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Did you know that 3 million Americans are living with celiac disease today? Yes, 3 million people or 1 in 133 people according to Dr. Alessio Fasano in his book, Gluten Freedom. The problem is most people who have celiac disease don’t know they have the it. In fact, 83 percent of people with celiac disease are undiagnosed according to the Celiac Disease Foundation.
Celiac disease is a real disease with serious health consequences if not treated. The only known treatment option is adherence to a strict gluten-free diet.
While many diseases require you to take a pill for life or endure risky surgeries or procedures, the only way to make your celiac symptoms dissipate or disappear is by changing what you eat (or don’t eat, I should say). Once people with celiac disease stop eating the trigger food (gluten), they stop destroying the lining of their small intestine.
Wow, just by changing their diet, people with celiac disease can squash disease! Wouldn’t it be grand if the trigger food of all diseases were known? Then people could do away with the trigger vs. spend their lifetimes throwing money at drugs to treat what ails them? This idea is a story for another day, I suppose…
In this blog post, I share 30 common celiac symptoms that might indicate that you have celiac disease. Below this list of celiac symptoms as well as a list of other diseases that are known to be helped by adherence to a gluten-free diet.
Please be reminded that I am not a doctor nor should information in this post be misconstrued as a means of diagnosis. Please read my blog disclosures and disclaimers and use this celiac symptom checklist to talk with your doctor, nutritionist, dietician and/or health coach to uncover if celiac disease is behind your health conditions.
30 Celiac Symptoms
Digestive Ailments:
1. Abdominal pain
2. Acid reflux and heartburn
3. Constipation
4. Diarrhea
5. Bloating and swollen belly
6. Gas
Skin Issues:
7. Canker sores and mouth ulcers (geographic tongue)
8. Dermatitis Herpetiformis (persistent itchy skin rash)
9. Eczema
10. Hair loss (Alopecia Areata)
11. Tooth discoloration or enamel loss
Behavior Disorders:
12. ADD and ADHD
13. Anxiety
14. Brain fog
15. Depression
16. Headaches / Migraines
Musculoskeletal Disorders:
17. Arthritis
18. Joint pain
19. Fibromyalgia or muscle pain
20. Numbness in hands or feet
21. Osteoporosis or loss of bone density
Reproductive Conditions:
22. Delayed puberty (for children)
23. Infertility
24. Irregular menstruation
25. Miscarriages
Misc.
26. Anemia, often resulting in iron and vitamin deficiencies from malabsorption of food
27. Fatigue
28. Failure to thrive
29. Vitamin deficiencies
30. Weight loss
Do you think you have celiac disease? Read my post, Diagnosis of Celiac Disease – What You Need to Know and complete the checklist at Celiac.com. Be sure to discuss all this information with your doctor.
Should You Be Gluten-Free Even If You Don’t Have Celiac Disease?
Many conditions that are not diagnosed as celiac disease have be known to be helped by a gluten-free diet, and there is a strong link between gluten and autoimmune diseases. While many autoimmune diseases are rare, they affect approximately 8 percent of the US population or 24 million people according to Dr. O’Bryan in The Autoimmune Fix. He says autoimmune disease affects more people than cancer (9 million) or heart disease (22 million).
Dr. Tom O’Bryan discusses the relationship between gluten to the rise in autoimmune diseases in his book, The Autoimmune Fix, which I HIGHLY recommend.
Just because you don’t have celiac disease doesn’t mean you don’t have to be gluten-free. In fact, some researchers have shown that gluten is toxic to all human beings. In fact, gluten sensitivity is a real disorder with real life-long health consequences!! (Read 10 Gluten Sensitivity Symptoms [With or Without Celiac Disease] for more information on this topic.)
Many leading doctors in the gluten movement recommend getting tested for gluten sensitivity if you have a suspicion that gluten makes you sick or if you have a first degree relative with ANY autoimmune disease or gluten sensitivity.
All autoimmune related diseases (there are more than 100 of them according to the American Autoimmune Diseases Association) can be helped with a gluten-free diet, according to Dr. O’Bryan in The Autoimmune Fix, including but not limited to:
- Alopecia (hair loss)
- Alzheimer’s disease
- ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease)
- Diabetes
- Eczema
- Fibromyalgia
- Grave’s disease
- Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Crohn’s and colitis)
- Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis
- Lupus
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Nephropathies (kidney diseases)
- Neuropathies (brain and nervous system disease)
- Osteoarthritis
- Parkinson’s disease
- Psoriasis
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Sjogren’s Disease
- Thyroid disease
Additionally, research has shown that these other common conditions can be helped with a gluten-free diet:
- Acid reflux
- GERD
- IBS
- Heartburn
Remember, talk to your doctor if you have any celiac symptoms. You can then work with a nutritionist, dietician or health coach that specializes in celiac disease and gluten sensitivity to get started on your gluten-free diet.
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