Gluten Intolerance Cause
Medical researchers have not yet found an exact gluten intolerance cause. But, experts do know that gluten intolerance, and it's severe form called celiac disease, is likely an inherited condition that affects your body's immune system.
If you have gluten intolerance, your body can't tolerate foods made with gluten, a storage protein found in wheat, barley, and rye.
Gluten intolerance can cause a variety of bothersome, and occasionally, severe symptoms, including:
- Abdominal distress
- Constipation, gas, and belching
- Skin blisters
- Vomiting
- Fatigue
- In rare cases, malnutrition
If you have celiac disease, these symptoms occur after you have eaten foods containing gluten. Symptoms like these are the result of your body's auto-immune response to gluten. Instead of attacking the protien, the immunse system attacks the lining of the intestines causing an inability to absorb nutrients. For instance, if you are a gluten intolerant person that suffers from celiac disease and you consume wheat bread, the gluten that enters your body causes your body to attack itself and flatten and damage the villi (tiny projections) in your small intestine. In a person without celiac disease, these villi would remain raised and properly absorb nutrients.
Because wheat is used in so many of the foods we eat, such as bread and pasta, eliminating gluten from your diet can be challenging, but it is very doable. With increasing awareness of gluten intolerance, gluten-free recipes and gluten-free products are becoming more widely available.
A diagnosis of gluten intolerance or celiac disease is not cause for alarm. With help from a registered dietician, you can learn to cook and bake foods with gluten-free diet recipes and live a healthy, gluten-free life.
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