Celiac Disease

Celiac Disease is a very serious and now common disease amongst people. It's so scary that something so horrible would have so many symptoms! Symptoms are such of Abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, stomach upset, joint pain, weight loss, muscle cramps, stunted growth(in children), general weakness and fatigue, vitamin, mineral, and nutritional deficiencies. Fortunately, some people don't have ANY symptoms at all, but you never know when you might develop one. Those that have the disease but don't experience any symptoms must still be careful because of the fact that there is an increased mortality rate in victims with Celiac disease that is about two to four times that of the general population! It's a digestive disease that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients. What once started as a rare child-hood disease, it is now known as a genetic disorder. It's quite common all around the world but mainly in Europe. 1 in every 133 people have Celiac disease in the USA, 1 per 122 in Northern Ireland, and 1per 100 in Western England. It's interesting how long ago Celiac disease was discovered and that we still don't have any cure, it was discovered by a man named Aretaeus of Cappadocia in the 1st century. Thankfully there is a treatment, a gluten-free diet for the rest of your life. It's easy to remember, but hard to deal with because gluten is found in so many different foods. This is especially hard on children because they'd never get to experience some types of food. Something that needs to be remembered to find a cure is that the diagnosis of celiac disease requires finding characteristic changes in small intestinal biopsy, together with clinical and/or histologic improvement on a gluten-free diet. It's sad to know that there are diseases out there like this one, but good to know that people are definitely working to eliminate it. I strongly feel that we should concentrate more money, time, and energy into finding cures for the unfortunate people that are stuck with this disease.

http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/celiac/
http://www.csaceliacs.org/library/howsandwhys.php
http://www.celiacdiseasecenter.columbia.edu/A_Patients/A03-WhatAre.htm