Celiac disease can surface at any age, from the middle infancy onward. But along with the myths associated with the onset of the disease, there are many other myths that needs some serious research prior to graduating them to be facts. Below are some of the top myths about celiac disease.
Celiac disease is a childhood disease.Earlier, it was considered that celiac disease occurs only in children, however, now it has been proven that all individuals, irrespective of their age are vulnerable to this disease. Celiac disease can develop and be diagnosed at any age. In fact, every two out of three persons on whom the study was conducted were adults. Also, this disease is most frequently diagnosed in people aged 40-60 years and not just in children. In children, genetics might be responsible, whereas in adults, it is induced by pregnancy, gastrointestinal infection, surgery, and severe emotional stress. Delayed diagnosis is very common in the case of celiac disease. According to the survey conducted by the Canadian Celiac Association, it takes about 12 years for normal celiac to identify itself. A number of patients also reported that they had to switch between several doctors in order to identify their problem accurately. Due to this late diagnosis, the start of a gluten free diet mostly starts after the forties.Blood test is the best way to diagnose celiac disease.At present, there are a number of ways for early diagnosis of the disease which are far more effective than the traditional blood test. For instance, Health Canada recently approved Biocard Test Kit, which is an easy at-home test. It basically measures the immune response for gluten in the blood. All you need to do is to place a drop of your blood into a chip, which then detects the presence of antibodies in the blood. However, this test just acts as a preliminary test, the presence of celiac disease is not confirmed by it. If the test results are positive, then the next stage involves a small biopsy to be done by a gastroenterologist. Despite the fact that the two steps described above are routine for diagnosis of celiac disease, but there is still a possibility that the biopsy shows a false negative. This can happen if your diet just before the test is gluten free. So, it is always recommended that if you are undergoing a diagnosis, then try to avoid gluten-free foods.A celiac patient just needs to avoid wheat and its products.This myth came into existence because of the wheat allergy which is often misunderstood for celiac disease. Wheat allergy can cause eczema, rashes, and anaphylaxis as the abnormal response for the proteins from wheat. It is a life threatening condition, which can lead to the swelling in tongue throat and lips. On the other hand, celiac disease falls into the category of autoimmune disorder. One important factor which has fueled this myth is that like wheat allergy, even celiac disease requires a foreign substance to trigger it. This disorder can cause immune responses for all types of gluten proteins which are present in different types of food products and not just wheat alone. Therefore, a person suffering from celiac disease should not only avoid wheat, but also, oats rye, barley, semolina, spelt, einkorn, kamut, durum, and faro.People suffering from celiac disease are always thin.Until recently, it was considered to be almost true that people with celiac disease are always thin. Even doctors were of the same opinion. However, the fact is that no such scientific evidence is known to exist which proves this opinion. Now, it is being realized that people having celiac disease are not necessarily underweight. In fact, overweight people are also diagnosed with this disease. The risk of having celiac disease does not increase just because someone is thin. This is perhaps one of the most misunderstood thing about celiac disease. Being thin is neither a pre-requisite nor a consequence of celiac disease. In fact, there is absolutely no link between your physical characteristics and celiac disease.Gluten can be absorbed through skin.This myth floated to the surface because of the fact that several people were reported to have reaction to personal care products that contained gluten. For this reason, products such as sunscreen lotions and moisturizers came under the scanner and people started avoiding them. But, this is just a myth. Even scientific evidences have proved it to be untrue. According to these, gluten molecules are large enough that they cannot be absorbed through the skin. If you are having reactions to any of your skin care product containing gluten, you must be allergic to some other ingredient in the product.If you have celiac disease, all you need to worry about is avoiding gluten.Celiac disease is a life long condition and having a gluten free diet is perhaps the best treatment available for this disease at present. The immune system will react if gluten is introduced back into the diet, therefore, it is very important that you stay the course with a gluten free diet. The gut gets an opportunity to heal if gluten is taken out of the diet. However, avoiding gluten in your diet alone cannot show the expected results, there are certainly several other things which you need to worry about. For instance, you have to take care of your cholesterol level, weight, and vitamin status. Abnormality in any of the above factors can lead to the rise of complications. Patients of celiac disease need to be aware of a number of medical conditions and symptoms associated with it.You will start feeling better as soon as you stop eating gluten.If you want to get rid of celiac disease, you must certainly avoid gluten. However, there are several other factors which play a pivotal role in the treatment of celiac disease. Therefore, the amount of time it takes to feel better after you start avoiding gluten depends on several other factors and it is different for every person. For instance, some people can feel the positive effects in short span of time, whereas, for others it may be weeks or months before they begin feeling better. So, this myth cannot be claimed to be completely false, it’s just that it is true in some of the cases, whereas in other cases, the results do not comply with the above opinion.
