Celiac Disease, Symptoms & AllergiesWhat is Celiac disease?Celiac disease is a genetic auto-immune disease, where eating gluten, a protein found in grains like wheat, barley, rye, triticale and spelt, triggers an autoimmune response (the body attacks itself) in the small intestine. Long-term, Celiac disease inflames the small intestine, damaging & destroying the villi that absorb nutrients, leading to all sorts of symptoms. |
The only treatment for Celiac disease is a strict gluten-free diet for life. |
How Celiac disease affects the bodyIn a healthy person, digested food is absorbed in the small intestine, through villi, finger-like projections that collectively have a massive surface area of around 2,700 square feet.
Over time, in someone with Celiac disease, the auto-immune response destroys the villi, reducing their surface area, sometimes to almost nothing.
The result can be a host of complications like mal-absorption, malnutrition, diarrhea, bloating, fatigue, anemia and over two hundred symptoms, listed below. |
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Having Celiac disease is serious, life-changing & life threatening. But getting a diagnosis is the best thing you can do. Then you can manage it with a gluten-free diet, the only known therapy. There is no known cure. It’s better to know you have Celiac disease than continue to eat foods that cause your body to attack itself. |
Dermatitis Herpetiformis (DH)Between 5-10% of people with celiac disease also have DH. The condition shows up as intense itchy and blistering skin rashes on both sides of the body; often on the elbows, knees, buttocks, back of the neck, upper back, scalp and hairline. At first small blisters form, which erupt and leave scars. DH usually sets in around the 30-40 year mark, but can also happen in kids and older people. |
Ingredients and allergens are listed for each product, so you're free from concern about sticking to your particular diet. |
Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS)Many people who don’t have Celiac disease can’t tolerate gluten. The terms Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS) and Non-Celiac Wheat Sensitivity (NCWS) describe those people for whom living a gluten-free lifestyle clears symptoms. It’s thought that between 0.5%-13% of people may have NCGS. Symptoms include tummy pains, bloating, gas, diarrhea or constipation, anemia, headaches, fogginess, depression, chronic fatigue, skin rash, leg numbness and joint pain. |
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Celiac diagnosis & symptomsBecause there are so many different symptoms, which present in so many different ways, it’s often difficult to tell if someone has Celiac disease. Over the last few years testing has improved dramatically. |
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Who Gets Celiac Disease?Research says around 1 in 133 people in N America carry the Celiac gene. Or about 1% of the population. In countries like Ireland and Scotland it's as high as one in a hundred, meaning people of Irish or Scottish descent have a higher chance of carrying the gene than the general population. Many who have Celiac disease are misdiagnosed because symptoms overlap with other illnesses. it's estimated that 80% of people with Celiac disease don't know they have it. This can lead to serious life-draining illness. If in doubt get tested. |
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AllergiesAllergies happen when someone's immune system is hypersensitive to harmless (for others) substances in the environment. These reactions include hay fever, food allergies, skin rashes and asthma. Causes range from ingesting the wrong food or medications to insect bites. In worst cases anaphylaxsis can occur, a shock that may even result in death. In the developed world, it's thought that about
Allergic reactions are on the rise. |
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AutismOver the years many parents told us that their children with autism seem to get better on a gluten/casein free diet. It was one of the reasons we removed dairy from our ingredients list. Even though there have been scientific studies that show improvements, there’s still not enough definitive research to claim that a gluten-free diet leads to improvements in behavior. Anecdotally, many parents do report improvements. More research needs to be done to know the mechanism by which gluten affects those with autism and whether removing it and lactose/dairy from the diet creates provable benefits. Since 1991 Kinnkinnick has pioneered gluten-free baking, removing more and more known allergens as science confirms more and more people react negatively to them. Read more about our free from protocols and testing |