Does your abdomen frequently send distress signals that seem to puzzle doctors? Or does the cause of your malaise and exhaustion remain a mystery?
Don’t wave the white flag just yet. Instead, consider talking with your health care provider about celiac disease
Does your abdomen frequently send distress signals that seem to puzzle doctors? Or does the cause of your malaise and exhaustion remain a mystery?
Don’t wave the white flag just yet. Instead, consider talking with your health care provider about celiac disease.
Celiac disease is caused by exposure to dietary gluten, a protein found in cereal grains such as wheat, barley and rye.
Also known as celiac sprue, it tends to run in families, particularly those of European descent. It’s also more common in women than in men.
For people with the disease, the gluten acts like a toxin, or poison, and can do some ghastly things to the gut: diarrhea, constipation, bloating and abdominal pain.
But that’s just part of the picture.
While about 50 percent suffer gastrointestinal symptoms, celiac disease sufferers also include people with more subtle digestive, as well as systemic, symptoms, said Ben Kieff, MD, a gastroenterologist with Spectrum Health Medical Group.
“In some patients, canker sores may be (the) sole presenting complaint,” Dr. Kieff said. “Because many symptoms may not necessarily be associated with something you eat, celiac disease is likely under diagnosed.”
Other less obvious symptoms include weight loss, fatigue, irritability, infertility in women, depression and anemia.
The only way to combat the disease is to avoid gluten.
Dr. Kieff encourages his patients with celiac disease to carefully read food labels and look for ingredients that may contain wheat, rye and barley. He also suggests visiting celiac.com for useful information about food and ingredients that are safe for patients.
Dr. Kieff sets the record straight on other frequent questions, myths and misunderstandings that surround celiac disease.
Test your knowledge with his ‘Fact or Fiction’ quiz:
1. Ancient grains are a healthy choice for those who have celiac disease.
Fact. Quinoa, millet, amaranth and buckwheat are centuries-old grains that are all gluten-free. Other good grain choices include rice, corn, sorghum and millet. Oats are tolerated by most patients with celiac disease but it’s important to look for certified gluten-free oats that are not milled with other potentially contaminated grains.
2. Celiac disease is only found in children.
Fiction. Though common in children, celiac can occur at any age in those with a genetic predisposition to the disease. Some people can tolerate gluten for decades then suddenly develop sensitivity to it.
3. Celiac disease is one of the most common digestive disorders in the U.S.
Fact. About 3.9 million adults and children in the United States have been diagnosed. It’s the most common inherited immune disorder and is more prevalent than Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, cystic fibrosis and type 1 diabetes.
4. If you have celiac disease, a little bit of gluten isn’t really dangerous.
Fiction. Studies s