We all feel discomfort from time to time after eating. However, when these become daily, they can become a real problem and seriously affect our lives. Nowadays it is more and more common to develop allergies to certain foods, which can cause these discomforts. Do you think you are celiac? You may be allergic to gluten. Do you know the differences between celiac disease and gluten intolerance? How is one and the other treated? How to identify them?
Detecting which foods are the ones that harm you, or which component of these foods, is the first step to determine what treatment to follow, how to adapt our diet and identify the risks we run, among many other things. To resolve doubts, you can acquire a genetic analysis test right here. Meanwhile here we inform you about this problem.
What is it to be celiac.
Celiac disease, as explained by the Mayo Clinic, is an adverse reaction of the immune system when eating foods that contain gluten. This reaction occurs in the small intestine and, if it occurs many times for a long time, it can cause damage to it that ends up hindering the absorption of nutrients.
Normally this reaction is usually accompanied by painful or annoying symptoms such as diarrhea; which can lead to weight loss; inflammation, tiredness and can sometimes trigger more serious conditions such as anemia.
The treatment, there is no cure for now, requires changing the diet to completely restrict the consumption of foods that contain gluten. This ends the symptoms and, in time, heals the small intestine.
This disorder is chronic, systemic and has an autoimmune origin. Gluten protein closely resembles the proteins found naturally in the intestine. This causes the immune system to attack the intestine when it wants to attack gliadin, the protein in gluten. These attacks can damage the intestine and cause ulcers. Therefore, a timely diagnosis is very important.
What is it to be gluten intolerant?
Although it may surprise you, gluten intolerance is more common than celiac disease. According to data from Healthline, celiac disease affects between 1% and 2% of the population, while gluten intolerance affects up to 6%.
Gluten intolerance is an anomaly that prevents gluten from being processed correctly, so, like celiac patients, you should also follow a gluten-free and gluten-free diet.
The good news is the biggest difference between these two conditions is that gluten intolerance does not damage the intestinal wall of the small intestine, so although the necessary measures must be taken, it is not as dangerous in the long run. With adapting your diet, you will almost be recovered.
However, this intolerance produces:
- Intestinal colic
- Diarrhea
- Vomiting
- Fatigue
- Headache
Another important difference is that the diagnosis of celiac disease has a standardized protocol. Detecting gluten intolerance is usually much more complicated, there is no standard protocol, nor can biochemical markers be used to be sure. Normally a diagnosis based on discarding is made. But now you can do a test that tells you if you are intolerant to gluten or not and find out in a simpler and more accurate way.
Knowing the differences between celiac disease and gluten intolerance is very important. Determining if you suffer from one or the other is even more so to start treatment or adjust your diet. If you think you may suffer from any of these or know someone who may suffer from them, do not hesitate to take a test, or send this article to your friend.
David Peña Neira
SEM specialist at Civitatis. Digital marketing and data analysis expert with experience in planning and implementing digital campaigns and as product manager. Graduated from a Master in Big Data and another in Digital Marketing