Gluten is a protein that is contained in some of our grain products such as wheat, barley and rye for example. There are two specific proteins that are contained in gluten which are gliadin and glutenin. The protein that has a negative impact on people is the gliadin.
An example of how gluten works is the old flour and water trick to form glue. Every school age child knows that when you mix flour and water, you get a kind of a paste, that can form a crude glue, and kids can use it to paste paper together. This is where the name of gluten came from, from these glue like properties.
In certain people when the gluten gets into the digestive tract, the immune system cells think that it is an invader coming into the body and they react to it as such. Consequently, when the immune system attacks it as if it were a foreign virus or bacteria, bad things happen.
Celiac disease is a more severe form of sensitivity to gluten, because as the immune system attacks the proteins of the gluten, it also attacks an enzyme in the cells of the intestine, and this dilemma is called transglutaminase.
This is not a good situation for the person who is real sensitive to this substance because not only is the gluten itself disagreeing with this person’s digestive process, they are now having their very intestinal cell walls being attacked.
Over time, this process that directly attacks the cellular wall of the intestine results in deficiencies in nutrition, fatigue, anemia, and increased risk of contracting other diseases.
Celiac disease acts like a similar disease from a symptom standpoint and that disease is irritable bowel syndrome. Although they are two separate and distinct disorders, they mimic one another. Because of this it is difficult to ascertain which disease is actually occurring due to similar symptoms in both disorders.
IBS, or irritable bowel syndrome exhibits symptoms of bloating, cramping, pain in the abdomen, increased gas, alterations in both constipation and diarrhea. Celiac disease symptoms include bloating, diarrhea, increased gas, fatigue, anemia, excessive bruising and bleeding.
So you can see that there are similar symptoms, yet there are some differences too. The key to controlling the ingestion of gluten laden foods, it so simply avoid them. There are many foods that are out on the marketplace that are labeled “Gluten Free” just for this express purpose. Grocery stores and restaurants are now well aware of the problems that gluten can cause in the diets of some people.
Some people also feel that the rise of gluten intolerance has something to do with our push over the past 50 years or so to engineer our foods and process them so that some of the nutrients have been taken out of them. While this may be true to some extent, it is still a controversial topic.
In reality, there are a large proportion of people with celiac disease show no symptoms at all, yet these folks may succumb to it in time, based on the amount of gluten laden food they ingest over time.
While there are some medications that can be used for celiac disease, the best remedy is to avoid eating gluten as much as possible by following the labels as you shop and as you eat out.