What is Celiac Disease?

Though the term is fairly new, more and more people are being exposed to Celiac Disease every day, either through a diagnosis or through a friend and family member that has this disease.

If you find yourself in a situation where you are wanting to learn more about this disease and how to live with it, you are in the right place!  Gluten-Free Resource provides news, resources, recipes, and hopefully everything else you need to live a gluten-free lifestyle or support someone in your life that needs to.

So, what exactly is Celiac Disease? According to Wikipedia:

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder of the small bowel that occurs in genetically predisposed people of all ages from middle infancy. Symptoms include chronic diarrhoea, failure to thrive (in children) and fatigue, but these may be absent and symptoms in all other organ systems have been described. It is estimated to affect about 1% of Indo-European populations, but is thought to be significantly underdiagnosed. A growing portion of diagnoses are being made in asymptomatic persons as a result of increasing screening.[1]

Coeliac disease is caused by a reaction to gliadin, a gluten protein found in wheat (and similar proteins of the tribe Triticeae which includes other cultivars such as barley and rye). Upon exposure to gliadin, the enzyme tissue transglutaminase modifies the protein, and the immune system cross-reacts with the bowel tissue, causing an inflammatory reaction. That leads to flattening of the lining of the small intestine, which interferes with the absorption of nutrients. The only effective treatment is a lifelong gluten-free diet. While the disease is caused by a reaction to wheat proteins, it is not the same as wheat allergy.

If you have been diagnosed with this disease, you will need to begin by switching over to a gluten-free diet. The diet is zero tolerance, and making the transition can be difficult, this site (along with several others) is here to help!