Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder that’s triggered when you eat gluten. It’s also known as celiac sprue, nontropical sprue, or gluten-sensitive enteropathy. Gluten is a protein in wheat, barley, rye, and other grains. It’s what makes dough elastic and gives bread its chewy texture. When someone with celiac disease eats something with gluten, their body overreacts to the protein and damages their villi, small finger-like projections found along the wall of their small intestine.

When someone with celiac disease eats something with gluten, their body overreacts to the protein and damages their villi, small finger-like projections found along the wall of their small intestine. When your villi are injured, your small intestine can’t properly absorb nutrients from food. Eventually, this can lead to malnourishment, as well as loss of bone density, miscarriage, infertility or even neurological diseases or certain cancers.If your celiac disease isn’t better after at least a year without gluten, it’s called refractory or nonresponsive celiac disease.

Signs and symptoms:

Celiac disease isn’t the same thing as a food allergy, so the symptoms are different. If you’re allergic to wheat but eat something with wheat in it, you may have itchy or watery eyes or a hard time breathing.

If you have celiac disease and accidentally eat something with gluten in it, you may have symptoms including:

• Abdominal pain
• Anemia
• Bloating or a feeling of fullness
• Bone or joint pain
• Constipation
• Diarrhea
• Gas
• Heartburn
• Itchy, blistery rash (doctors call this dermatitis herpetiformis)
• Headaches or fatigue
• Mouth ulcers
• Nausea
• Nervous system injury, including numb or tingling hands or feet, balance problems, or changes in awareness
• Poop that’s pale, smells especially bad, or floats (steatorrhea)
• Weight loss

 Cause:

Research hasn’t found a definite cause of celiac disease. It tends to run in families and might be linked to certain genes. Stressful medical events such as a viral infection or surgery can trigger it. So can emotional trauma or pregnancy. If one of your close family members has it, like a parent or sibling, you have a 1 in 10 chance of getting celiac disease.The disease is most common among Caucasians and people who have other diseases, including:

• Hashimoto’s thyroiditis
• Type 1 diabetes
• Addison’s disease
• Down syndrome
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Turner syndrome (a condition in which a female is missing an X chromosome)
• Multiple sclerosis (MS)
• Autoimmune hepatitis
• Sjogren’s syndrome
• Idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy
• IgA nephropathy
• Lupus
• Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
• Chronic pancreatitis
• Psoriasis
• Scleroderma
• Williams syndrome
• Primary biliary cirrhosis
• Lactose intolerance
• Intestinal lymphoma
• Intestinal cancer

Diagnosis:

Doctors use blood tests and other tests to help find out if you have celiac disease:

• Serology tests look for certain antibodies.
• Blood tests check other parts of your immune system.
• Intestinal fatty acid binding protein tests show if there’s damage to the intestine.
• A complete blood count looks for anemia (low red blood cells).
• C-reactive protein tests show if there’s inflammation.
• Metabolic panels test liver and kidney function.
• Vitamin D, B12, and folate tests look for vitamin deficiencies.
• Iron and ferritin tests look for iron deficiency.
• Swallowing a small camera can show problems in your digestive tract.
• Imaging tests show signs in the intestine, like wall thickening or changes to blood vessels.
• Genetic testing looks for human leukocyte antigens to rule out celiac disease.

If you're on a gluten-free diet, you'll need to come off it before having the antibody test so the results will be correct.

If blood and other tests show that you might have celiac disease, you’ll probably need to have an endoscopy. This procedure lets your doctor look at your small intestine and take a bit of tissue to see whether it’s damaged. If you have a rash, doctors will take a small sample of your skin to look for signs it’s caused by celiac disease. This rash is easy to confuse with other skin problems.

Treatment:

No drugs treat celiac disease. The best thing you can do is change your diet.

Unless they’re labeled as gluten-free, don’t eat foods that are typically made with grains, including:

• Beer
• Bread, cake, and other baked goods
• Cereals
• Pasta or noodles
• Crackers
• Breading
• Pancakes
• Sauces and gravies

These grains always have gluten:

• Wheatberries
• Durum
• Semolina
• Spelt
• Farina
• Farro
• Graham
• Einkorn wheat
• Rye
• Barley
• Malt
• Brewer’s yeast
• Wheat starch

Clinical Gastroenterology Journal accepts original manuscripts in the form of research articles, review articles, Clinical reviews, commentaries, case reports, perspectives and short communications encompassing all aspects of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology for publication in open access platform. So do share your valuable research in our Clinical Gastroenterology Journal which is an open-access journal. We have been publishing the articles which are having updated information on biological science.The manuscripts may be submitted as an attachment to gastroenterology@eclinicalsci.com

With Regards
Jessica Watson
Associate Managing Editor
Clinical Gastroenterology Journal