Digestive-diseases A to Z

Celiac disease - is a digestive disease that affects the small intestine and prevents the absorption of nutrients from food. People suffering from this disease can not tolerate gluten, a protein in wheat, rye and barley. Gluten can be found in medicines, vitamins, and lip balms.

Celiac disease - Signs, symptoms and causes

- Causes

When people suffering from celiac disease eat foods or products containing gluten, their immune system responds by damaging or destroying villi - tiny protrusions lining the small intestine. Villi normally allow nutrientilori of food to be absorbed through the intestinal walls as thin blood. When you are not healthy villi, a person becomes malnourished, no matter how much he eats. Celiac disease is genetic, which means it occurs in families where they had the disease. Sometimes the disease is triggered or becomes active for the first time after surgery, pregnancy, childbirth, viral infection or severe emotional stress.

Signs and symptoms

Symptoms of celiac disease vary from person to person. Symptoms may appear in the digestive system or in other parts of the body. Digestive symptoms are more common in infants and young children and may include

bloating and abdominal pain

chronic diarrhea

vomiting

constipation

chair pale, fragrant ugly

weight loss

Irritability is another common symptom in children. Nutrient malabsorption in the years when nutrition is essential for normal development of parental and can lead to other problems such as failure in infants, delaying growth, delayed puberty, and enamel defects in permanent teeth.

Adults are less likely to have digestive symptoms may be one or more of the following symptoms:

unexplained iron deficiency anemia.

fatigue

bone pain

arthritis

bone loss or osteoporosis

depression or anxiety

tingling, numbness in hands and feet

seizures

missed menstrual periods

infertility or recurrent miscarriage

gangrene, sores inside the mouth

an itchy skin rash called dermatitis herpetiformis

People suffering from celiac disease may not have any symptoms, but can still develop the disease complicated with time. Long term intricate include malnutrition, which can lead to anemia, osteoporosis, and miscarriage, among other problems: liver disease, and bowel cancer.

Diagnostic

Recognition of celiac disease can be difficult because some of its symptoms are similar to those of other diseases. Celiac disease can be confused with irritable bowel syndrome, iron deficiency anemia caused by menstrual blood loss, inflammatory bowel disease, diverticulitis, intestinal infections and chronic fatigue syndrome. As a result, celiac disease has long been undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. So the doctor can make a diagnosis based on analysis sange- blood tests; Intestinal biopsy; Screening - (screening for celiac disease means testing for the presence of autoantibodies in the blood in people without symptoms)


Celiac disease - Treatment

The only treatment for celiac disease is a gluten-free diet. Physicians can request a person newly diagnosed to work with a dietitian on a gluten-free diet plan. A nutritionist is a health care professional who specializes in food and nutrition. Someone suffering from celiac disease from a dietitian can learn how to correctly read ingredient lists and identify foods containing gluten.

For most people, following this diet will stop symptoms. Improvement begins within days of starting the diet. The small intestine usually heals in 3-6 months in children but may take several years in adults. A healed intestine means a person now has villi that can absorb nutrients from food into the bloodstream.

To stay healthy, people with celiac disease must avoid gluten to the rest of their lives. Even a small amount of gluten can damage the small intestine, damage will occur to someone with the disease, including people without noticeable symptoms. Depending on a person's age at diagnosis, some problems will not improve, such as being unable to grow and dental enamel defects.

Some people with celiac disease have no improvement on gluten-free diet. The most common reason for poor response to diet is that small amounts of gluten are still consumed. Hidden sources of gluten-containing additives, such as modified food starch, preservatives, stabilizers. And many maize and rice products are produced in the same factory which also produce products of wheat, they may be contaminated with gluten from wheat.

Rarely, intestinal injury will continue, despite a strict gluten-free diet. People with this condition, known as refractory celiac disease have severely damaged intestines that can not heal. Because their intestines can not absorb enough nutrients, you may need to get their nutrients directly into the bloodstream through a vein or intravenously.