This damages the surface of the small bowel intestines , disrupting the body's ability to take in nutrients from food. It's not entirely clear what causes the immune system to act this way, but a combination of genetics and the environment appear to play a part.
There's no cure for coeliac disease, but following a gluten-free diet should help control symptoms and prevent the long-term complications of the condition. Even if you have mild symptoms, changing your diet is still recommended because continuing to eat gluten can lead to serious complications.
This may also be the case if tests show that you have some degree of coeliac disease even if you do not have noticeable symptoms. It's important to ensure that your gluten-free diet is healthy and balanced. An increase in the range of available gluten-free foods in recent years has made it possible to eat both a healthy and varied gluten-free diet.
Complications of coeliac disease only tend to affect people who continue to eat gluten, or those who have not yet been diagnosed with the condition, which can be a common problem in milder cases. Less common and more serious complications include some types of cancers, such as bowel cancer , and problems affecting pregnancy, such as your baby having a low birth weight.
Find out more about the complications of coeliac disease. For example, one person may have constipation, a second may have diarrhea, and a third may have no problem with stools. Other problems that can develop over time because the intestines do not absorb key nutrients include:. Blood tests can detect antibodies, called antitissue transglutaminase antibodies tTGA or anti-endomysial antibodies EMA which may help detect the condition. The health care provider will order these antibody tests if celiac disease is suspected.
If the tests are positive, upper endoscopy is often performed to sample a piece of tissue biopsy from the first part of the small intestine duodenum. The biopsy may show a flattening or loss of the villi in the parts of the intestine affected in the duodenum.
Genetic testing of the blood can also be done to help detect who may be at risk for celiac disease. Those who test negative for the common genetic variant are unlikely to have celiac disease.
A follow-up biopsy or blood test may be ordered several months after the diagnosis and treatment. These tests assess how well treatment is working. Normal results mean that you have responded to treatment.
This confirms the diagnosis. However, this does not mean that the disease has been cured. Celiac disease cannot be cured. Your symptoms will go away and the villi in the intestines will heal if you follow a lifelong gluten-free diet. Do not eat foods, drink beverages, or take medicines that contain wheat, barley, rye, and possibly oats.
You must read food and drug labels carefully to look for ingredients that may include these grains. It may be hard to stick to a gluten-free diet because wheat and barley grains are common in the American diet. Over time, most people are able to adapt and get better. You should NOT begin the gluten-free diet before you are diagnosed.
The antiendomysial antibody test is the most specific. The ideal way to confirm celiac disease is to perform an upper endoscopy and to inspect and take samples from biopsy the small intestine. On inspection the lining of the small intestine appears atrophic and has a "cracked earth" appearance. The degree of microscopic damage varies from mild inflammation to complete blunting or atrophy of the villi.
The treatment of celiac disease is to remove all gluten from the diet. Even small amounts of gluten can prevent a clinical response. It is important for the patient to become very familiar with gluten free products. Information is available in celiac disease support groups as well as on the Internet.
Some patients may not respond to a gluten free diet and need other treatment, such as steroids. Patients on gluten free diets should have supplements of vitamins, particularly vitamin D, folic acid, and iron. These may need to be given by injection if they cannot be absorbed in the oral form.
Consult your doctor if you have diarrhea or digestive discomfort that lasts for more than two weeks. Consult your child's doctor if your child is pale, irritable or failing to grow or has a potbelly and foul-smelling, bulky stools.
Be sure to consult your doctor before trying a gluten-free diet. If you stop or even reduce the amount of gluten you eat before you're tested for celiac disease, you can change the test results. Celiac disease tends to run in families. If someone in your family has the condition, ask your doctor if you should be tested. Also ask your doctor about testing if you or someone in your family has a risk factor for celiac disease, such as type 1 diabetes.
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