Did you know that 1 out of 133 people are gluten intolerant? Most do not know it. They may have headaches, gastrointestinal problems or joint pain. Many people take medications for their symptoms. Some people have no symptoms at all.
On and off all my life, I have had intestinal and skin problems. It wasn't until 2007, when both my nieces were diagnosed with Celiac Disease disease that I agreed to be tested. At first, I resisted, scoffing at the suggestion by my family. I had never been a sickly child and lived an active life. How could I have a problem with gluten? When I was in nursing school, we learned about and saw photographs of children with Celiac disease. Of course, those kids were the most severe cases who were not able to absorb nutrients and were in the hospital. I did not look or feel like that! It is a hereditary disease so family members of people with Celiac Disease need to be tested. My blood tests came back positive for Celiac Disease and since then, I have been on a gluten free diet. It was an adjustment and I poured over books to learn all I needed to about my new way of eating. After a few days, my itchy unsightly eczema disappeared. Within months, my intestinal symptoms resolved, and I felt pretty normal.
Looking back, I realize that those childhood stomach aches and bloating were not normal, the anemia I had in nursing school was not from poor eating habits , and the eczema I had all my life was my body's way of telling me something.
Absorption of nutrients is affected by the flattened intestinal villi when you have Celiac Disease as shown in the diagram below:
Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder that affects your entire body. The symptoms can vary from bloating and constipation to infertility, depression and problems with concentration. It is not like being allergic to peanuts or shellfish with an immediate life-threatening reaction. It usually takes a few hours to feel the affects of being inadvertently "glutened" making it hard to pinpoint the cause. It can sometimes take several days for my body to feel normal again and that is different from person to person.
Eating gluten free means avoiding wheat, barley, rye, malt and oats. This means saying goodbye to bread, cookies, cakes and pies and even food that you would least expect to have gluten for example, soy sauce and Twizzlers! Luckily, more and more people are being tested and the availability of gluten-free foods in the grocery store has increased. Many restaurants now offer a gluten free menu or are at least aware of the diet. At this point, there is no medicine you can take to block the absorption of gluten, like a lactose allergy, and it means a life-long committment to eating gluten free.
It is not an easy diagnosis to accept and there is a lot to learn. I am more comfortable ordering at restaurants, educating the servers to my dietary needs, but do occasionally get contaminated. Ordering a salad and having it come with croutons doesn't mean simply removing them. It means sending the salad back and having the salad re-made. The tiniest bit of gluten will make me sick. I have to be careful baking with flour at home. It also means using a separate toaster for toasting my gluten free bread.
Hey, but chocolate is still gluten-free!
Click on the link below to take a quiz to see if you may have Celiac disease.
http://www.celiaccentral.org/disease-symptoms-checklist/
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