Treating Celiac Disease: An Autoimmune Disease With Many Faces - Part 2
Welcome to the second of a two part post created to inform you about Celiac disease. In the first post, I talked about celiac disease, the symptoms and how it is associated with other autoimmune diseases. In this post I will talk about the ways it is diagnosed, and successful naturopathic treatments to heal the body and alleviate the symptoms. So let’s get started.
One of the major challenges with celiac disease is getting the correct diagnosis. Since the symptoms can involve so many parts of the body it goes misdiagnosed so often. As a result of the misdiagnosis, many people can live with symptoms for years before it is identified.
A good first step is to have blood test run to check for antibodies in the blood. Antibodies are produced by the immune system to protect the body against things that cause damage to the body. I generally start with anti-alpha-gliadin antibodies (AGA). I have a colleague that may run anti-tissue transglutaminase antibodies (tTGA), or anti-endomysium antibodies (EMA).
These antibodies are higher in patients that have celiac disease and with high levels, it is appropriate to start treatment for celiac.
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My sister-in-law suffers from Celiac Disease and had a terrible time dealing with it. She gained an extraordinary amount of weight early on while her body was traumatized and became depressed about her condition. Now that she has learned to adjust her eating regimen and become more physically active, she says she is doing better and has shed a little of the weight.
One of my son's school mates has Celiac and his mom was constantly on the search for proper foods that he could eat. 20 or so years ago, we didn't have the abundance of gluten-free products available, and only a couple of health food stores where one could find spelt flour, millet, and other suitable grains to use for baked goods.
It's a tough situation, but, as your article suggests, it's manageable.