Feb. 19 , 2014
Special Topic History
Celiac disease is a disease in which chronic failure to digest food is triggered by hypersensitivity of the small intestine due to gluten. Gluten is found in many foods that contain wheat, barley or rye. The most common foods that contain gluten are bread, pasta, pizza, most pastries and cereal. If you continue to eat gluten foods, you may cause more damage to your body and more likely to cause risk to yourself as you get older. Many people don't realize that celiac disease is much more than a GI disease. It can impact all organs including the brain. By consuming gluten you are risking the formation of other autoimmune diseases, depression and anxiety, arthritis, learning problems, infertility and increasing your risk of cancers like lymphoma. Ignoring the disease can cause you to mess up your gallbladder and could lead up to you having to encounter a surgical procedure. Ways that you can figure out if you have Celiac disease is by a blood test, endoscopy/biopsy, and after those two are in you will take a re-test. When people with celiac disease eat foods containing gluten, their immune system forms antibodies to gluten, which then attack the intestinal lining. This causes inflammation in the intestines and damages the villi, the hair-like structures on the lining of the small intestine.
There is no cure for celiac disease; the only treatment is a gluten-free diet. Avoid all foods made from wheat, rye, and barley. Examples are breads, cereals, pasta, crackers, cakes, pies, cookies, and gravies. You also may want to avoid eating canned soups, salad dressings, ice cream, candy bars, instant coffee, luncheon meats and processed or canned meats, ketchup and mustard, yogurt, and pasta. The reason why many people celiac disease vary is because, the length of time a child was breastfed, the age a person started eating gluten-containing foods and the amount of gluten-containing foods one eats are three factors thought to play a role in when and how celiac disease appears in the body system. Symptoms also vary depending on a person's age and the degree of damage to the small intestine. People with celiac disease tend to have other diseases in which the immune system attacks the body's healthy cells and tissues. The connection between celiac disease and these diseases may be genetic. Celiac disease can lead into having type 1 diabetes, autoimmune thyroid disease, autoimmune liver disease, rheumatoid arthritis, Addison's disease, a condition in which the glands that produce critical hormones are damaged, Sjögren's syndrome, a condition in which the glands that produce tears and saliva are destroyed. When one family