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What is celiac disease?

Celiac disease is a common intestinal disorder caused by eating gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. The enteropathy develops only in genetically predisposed individuals who are triggered by an immune response when they consume gluten. Unclear environmental factors may be associated with the development of the condition, which is observed in about 1% of the general population. Diagnosis rates are increasing, and this is probably due to a real increase in the incidence of the disease.

Age of onset and symptoms

Celiac disease can occur at any age from childhood, after the start of a gluten-containing diet, to advanced age.

The disease has a wide range of clinical symptoms and manifests itself with diarrhea, weight loss, constipation, flatulence, abdominal pain, belching, weakness, fatigue. However, it can also manifest itself with symptoms outside the digestive system as the only symptoms of the disease or in combination with digestive manifestations. Skin rashes, anemia, osteopenia and osteoporosis, delayed puberty, infertility, depressive syndrome are some of them.

Diagnosis method

When celiac disease is suspected, the doctor looks for the appearance of specific antibodies in the blood, such as those against tissue transglutaminase. It is important that people who have symptoms suspicious of the disease do not arbitrarily abstain from gluten before diagnosis. The diagnosis of the disease is made after gastroscopy with biopsies taken from the small intestine, where the characteristic changes in the intestinal mucosa are revealed.

Treatment of the disease

Individuals diagnosed with celiac disease are recommended a strict lifelong gluten-free diet as the only available treatment. The diet includes abstinence from foods derived from wheat, rye, barley. Therefore, products made from flour, pasta, beer, some cold cuts or canned products are prohibited. Abstaining from gluten results in the restoration of the intestinal mucosa to its normal structure and the control of the disease.

Particular attention should be paid to foods that have “hidden” gluten, such as foods, medications or vitamin preparations that contain gluten as an excipient, so as not to affect the repair of intestinal damage. Reintroduction of gluten into the diet stimulates the immune response again, resulting in renewed disruption of the intestinal mucosa.

Adherence to the gluten-free diet is extremely important. Patients with celiac disease who may remain undiagnosed for years, as well as patients who consciously continue to take gluten, are prone to developing complications, the most serious of which are malignancies such as lymphoma or carcinoma of the small intestine.

Adherence to the gluten-free diet may seem difficult at first, but with the right information and appropriate support, patients respond very well to it.

Monitoring of patients with celiac disease includes clinical assessment of symptom control, rechecking of the level of specific antibodies in the blood, and repeat gastroscopy according to the judgment of the gastroenterologist specialist.