"Ah go on there's only a little bit of gluten in it sure you'll be fine or yes it is gluten free it contains flour"!
ahem, well I was pretty ignorant myself until I had no choice but to change my eating habits a few years ago after being diagnosed with coeliac disease, the doctors at the time were like me getting their information from the internet. I couldnt believe all the symptoms associated with coeliac disease, simple things like a sore tongue, sore head, tiredness, slugishness which can all be connected to low iron or other vitamin or mineral defiencies caused by coeliac disease...
If a coeliac eats gluten the lining of the small intestine becomes damaged reducing the coeliac's ability to absorb the nutrients from food. This can lead to various symptoms and complications if undiagnosed such as:
- diarrhoea
- constipation
- weight loss
- chronic tiredness
- anaemia
- failure to thrive in children
- chronic mouth ulcers
- stomach pain and bloating
- indigestion
- bone pain
- moodiness or depression
- infertility
- recurrent miscarriages
It’s an autoimmune disease and it’s not contagious. The only treatment is adhering to a gluten-free diet for life after a positive diagnosis has been made. Medicine or drugs are not required.
In the small intestine there are small finger-like structures called villi which absorb the nutrients from food. When the villi are damaged (or atrophic) they can no longer absorb nutrients properly.
Hard to believe 'gluten' could cause this, however when I was diagnosed I was relieved because then I realised it wasnt all in my head as I thought it was, after years of feeling 'exhausted' I now knew it was down to my body not working as well as it should have been.
Gluten free is something I had never been aware of until a few years ago, even though my mother was born with coeliac disease in the 1950's, she didnt know she had it until someone advised they feed 'that very sick child' bananas! (1924 – The famous banana diet recommended by Haas was used extensively for many years until the introduction of the gluten-free diet. During World War II children with coeliac disease were allocated supplies of dried bananas as a supplementary ration).
Coeliac disease can take 13 years, on average, to be properly diagnosed. It is commonly misdiagnosed as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) because the symptoms can be very similar, with bloating, diarrhoea, abdominal pain and tiredness.
Coeliac disease runs in families, the cause is introduction of gluten during weaning, either too much or too early!
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