Celiac Disease: What It Is. What It Isn't.

What is Celiac Disease?

The first thing that you should know about Celiac disease (CD) is that Celiac disease is a very common genetic disorder.

Approximately 1 in 133 people have CD. So, why isn't it more well-known? Because only about 3% of these people - 2.1 million of them in the United States alone - have been diagnosed.

As a result, there is a fair amount of misinformation about Celiac disease. Here are the facts about what Celiac disease is:

• a genetic, inheritable disease
• may become active at any age
• caused by eating certain types of protein, called gluten
• causes damage, villous atrophy, to the mucosal lining of the small intestine
• this in turn causes the small intestine to lose its ability to absorb the nutrients found in food, leading to malnutrition and a variety of other complications.

Gluten is the storage protein that is found in grains: gliadin in wheat, secalin in rye, hordein in barley, avenin in oats, zein in corn and oryzenin in rice - is slightly different from the others. It is the gluten in wheat, rye, barley, and to a much smaller extent, oats, that sets off an autoimmune response damage to the small intestine persons with Celiac disease.

What Celiac disease is NOT:

• JUST a food allergy
• a rapid histamine-type food reaction (such as bronchospasm, urticaria, etc.)
• commmunicable - the potential for Celiac disease may be in the body from birth
• curable

That last fact should not be reason for despair. Persons with Celiac disease can live normal and fulfilling lives with strict adherence to a gluten-free lifestyle.

All of us at the Gluten-Free Support Group of Northwestern PA through this Web site and our other activities are here to help you.