Celiac Disease

Celiac Disease

When Yogi Berra made his famous remark that "it's not ever until it's over," he could have been referring to the process of digestion instead of baseball. "Food can be chewed, swallowed, and broken down by the stomach, but if its nutrients don't get absorbed into the bloodstream by the small intestine, it might as well not have been eaten at all."

And this, unfortunately, is precisely what happens to people with celiac disease, also known as sprue. Although rare (affecting only about one in 5,000 Americans), the condition causes the fingerlike projections (villi) on the interior surface of the small intestine to shorten and collapse to the point of losing their absorptive abilities. "The result is that a person with a serious case of the disease can virtually be starving to death despite eating a very healthful diet."

Short of that, people who have this condition can experience a wide variety of symptoms capable of making their lives uncomfortable, to say the least: muscular weakness, chronic diarrhea, excessive gas and abdominal bloating, stomach cramps, achybones, uncontrollable weight loss, mental confusion, ringing in the ears, headsches, and even a blotchy and itchy skin condition known as dermatitis herpetiformis. Left untreated, the disease can lead to even more conditions, including anemia, cirrhosis of the liver, diabetes, brittle bones, and increased risks of intestinal cancer.