About Coeliac disease (and what it's like to live with)

Woohoo! It's finally the summer holidays - even if the weather doesn't show it. Since it's the summer and I don't have college for 6 weeks, I've become a bit obsessed with Coeliac disease and researching it in detail to see what it really is that I'm suffering from as well as mulling over my thoughts and feelings about the whole thing.

I was diagnosed with coeliac disease when I was about 2 years old. I've made a few mistakes with the food I've eaten (not deliberately which is a sort of nice thought) and learnt just how cautious Coeliacs have to be when it comes to a life-long gluten free diet.

So here's a description of Coeliac disease and what it's like to suffer from it: (I did know some of this, but a lot of it I didn't know or realise. Also, facts etc are from research - if anything isn't completely right then it's an accident so please let me know and I'll make any edits needed.)

- Coeliac disease is an autoimmune disease. When a sufferer eats gluten, the gut basically attacks itself. This leads to little hair like structures called villi being damaged. They are flattened and so cannot absorb the goodness from food as they should. If this continues, it will lead to the person being malnourished (which we all know is pretty bad..)

Image from http://www.bupa.co.uk/health-information/directory/c/coeliac-disease

- You can have coeliac disease with no symptoms. This would mean that your gut is being damaged without you knowing which is very bad news. some people also have symptoms which they don't notice as they are very mild, or don't realised their symptoms are due to coeliac disease - the symptoms are very similar to IBS and so it can be tricky knowing what the cause is.

- Some people with Coeliac disease think that it's okay to eat small amounts of gluten (such as bread being cut up on the same chopping board as non-gluten free bread). I'll admit I thought I was okay with it too simply because I didn't have any reaction to similar circumstances. However, this simply isn't true. No matter how much gluten you have, or what it's in, it's going to damage your gut, which can take a long time to heal properly. If you keep eating like this, your gut will be unable to heal, leading to the symptoms of coeliac disease reoccurring and being malnourished. You need to stick to a very strict gluten free diet - even a crum can do damage. It's so hard to do, but it's worth it as eating gluten as a coeliac can affect your fertility and long term health - apparently it can even cause bowel cancer!

- I read somewhere that giving someone with coeliac disease gluten is as bad, if not worse, than giving someone food poisoning! Understandable if you understand what happens when a coeliac eats gluten - it's not an allergy and it doesn't simply cause a stomach ache.

- It's really hard to eat out when you have coeliac disease - it's hard to trust someone else to cook your food when you need to cooked separate from anything with gluten and for it to not contain any traces of gluten at all. Even when a chef says they know about cooking gluten free, it's hard to believe they do considering some of the experiences I've had and that people I know have had. As annoying as it can be, you have to keep asking the same person the same questions and telling them the same things over and over - and even then some people don't seem to understand. 

Thought this was quite funny, as well as true. https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/d5/63/a1/d563a15219be8afb04832e55ad2589eb.jpg

- It's hard to be a coeliac in a world full of people trying gluten free diets to lose weight or get healthier. People don't take us seriously and think we're just over reacting, which can lead to us getting ill. 

- when a coeliac reacts to gluten, there can be a range of symptoms. If I eat a reasonable amount of gluten, I'm immediately sick - one night I was up for about 3 hours and was sick 5 times just because of some rice which had a few bits of pasta in. Other peoples reactions can last for weeks and can include headaches, swollen fingers, short temper, hot flashes, an upset stomach and fatigue. 

- There's no real 'cure' for coeliac disease. the only thing you can do is stick to a gluten free diet for the rest of your life. I've heard of people creating injections and medication which will apparently make us able to eat gluten, but I'm not sure how I fell about these or if they will even work well. It's a tough, life-long battle which we have to face. 

I hope that this post will help to raise awareness of coeliac disease. I really want to make it more known about - not just that it exists, but what it really is, what it does, and how to deal with it. It's a very real condition and about 1 in 100 people suffer from it. it's not something that you can make mistakes with as it can ruin a life. If we work together, we can do it.