With the gluten-free product industry expected to surpass 5 billion dollars in profit by 2015, the sirens of commerce have become a big part of the gluten-free diet fad. I suppose it isn’t a surprise that this has become a difficult matter, but I’m afraid many people forget the real suffering endure by people stuck between the marketing hype surrounding the gluten-free diet and the medical reality inherent in gluten intolerance… people stuck between anti-gluten fanaticism and gluten-free skepticism.
Celiac disease symptoms are real, and celiac disease continues to be terribly undiagnosed. And still even in the mainstream people don’t seem to really understand gluten itself (What Is Gluten?) or the varying ways people can suffer some degree of gluten intolerance.
While many muddle the matter with terms like gluten allergy symptoms, wheat allergy symptoms and non-celiac gluten sensitivity, the core issue of gluten intolerance requires a patient, nuanced understanding our current deeply polarized cultural divide struggles to appreciate. Read on to consider my take on trying to find a middle ground between fanaticism and skepticism.
Read Gluten-Free Diet Fad?
In a modern, civilized society it is remarkable and confusing how often a serious disease goes unidentified and undiagnosed by medical doctors. Around one in 100 people suffer from celiac disease symptoms, yet a vast majority of those individuals don’t even know it. Sadly, a huge number of these individuals have visited their doctors to discuss problems as a result of an underlying case of celiac disease, yet still go away either undiagnosed or misdiagnosed.
Besides increasing celiac disease awareness among patients, family members, grocery stores and restaurants, we need our doctors to better appreciate how often gluten intolerance goes undiagnosed. Online we already battle confusing terms like wheat allergy symptoms and gluten allergy symptoms, but we at least should be able to rely on accurate help and support from our family doctors.
People like me can do their best to teach patients to appreciate what is gluten and how to live a healthy, happy gluten-free life, but we still need our family doctors to do a better job diagnosing celiac disease in the first place.
So how long do most people go undiagnosed after symptoms first arise? Sadly, this statistic is measured in several years, not a few months. Read on to learn the startling reality about how long the average celiac goes before having his or her symptoms accurately diagnosed.
Read Celiac Disease Symptoms Too Often Go Undiagnosed
As celiac disease symptoms occur as a result of consuming gluten, people often perceive celiac disease symptoms as signs of a digestive disorder. But they occur primarily as the result of an autoimmune disease, and often the most insidious and serious celiac disease symptoms aren’t as tangible and immediate as various intestinal discomforts. Celiac disease may also manifest itself very differently in different people, so it can be difficult to isolate any quick checklist of celiac symptoms and expect patients to accurately identify their own celiac disease symptoms.
Before you can properly understand or eliminate celiac disease symptoms, you need to understand what gluten is.
Please note that a gluten-free diet is not a fad diet or a way to lose weight. I can’t believe I’m seeing some people treat it as such. A gluten-free lifestyle is a necessary prescription for people suffering from gluten intolerance or manifesting gluten allergy symptoms.
Celiac disease is commonly referred to as having gluten intolerance. Gluten is mostly found in grains such as barley, rye, spelt and especially wheat products. Celiac disease has the most direct impact on your small intestine, however over time your entire body can be affected. Your immune system has a reaction to the gluten in the small intestine that causes severe damage. This damage keeps your small intestine from absorbing nutrients that your body needs, and thus manifests the many celiac disease symptoms.
Read Celiac Disease Symptoms
More children are being tested and diagnosed with some type of gluten intolerance or wheat allergy. While the problem seems to be growing, or at least the diagnosis is improving, there is a difference between gluten allergy symptoms and celiac disease. Understanding the difference will help you better help your child. For a better definition read my article: Gluten Allergy Definition
When discussing these disorders casually or online people often use the term gluten allergy to refer either to a wheat allergy or gluten intolerance. This can be confusing because a wheat allergy and symptoms of a wheat allergy are very different from gluten intolerance and symptoms of gluten intolerance. Understanding the terms and the symptoms of each of the terms can help you better understand the condition your child may have.
Typically people are referring to gluten intolerance or celiac disease when they use the term gluten allergy. There are a few common gluten intolerance or celiac disease symptoms to watch for if you are concerned your child may be suffering from this condition. Children can experience slightly different symptoms than adults so it is important to know the difference between symptoms commonly see in adults and the symptoms commonly seen in children.
Read Gluten Allergy Symptoms In Children
When you consider gluten intolerance statistics, you may be startled to recognize how many more people around you probably suffer from some degree of gluten intolerance. Part of the problem is a lack of awareness and part of the problem may be the changing nature of the grains grown and processed in modern cultures. But part of the problem is also that celiac disease symptoms can include both silent and atypical symptoms. This means sufferers may experience symptoms most don’t associate with celiac disease or they may not experience any evident symptoms at all. Understanding more about what is gluten and how it can impact health is becoming more and more important.
To further complicate the matter, now researchers are realizing that there may be a gluten sensitivity that is not just a degree of celiac disease but rather a completely different medical manifestation. And gluten allergy symptoms further obfuscate the matter by blurring the lines between gluten intolerance and a wheat allergy.
Read on to learn current specific statistics associated with the gluten phenomenon and what it means for those people who are diagnosed with celiac disease.
Read Gluten Intolerance Statistics
As you explore the frustrating world of gluten intolerance, you will generally find that sufferers of varying degrees of gluten sensitivity tend to lose weight and not gain it. However, in some rare cases where people are suffering from celiac disease symptoms, people may actually experience a degree of weight gain. The body is a pretty phenomenal machine and in some cases, the typical reduction in nutrient absorption that occurs when we suffer from gluten intolerance actually causes a degree of weigh gain.
But a gluten-free diet is not a weight-loss solution for all and should not be promoted as such.
To further explore this relatively rare phenomenon among sufferers of gluten allergy symptoms and read why I’m not crazy about people promoting the gluten-free diet as a weight-loss solution, read on about gluten intolerance and weight gain, how it might occur, and what you can do about it.
Read Gluten Intolerance and Weight Gain
So you know you have gluten intolerance and you’re persevering celiac disease symptoms. What now? You need a comprehensive Gluten Free Survival Kit.
Enjoy a fun gluten-free cookbook, a comprehensive guide, safe and unsafe ingredient lists, a meal planner and more, all with no shipping cost and a 110% money-back guarantee: Gluten Free Survival Kit
Read on to understand exactly why I believe everyone embarking on a journey to a gluten-free lifestyle should seriously consider John and Mary’s excellent and comprehensive survival kit.
Read Your Complete Gluten Free Survival Kit?
Sadly, many parents are not even aware that their child has gluten intolerance until the symptoms become more noticeable and severe. If gluten intolerance in children isn’t treated, it can turn serious and cause more stressful symptoms during adolescence and into adulthood.
Gluten allergy symptoms are not easy to diagnose so it is important to be vigilant. Typical gluten intolerance symptoms in children can include weight loss or abdominal distention, diarrhea or constipation and a general failure to thrive and develop normally, but this is only a small list of possible symptoms and they can often be misdiagnosed as something other than gluten intolerance. Along with testing for gluten intolerance or celiac disease one thing you can do on your own is to follow a strict gluten-free diet to see if your child’s symptoms improve.
In most cases an intolerance to gluten can be managed by removing all gluten from your child’s diet. Your child will no longer be able to eat traditional bread products or pastas containing wheat, rye or barley. Spelt must also be avoided. Remember that just because something features a wheat-free label does not make it gluten-free. In some cases you may often need to contact the manufacturers to make sure certain products are completely gluten-free.
Read Gluten Intolerance In Children
