Following a gluten-free diet is a lifelong proposition. Gluten sensitivity is caused by celiac disease, a disorder that is usually inherited and affects around 1 in 133 people in the United States. If you have a parent, sibling or child with celiac disease, your risk of having it increases to 1 in 22. The majority of people with celiac disease do not know they have it, according to the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University. Gluten is found in the protein part of grains such as wheat, rye and barley.
Definition
Gluten sensitivity is known as celiac disease, celiac-sprue, non-tropical sprue or gluten sensitive enteropathy. When people with celiac disease eat gluten, even in very small amounts, gluten damages the finger-like projections called villi that line their small intestine. Since villi aid in the absorption of nutrients into the bloodstream, celiac disease can cause malnutrition along with digestive symptoms. Celiac disease lasts for your lifetime; although symptoms may improve if you follow a gluten-free diet, you still have the disease.
Improvement Time
While children may improve within three to six months after following a gluten-free diet, adults don't heal as quickly. For adults, it can take up to several years for the villi to heal enough to absorb nutrients, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disorders reports. The length of time a person has the disease before diagnosis can affect healing time. If no improvement occurs, the person may still be unwittingly consuming small amounts of gluten in medications or in food preservatives. People with refractory celiac disease may not heal, even when strictly following a gluten-free diet. They may require intravenous nutrition.
Avoiding Gluten
Even if you're strictly following a gluten-free diet, you can unwittingly consume gluten. Factories that produce both wheat products and other types of foods can cause cross-contamination that results in gluten making its way into foods where it's normally not found. Oats, which do not always trigger gluten reactions, may be cross-contaminated during the growing or processing stage and may be better avoided, MayoClinic.com suggests. For this reason, your physician may suggest avoiding oat products altogether as well as gluten products. Reading medication and processed food labels is essential to avoid unintended ingestion of gluten.
Symptoms
In children, celiac disease leads to symptoms such as diarrhea, bloating, gas, pale, foul-smelling fatty stools that float, weight loss and abdominal pain. Adults most often experience symptoms such as anemia, fatigue, bone pain, arthritis, canker sores or an itchy rash known as dermatitis herpetiformis. Symptoms appear when even a small amount of gluten is ingested, such as if a knife that is used to cut bread is then used to cut another food. If you suddenly start having symptoms while following the diet, search diligently for hidden gluten sources.
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