Peter H.R. Green M.D. - Celiac Disease: A Hidden Epidemic

My doctor kept treating my symptoms, but never figured out why my stomach was always upset. I started getting migraines and then joint pain and well, you name it. I was a walking pharmacy and still felt lousy. (Marg, 47)

My daughter was always tired. It was a joke with her friendswheres Melshes asleep. She slept through classes in college it affected her social life. We even did an overnight sleep study in the hospitalshe was sleeping fourteen to sixteen hours a day. (Roni)

My daughter had legs like pick-up sticks and an enormous belly and the pediatrician called it baby fat and said shed grow into it. (Mike, 40)

I think people thought I was a hypochondriacthere was so much wrong with me. (Heather, 43)

In the United States today, millions of patients suffer with symptoms that neither fit a specific diagnosis nor disappear. Young and old take drugs and see numerous specialists for gastrointestinal complaints, anemia, joint pain, itchy skin conditions, constant fatigue, or headaches. Their symptoms are treated, but no underlying cause can be found. One doctor diagnoses fibromyalgia, another chronic fatigue syndrome, a third irritable bowel syndrome. Too much or too little roughage, lactose or fructose intolerance, fried or spicy food explains repeated bouts of reflux, diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain, and gas. Muscle strain or the wrong type of mattress is the excuse for aching joints or tingling extremities that remain asleep when the rest of you wakes up in the morning.

Frustrated, patients seek care from alternative nontraditional physicians because a friend or neighbor got help there or the physician appeared on TV. Hundreds of dollars laterafter a battery of blood or stool tests that most traditional physicians will not even review once they see the name of the laboratory that performed themthe diagnosis comes down to leaky gut or too much of the wrong bacteria. Trials of antibacterial agents, expensive intravenous vitamin infusions, multiple herbal remedies, or low yeast diets all seem the answer. They provide a temporary respite when well trained physicians cannot provide an answer.

Six or seven years into this downward physical and mental spiral, an internist suggests that stress may be the answer. In other words, we cannot find anything really wrong with youperhaps it is in your head. Many patients live in a perpetual state of indefinable ill health that, after a period of time, they begin to accept as normal. Some of the symptoms seem to run in the family.

Ive had it [reflux and dyspepsia] for so long that I just think its a normal part of my life. My mother has it, my brother has it. So, I just assume its what Im supposed to have. (Cindy, 45)

For many patients, there is a medical diagnosis for the bundle of symptoms they must endure. Diagnosis and treatment of this condition will not only improve your health, it may save your life.

The Celiac Iceberg

Celiac disease is a multisystem disorder whose primary target of injury is the small intestine. The disease is triggered by gluten, the main storage protein found in certain grains. Gluten damages the small intestine so that it is unable to absorb nutrients properly. As food malabsorption continues and the disease progresses, the manifestations inevitably become more varied and complex.

Celiac disease is the most commonand one of the most underdiagnosedhereditary autoimmune conditions in the United States today. It is as common as hereditary high cholesterol.

Once considered a rare diarrheal disease of childhood, celiac disease is now recognized predominantly as a disease of adultsand the majority of people are either asymptomatic or consult doctors for a variety of other complaints.

While the disease is considered common in Europe, South America, Canada, and Australiaa recent study of schoolchildren in Finland showed the incidence to be 1 per 99, in parts of England 1 per 100 only recently have studies shown that celiac disease affects approximately 1 percent of the U.S. population (approximately 1 in every 100 people)and 97 percent of them are undiagnosed. Unfortunately, if the disease progresses and is not diagnosed until later in adulthood, patients often develop many other problems from years of inflammation and the malabsorption of minerals, vitamins, and other necessary nutrients.