What is Celiac Disease?

August 14, 2024

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease. An autoimmune disease is where the immune system is attacking the body itself, its own tissue instead of foreign invaders like bacteria and viruses.

What happens in this case? Even though gluten is composed of hundreds of proteins, we are going to talk about the most important one when it comes to celiac disease and gluten intolerance in general, gliadin. When you eat gluten (containing foods), it goes into your stomach and gets broken down into gliadin (and of course to other subcomponents as well) by hydrochloric acid.

Then the food that has already been partly digested goes into the small intestine where the T-cells that are in the mucosa layer of the small intestine don’t react well. T-cells are part of the immune system and become activated in people with celiac disease when they come into contact with gliadin. These activated T-cells attack the cells of the villi causing villous atrophy which decreases the surface area of the inner small intestinal wall. This leads to the malabsorption of nutrients which can lead to weight loss, vitamin D, K, iron and calcium deficiency.

The symptoms of celiac disease:

diarrhea
weight loss
bloating
stomach ache
constipation
vomiting
itchy skin
fatigue
headache
acid reflux
brain fog
fatty, foul smelling stools
mouth sores

Some symptoms specific to children are:

delayed puberty
stunted growth

Disclaimer: This is according to my personal understanding of coeliac disease. Considering 90% of the studies that I have read over the last couple of weeks, this is the big picture of what happens in coeliac disease. If you have any questions consult a doctor or a dietitian.

If you would like a very detailed video about it, I would recommend this one.