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Gluten intolerance: Celiac disease (CE)

Gluten intolerance: Celiac disease (CE)

Edited by: at 10/10/2023

Gluten intolerance can put people's lives at risk.

Dr. Jorge Bernardo Elizondo Vázquez

Celiac disease is a disorder of the small intestine caused by gluten. This disease can be diagnosed in the first two years of a person's life. The main signs and symptoms that appear are:

  • Failure in growth: it is normal in the first months of life, however, after several weeks of induction of wheat to the diet no longer
  • Chronic diarrhea: Diarrhea leads to severe dehydration, hypotension and shock (celiac crisis)
  • Distension of the abdomen
  • Anorexia, followed by loss of muscle mass

When the disease is diagnosed at a later age, the symptoms may be in the oral cavity, such as recurrent ulcers (canker sores) and destruction of enamel, not related to cavities; and extra-digestive symptoms such as growth retardation, short stature, delayed puberty, anemia, muscle and joint pains, fatigue not physical or mental activity throughout the day, headache, migraine, dermatitis herpetiformes, recurrent urticaria, skin edema anywhere on the body. Other manifestations are neurological as seizures, have been described associated with calcifications in cerebellum; however, we have a patient with epilepsy refractory to four anticonvulsants that were controlled with a gluten-free diet; this is called neuro-celiac disease; In addition, arthritis and chronic hepatitis (elevation of liver enzymes) have been reported to be associated with celiac disease; in both cases, joint pain and elevation of liver enzymes disappear and normalize respectively with gluten-free diet. There are also people where the disease is described as asymptomatic (without symptoms).

 

The bad thing about cereals

Early studies of celiac disease have shown that certain cereals are harmful to children and adults with celiac disease, such as wheat, barley, rye, and cross-contamination of oats. Symptoms of celiac disease begin weeks or months after the children consume gluten (wheat cereals, wheat mixed, poultry, bread, crackers or flour tortillas), accompanied by:

  • Changes of mood: irritability, anger, depression, sadness and indifference
  • Skin: Loses its turgor by the decrease of adipose panicle, becomes dry and rough due to the absence of vitamin A and nicotinic acid
  • Lips and tongue: They represent dryness and ulcers
  • Hair: Dry, opaque and brittle
  • Weight and size: They have low weight. The buttocks look flat because of the absence of fatty tissue and muscle mass
Pediatrics in Hermosillo