Tag: Nutritional Deficiencies

Fighting Celiac Disease

Fighting celiac disease is a lifelong intestinal disorder. Celiac disease is triggered by the ingestion of gluten and may result to vitamin, mineral, and nutritional deficiencies. Patients inflicted with this disease need to follow a rigid and lifelong diet. Fighting celiac disease is a very difficult task to do and is not only the battle of the patient as well.

Gluten is a protein present in all forms of wheat, rye and barley. Persons with celiac disease eliminate all gluten from their diet. There is no cure for this disease but can be managed by following the gluten-free diet.

Symptoms of children with celiac disease may include growth failure, vomiting, bloated abdomen, and behavioral changes. While adults can experience recurring bloating or gas, chronic diarrhea or constipations, unexplained weight loss or gain, vitamin K deficiency, fatigue, missed menstrual periods, cankers sores in the mouth, and tooth discolorations or loss of enamel.

Fighting celiac disease or any disease starts with getting medical attention or consulting your physician immediately. Celiac disease is often misdiagnosed or undiagnosed because its symptoms are often confused with other sickness. Getting professional attention is the best way to address any health and medical issue.

As with any illness, early detection through health and medical tests is the key to fighting celiac disease. Celiac disease can be inherited, there is about 5 to 15 percent that a person can have this disorder if it present in their family history.

There are some cases that celiac disease is triggered by trauma like stress, infection or childbirth. There is no telling when celiac disease may hit you. Therefore, any symptoms or abnormalities noticed in your health should always be consulted to a physician.

A celiac patients lifestyle is a very disciplined life. To manage their illness, celiac patients must undergo a gluten-free diet. Patients are listed foods to avoid such as breads, cereals, crackers, pasta, cookies, cakes and pies, gravies and sauces, unless they are gluten free.

To manage their difficult lifestyle, celiac patients have the help of a local support group. Support groups are any groups that meet regularly for mutual support in handling celiac disease and the gluten-free diet.

Every day can be a challenge, especially for people who are newly diagnosed. Over time, however, managing celiac disease will easily become second nature. To cope with the disease and the difficulty of managing it, talking to people who know what you are undergoing can be reassuring.

Celiac support groups can be found in your local community, or there are even listings in the newspapers or in the internet. There are numerous websites and forums were celiac disease patients can click and visit to check out the different tips patients and patient family members suggest to carry out the fight against the disease.

Aside from this, it is also advisable to contact or consult a dietician or nutritionist to assist the patient about the diet. There are creative ways to cook and prepare food for celiac patients without sacrificing their health. Gathering information about celiac disease will help the patient to know more about the illness and what should be considered to fight it.

Celiac disease, or any illness for that matter, is life changing. It does not only change the patients life but also the lives of the people around the patient. Families and friends serve as support core of the celiac patients. Any support generated from the people around him serves as the patients lifeline. Fighting celiac disease, or any illness, should never be just the battle of one.

Existing Treatment For Celiac Disease

Instead of going round and round, Im going to tell you now: theres no existing treatment that could cure Celiac disease. Theres no one medicine that can help eliminate the symptoms. Theres no one operation that can solve the problem.

However, there are ways to manage the disease. The symptoms are bad and can be dangerous, but with proper measures, you can live a normal life without any complications or problems. The basic, and probably the best, way to manage the disease is through your diet.

Celiac disease is a digestive condition that is caused when you eat the protein gluten. So this means eating food like bread, pasta, pizza crust and other foods made or containing wheat, barley or rye can easily cause the condition. What happens is that gluten damages the villi inside the small intestines. Since the villi are responsible for the absorption of minerals from the food we eat, without them the body will not be able to get the necessary nutrients and minerals it needs. So you can see where this can lead to when not managed correctly: severe malnutrition which can then cause other serious ailments resulting from the bodys lack of nutrition.

Why some people develop gluten intolerance is still not known. The disease was earlier thought as a condition only affecting people in Europe. But recent studies have shown that the disease is not dependent on the age and ethnicity. One thing is certain though, the condition is inherited. The condition can arise at any time but usually is triggered by the consumption of gluten.

Removing the gluten in the diet is the key to reduce the inflammation in the small intestines caused by the disease. The effects can be noticed weeks after the change in the diet. If you have been suffering from the symptoms of the disease and have been diagnosed with celiac disease only recently, you might need to take vitamin supplements to recover from the nutritional deficiencies. The difficulties of diagnosing celiac disease lie on the fact that the symptoms and conditions resemble other digestive conditions or allergic reactions.

Those with celiac disease have to understand that they need to be on a life long gluten free diet since the inflammation of the small intestines can be triggered again. So a commitment to a lifestyle change is needed for them to be free of the symptoms of the disease.

A gluten free diet simply means avoiding food products that contain, are made and/or have been prepared from wheat, oats, barley and rye. This means reading carefully food labels and making sure that the food you will be picking up from the supermarket shelves are gluten free. Fortunately, there are products today which are gluten free. You can come up with alternative dishes as well.

Aside from the grains, you should start avoiding bear and alcohol products as well. Food made from brown rice syrup, cake flour, and caramel can also trigger the disease. Anything creamed or breaded which includes vegetables. Fried chicken has been found to set off the disease as well.

Other foods to be avoided include pastas, salad dressings, gravies and sauces prepared from tomato and meat, soft cheeses, dips, stuffings, herbal teas and even flavored coffees. It is especially important that you consult a proper dietitian to help you create a list of food that you can and cannot eat.

This is really the only existing treatment for celiac disease. Once the gluten is removed from the diet, the intestines villi will start to heal and grow back. This may take several months to years depending on the amount of damage caused by the disease and the age of the person who contracted it. The healing process will take longer for older people.