About Coeliac Disease
What is Coeliac Disease? You may well ask. It is basically a massive intolerance to gluten, the protein in wheat, oats, barley and rye.
Gluten in the diet will decimate the villii in the small intestine, reducing their size and length, and thus total surface area, leading to less nutrients being digested. (The villii are microscopic hair-like protrusions covering the inner surface of the small intestine; they are covered in cells which take in nutrients from food particles floating past. An undiagnosed CD sufferer's small intestine will look like a wheat-field that has been slashed and burnt to the ground, instead of a healthy crop waving in the breeze ... )
A person suffering from CD who is not on a gluten-free diet, may have any or all of the following symptoms:
indigestion, oesophageal reflux, stomach cramps, diarrhoea or constipation
vitamin deficiencies, particularly iron and calcium (leading to osteoporosis) but taking in the entire list of vitamins from A to Z
lack of energy, fatigue, lethargy
failure to thrive
etc, etc.
As well as osteoporosis, CD is linked to other diseases/syndromes including schizophrenia, asthma, autism, ADHD, all sorts of neurological problems ... the list goes on, causes unknown, most likely because of vitamin deficiencies, lack of proper nutrition and associated problems with the immune system.
CD is usually diagnosed in infancy because of the obviousness of symptoms, particularly gastro-intestinal "disturbances". and general failure to thrive. There is also a second type of CD, known as adult onset CD, which can occur in a person's 50s, often following a virus. The cause of this occurrence is unknown, although may be linked to changes in the immune system?
Once on the incredibly strict gluten-free diet, it usually takes six months to a year for the villii to recover, although it can take five or more years for absorption of nutrients to be "normal", and a CD sufferer can continue to have poor absorption and continue to have lower levels of some vitamins and minerals.
When a CD sufferer on a gluten-free diet is "contaminated" by gluten, either accidentally or because they are very silly, the reaction (occurring a few hours after ingestion) can be quite ... spectacular. Personally, I get intense stomach cramps, cold sweats and shakes, stabbing headaches, and diarrhoea, and such an attack can last for several hours, leaving one feeling quite wiped out for a day or so.
Having CD is no fun. The diet can be hell, probably being more difficult to follow than a kosher diet, say. And god, to be able to order take-out pizza, and not have to wrangle with menus every single time you go out ... that would be bliss. But having a Coeliac Attack, as I call them, is much less fun, and to be avoided at all costs.