The celiac disease is a type of disorder in which gluten consumption leads to serious damage of the intestine. This article takes a look at what the symptoms of this disease are. The first thing to be mentioned when talking about the symptoms of this disease is the difference of symptoms in different people. What basically determines the type of symptoms in a person is the level of malabsorption.
Some people do not have any symptoms whereas many of the celiac patients show mild symptoms. The third category of people would experience highly complicated symptoms. In celiac patients the symptoms can appear due to two factors which are malnutrition and malabsorption.
Majority of the symptoms associated with celiac disease result due to lack of adequate fat absorption. The inadequate uptake of fat leads to several gastrointestinal symptoms. These symptoms include malodorous foul-smelling gas, diarrhea, increased fat in stool, and abdominal bloating. Diarrhea occurs as a result of water secretion to intestine by fatty acids.
Some of the symptoms arise as a result of improper absorption of lactose. These include excessive flatulence, abdominal pain, distension and diarrhea. Now let us have a look at the symptoms caused due to malnutrition.
The malnutrition symptoms are as follows: Fluid retention, osteoporosis, weight loss, peripheral neuropathy, muscle weakness and infertility. The systems vary based on the nutrition deficiency in an individual.
An interesting factor regarding the disease and its symptoms is the earlier belief of people that this disease can be seen in children and infants only. However, today it is known that these symptoms can occur at any age. The symptoms that indicate the possibility of celiac disease in an infant are as follows: abdominal cramps, steatorrhea, irritability, abdominal distension, diarrhea, failure of growth and muscle wasting. Once the gluten-free diet is introduced to an infant, there will be an onset of symptoms if the celiac disease is present.
With children, there can be slight differences in the symptoms. Diarrhea is a typical symptom. The amount of fat in stool will increase considerably and also in passing gas. Weight loss often accompanies these symptoms. Shore Stature is another commonly found disease. If left without proper medication attention and a good diet, this disease can lead to short stature in adults.
With proper care, children can experience a reduction and gradual disappearance of these symptoms while enroute to adulthood. The chance of sudden onset of these symptoms is always there especially after undergoing surgery and during pregnancy.
Although diarrhea is often seen in adults, a large number of them do not have this. Some of them lack any symptoms despite being celiac patients. Also, many adults seem to have either one of the symptoms associated with malnutrition. In other words, the celiac patients show different systems based on the time of onset of the disease. There will be a decrease in the number of white cells in blood.