WHAT IS CELIAC DISEASE?

Imagine what it would be like if eating pizza, pasta, most breads, cookies, cakes, candy bars, canned soup, luncheon meats or drinking a beer left you with cramps, diarrhea, anemia and chronic fatigue. For many people with celiac disease, that's reality.

Celiac disease occurs when a protein called gluten — found in wheat, barley, rye, and possibly oats — generates an immune reaction in the small intestine of susceptible people. Food normally doesn't provoke a response by the body's immune system — the body's defense against microbes and other threats to health.

"Basically, part of your body is attacking itself," says Joseph A. Murray, M.D., a gastroenterologist and celiac disease expert at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. "Gluten in the diet triggers a reaction from the immune system that causes the lining of the small intestine to become swollen and inflamed."

As a result, tiny hair-like projections in the small intestine called villi shrink and sometimes disappear. Microscopically resembling the deep pile of a plush carpet, villi absorb vitamins, minerals and other nutrients from food.

"You no longer have a carpet," says Dr. Murray. "It looks more like a tile floor. You lose the ability to digest and absorb nutrients from the food you eat."

This malabsorption can cause the gray or abnormally colored, foul-smelling stools, weight loss, and nutrient deficiencies associated with celiac disease.

Malabsorption also can deprive the brain, nervous system, bones, liver and other organs of nourishment and cause vitamin deficiencies that may lead to other illnesses.

***MayoClinic***