Johns Hopkins Health Alert
Celiac Disease: A Concern Even Later in Life
For years, celiac disease -- an autoimmune disorder marked by sensitivity to gluten, a protein in wheat and some other grains -- was thought to be primarily a childhood ailment. Now doctors are finding that celiac disease can even appear for the first time in older adults.
If you are at risk for celiac disease or suspect you might have it, getting a proper diagnosis is vital. If not managed, celiac can have a significant impact on your overall health. Celiac can interfere with the absorption of nutrients from food and prevent you from fully utilizing your intake of iron, calcium, vitamin D, vitamin B12, and other nutrients crucial for a wide range of benefits, from bone growth to healthy cognitive function.
If not treated, celiac disease can cause a number of problems related to these nutritional deficits, including anemia, osteopenia (thinning of the bones), neuropathy (nerve disorder causing pain, numbness, and tingling in extremities), and chronic fatigue.
The Signs of Celiac. The classic symptoms of celiac disease are diarrhea, indigestion, abdominal pain, bloating, and weight loss. But sometimes the symptoms are not obvious. “Celiac disease can vary tremendously in severity,” says H. Franklin Herlong, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine and Digestive Disease at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and Health After 50 Board Member “People can go for years without it being diagnosed.” A study published in Digestive and Liver Disease found that among more than 2,000 adults ages 52–74, 2% of participants were diagnosed with celiac disease -- a much higher number, on average, than previously stated for adults. Most of the subjects had mild to no symptoms.
A lack of clear symptoms may not be the only reason diagnosis can be delayed. Some researchers theorize that the microbes living in the digestive tract can change as people grow older, which may influence the genes that are active and, in turn, cause a person to become gluten sensitive. In a recent study published in BMC Gastroenterology, researchers tested nearly 3,000 older adults for celiac disease and tested them again five years later. They found five new cases among people who had first tested negative; only two had symptoms.
Fortunately, older people who have gone undiagnosed for years usually have a milder form of celiac, with less damage to the small intestine, than people who develop symptoms when they are young.
Posted in Digestive Health on May 3, 2010
Reviewed January 2011
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The last I heard, celiac disease can be easily diagnosed with a simple blood test. If this is the case, it would appear that the identifying or at least ruling out the disease would be simple for those 'suffering' with symptoms.
Posted by: MedAlert | May 3, 2010 8:26 AM