What exactly is celiac disease and what does it consist of?
Celiac disease or classical celiac disease (CCD) is a condition of the small intestine, i.e. an enteropathy, which is most common in children and is characterized by malabsorption of nutrients. In medicine, diseases are identified when they present with all their attributes, but there are incomplete, mild or atypical forms caused by gluten that are called by different names.
What causes this problem?
According to the Ministry of Health, it is a systemic disorder of immunological basis, caused by the ingestion of gluten and other related proteins that affects genetically susceptible individuals. From my point of view, it is a somewhat simpler condition that is influenced by other metabolic factors, external stimulants of inflammation and changes in the intestinal flora. All that remains is for the medical community to agree.
What are its symptoms?
CDD typically presents with chronic diarrhea and malnutrition, causing stato-pondural delay and anemia in children. In both children and adults it can present in a thousand and one different ways, the most frequent being the sensation of swelling and abdominal pain after meals, headache, epidermal or joint involvement, arrhythmia, hypertension or other cardiovascular anomalies, constipation, vomiting, gastroesophageal reflux, fatigue and difficulty in conceiving, among other alterations.
Is there any way to prevent it and how is celiac disease treated?
Celiac disease in predisposed patients could be cushioned with an adequate diet according to our culture, i.e., eating what our grandparents ate. A proper fermentation of gluten-containing foods is important, as well as avoiding the use of gluten in processed foods, protecting our intestinal flora and controlling the pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory elements that affect the body according to your doctor. Once the disease is established, it is necessary to stay away from gluten, that is to say, from cereals containing gluten, and to follow the indications of your specialist, avoiding the information confusion that prevails nowadays. I would like to insist on proper food selection and control of inflammatory coadjuvants in general.
Has there been an increase in the number of cases in recent times and why?
I don’t think there has been much of an increase in the number of patients with CHD. It is a very old disease, known for millennia, very well described since 1944 and about which digestologists know perfectly well its multiple forms of presentation. In my opinion, in recent years the number of genetically predisposed patients who improve by removing gluten from their diet has shot up; I think it is due to a confluence of circumstances related to food processing, dietary fads, alterations in our microbiota and the presence of pro-inflammatory elements that are highlighting the problem. On the other hand, it is possible that we may be over-diagnosing and failing to identify other problems that we now attribute exclusively to gluten.
Barcelona footballer Ivan Rakitic commented a few months ago that discovering he has celiac disease “has changed his life”. Why? How can celiac disease influence an athlete or professional sportsperson?
A patient “intoxicated” by gluten intake can have many digestive and extra-digestive symptoms that can affect the practice of sport and significantly reduce their health. It is not uncommon that when these cereals are no longer consumed, fatigue subsides, lost vitality and confidence in eating are recovered and the patient can eat without fear of suffering discomfort. It is logical that this fact is more appreciated by an elite athlete, and in the case of Mr. Rakitic it is an important step -although he could improve even more by changing his shirt for a lighter one, similar to the one he had in Sevilla 😉 .