7/20/07   Listing the symptoms of celiac disease is not a simple and straight-forward task: However:

  “There are 256 symptoms and related conditions that indicate that a patient may have celiac disease.” Click here to read more about this.

  The Celiac Sprue Association explains the problem this way: “The symptoms of celiac disease vary so widely among patients that there is no such thing as a typical celiac.”

   The National Institute of Health speaks for the federal  government in stating that “Celiac disease affects people differently. Symptoms may occur in the digestive system, or in other parts of the body. For example, one person might have diarrhea and abdominal pain, while another person may be irritable or depressed. In fact, irritability is one of the most common symptoms in children. Recognizing celiac disease can be difficult because some of its symptoms are similar to those of other diseases. In fact, sometimes celiac disease is confused with irritable bowel syndrome, iron-deficiency anemia caused by menstrual blood loss, Crohn’s disease, diverticulitis, intestinal infections, and chronic fatigue syndrome. As a result, celiac disease is commonly underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed.”

  Webmd.com is a little more specific: “…the signs and symptoms of celiac disease vary among individuals, ranging from no symptoms, few or mild signs and symptoms, to many or severe signs and symptoms. There are two categories of signs and symptoms: 1) signs and symptoms due to malabsorption, and 2) signs and symptoms due to malnutrition including vitamin and mineral deficiencies.”

  The article by the Celiac Sprue Association does a good job of wrapping up this subject: “Celiac disease is one of the great mimics in …medicine”.

What do we do, particularly if we suspect that a friend or family may have celiac disease? I have two suggestions:

    read the articles mentioned above to help you understand the problem of symptoms and diagnosis; they are summaries and I don't want to attempt to summarize summaries of a topic as important and complicated as this.

   focus on the first of the articles that I mentioned. It was published by the WNYGFDSG (otherwise known as the Western New York Gluten Free Diet Support Group). It is written with the idea that “ordinary” people will digest this information and either share it with their physicians or use this article as “homework” to prepare them to meet with their doctors.

  Two personal notes  illustrate why being ready for your doctor for any celiac related concerns:

my wife was recently hospitalized and somehow this website came up while talking to the dietician. The dietician asked for my business card — “we’ve had quite a few calls for gluten free meals lately' . Apparently, the dietician was aware of the sudden increase in the number of people who have gone gluten free during the past few years and was anxious to help. But she had no training in the area and didn’t even know the name of a gluten free web site.

We recently moved to Portland and needed to find a new family practice doctor. She looked at the health history I just completed and remarked that she heard about celiac disease but that I was the first celiac she had every met. She seems like an excellent doctor, but I definitely need to be well prepared if I need to bring any celiac-related concerns to her attention.