What is Celiac?
Celiac is an autoimmune disease which lasts lifetime long and affects on other body parts along with bowel. The body's immune system reacts to the gluten that included in the food. Gluten is a protein where can be found in wheat, barley, rye and oats. Gluten protein has a speciality that gives flexibility to the bread and provides cake bust.
Individuals with celiac disease are gluten sensitive. In the small intestine there are small, finger-like structures called villus. These structures play a critical role in digestion by increasing the surface area of the small intestine and allowing the essential nutrients to be absorbed and mixed into the bloodstream. Whereas in celiac patients, when gluten interacts with villus, it triggers an attack to the villus in the immune system as if it were a foreign substance. Villus are quickly damaged and become ineffective in having key nutritional items that our system needs. As a result, a number of problems arise due to the inability to nourishment and varying seriousness.
It can be exemplified to discomforts caused by the activation of the defense mechanism in the body, what we call autoimmunity which causes the destruction of the body itself, thyroid insufficiency, diabetes, Sjogren's Syndrome what dries out in the mouth and eyes, and skin sores.
What are the symptoms?
Celiac disease has many gastrointestinal symptoms such as; cramps, bloating, flatulence, diarrhea. It is usually confused with the irritable bowel syndrome and then diagnosis of celiac.
Symptoms may appear in variable severity. It begins with malabsorption in foodstuffs and contains diarrhea, exhaustion, and iron deficiency.
Other symptoms are as follows;
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Bloating
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Abdominal pain
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Nausea
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Fatigue
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Headache
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Weight loss
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Wounds in the lip
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Hair loss
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Damage in tooth enamel
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Fertility problems
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Repeated miscarriage
Weight loss may be observed in adults, while children may not be able to gain weight or growth properly. At the same time, malabsorption can lead to anemia due to iron deficiency, and the individual may become weak and exhausted. In addition, low bone mass due to calcium malabsorption and occasionally fractures due to osteoporosis are seen.
Diagnosis and Treatment
There is a certain method for the diagnosis of celiac disease. First of all you should tell your doctor about your symptoms, they will ask you for a simple blood test. This test will show the antibodies your body produces against gluten. Your test will be reviewed alongside your regular diet on a daily basis. If the test is positive, intestinal biopsy will be required to see the damage of the villi in the small intestine.
The cure for celiac disease is a lifelong gluten-free diet. Wheat, barley, rye and the food obtained from them should be kept away. The most obvious sources of gluten are pastas, breads, flour, pizza bases, muffins, biscuits, cereals and pastries. Oats can be contaminating with other grains. Because many packaged food products, and even cosmetics, contain a risk of gluten as a thickening, hardening filler that celiac patients need to carefully read the contents of the products they buy.
By creating individual diet programs with the thought of 'Healthy Living', products and foods that are at risk of harming their health in the event of interaction with their bodies are quite common in a nutritional mentality, people who have celiac disease should conduct a preliminary research on the gluten-free life and which substances, foods and non-foods contain gluten and then create their own Gluten-Free Diet programs to create a 'Healthier Life' infrastructure.
In the case of a strict gluten-free diet, the bowel begins to heal, and most of the time there is relief in the symptoms.The earlier the gluten-free diet is started, the sooner the risk of osteoporosis and cancer of the small intestine is removed.
Children and Celiac
It will be difficult for you to have gluten-free food for school-age children who has celiac disease. First of all you should contact the school administration, teachers and inform them about this situation. School administration’s support is necessary to be taken to maintain a healthy and correct gluten-free diet for your child at school.
Any activity in the school must be prepared in advance and your child should not feel himself or herself different from other children. In this way, the psychological condition of the subject is not adversely affected.
