Celiac Disease Vs. Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity

Gluten is the new public enemy number one among eczema sufferers and those people who suffer a variety of vague autoimmune symptoms that defy diagnosis, and people who suffer mild, unremedied mood swings. While celiac disease is often named when it comes to gluten-sensitivity, the effects of gluten are certainly not just limited to celiac disease. What other non-celiac gluten sensitivities might you not know about?

When a long-suffering patient goes in to see the doctor with a question about the possibility of suffering from some gluten-sensitivity disease, the doctor probably will immediately start looking for symptoms in the patient of a condition called celiac disease. This condition which is also known as celiac sprue as well as gluten-sensitive enteropathy. Celiac disease is a particularly nasty condition among its patients.

What exactly is the different between celiac disease and non celiac gluten sensitvities? Let's take a look.

In people who suffer from celiac disease, the lining of the gut is hypersensitive to a protein in gluten which is known as gliadin. Gluten consists of a number of proteins that can be activated to give bread dough its "stretch," gliadin actually plays a big role in maintaining the enzymes for the growth of yeast.

First, aberrant enzymes process gliadin into a "stripped" protein with a potent, negative electrical charge. This in effect ensures that gliadin "sticks" to the lining of the gut.

Then the immune system recruits T cells to attack the gliadin as if it were a deadly infection. In the process of destroying gliadin, the T cells also destroy the intestinal lining. The immediate result is intense pain. The gut cannot absorb nutrients, but because it becomes "leaky," it admits all kinds of undigested proteins and carbohydrates from food that cause havoc of their own elsewhere in the body. 

Eating a bacon bit or a few drops of soy sauce made with wheat is enough to make celiac sufferers miserable. Eating a slice of bread, or a loaf of bread, can result in agony.

If you have celiac disease, diagnosis is easy. There are spit tests for the immune markers of gluten sensitivity in saliva. Not even a stick for a blood draw is necessary.

So you tell your doctor you think you have celiac disease, he or she orders a simple test, and 2999 times out of 3000, you don't have celiac disease. You're just sick when you eat wheat. What's your next step?

"Celiac" Disease That Doesn't Focus on the Gut

Doctors are becoming increasingly aware that the effects of celiac disease aren't necessarily limited to the lining of the intestines. While classic celiac sprue only affects about 1 person in 3000, gluten-sensitivity issues that primarily manifest themselves elsewhere in the body may affect about 1 in 100, and the problem tends to run in families. But how can you find out if non-celiac gluten sensitivity disease is a problem for you?