatment of CD (9) (10)
Studies have shown that larazotide controls CD symptoms rather than restoring complete, and preventing gluten from crossing the mucosal lining.
Diet Treatment
Dietitians strictly will tell the patients that do not to consume food that contains gluten and recommend a gluten-free diet (11)
Even, oats and other food may also cause small intestine issues, which will be found after diagnosis.
A gluten-free diet improves the overall quality of life and brings more health benefits, however gluten-free doesn’t completely your fulfillment of nutrition.
Most people find relief after completely stopping the gluten diet, it takes several months to completely heal.
However, healing time depends on how severe your small intestine damage is, and other symptoms.
Vaccination
It is another possible therapeutic strategy to prevent CD, however abdominal pain and vomiting are major side effects of this.
If shown report or study is shown efficacy for cure CD, then vaccination would be a definitive cure
Can CD Be Prevented?
Yes, you can easily prevent CD, just make sure strictly stop to eating a strict gluten diet, which will reverse the damage small intestine.
Complications
People with celiac disease are more at risk of developing heart disease, and 4x greater risk of evolving small bowel cancer (12)
Left untreated or Undiagnosed can leads to serious health complications such as:
- The development of other autoimmune disorders
- diabetes
- Multiple sclerosis
- early bone health issues
- bladder malfunction
- heart disease
- malnutrition
- mental health issues
- pancreatic insufficiency
Severe malnutrition can lead to bone weakening, serious issues during pregnancy, mental health issues, and even cancer.
Down Line
Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder triggered by a gluten-based diet that affects the lining of your small intestine and damages it.
Weight gain is the most common symptom of it, and there is no specific cure for it, just stopping consuming gluten is only the treatment.
Follow life long, strict gluten-free diet, which will lead to improvement in quality of life.