Coeliac/Celiac Disease
What Is Coeliac/Celiac
Disease?
Celiac disease is a digestive disease that damages the small intestine
and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. People who have
celiac disease cannot tolerate a protein called gluten, which is found in
wheat, rye, barley, and possibly oats. When people with celiac disease
eat foods containing gluten, their immune system responds by damaging
the small intestine. Specifically, tiny fingerlike protrusions, called villi, on
the lining of the small intestine are lost. Nutrients from food are
absorbed into the bloodstream through these villi. Without villi, a person
becomes malnourished--regardless of the quantity of food eaten.
Because the body's own immune system causes the damage, celiac
disease is considered an autoimmune disorder. However, it is also
classified as a disease of malabsorption because nutrients are not
absorbed. Celiac disease is also known as celiac sprue, nontropical
sprue, and gluten-sensitive enteropathy.
Celiac disease is a genetic disease, meaning that it runs in families.
Sometimes the disease is triggered--or becomes active for the first
time--after surgery, pregnancy, childbirth, viral infection, or severe
emotional stress.
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