Assignment 2: Celiac Disease

Essay Question 2: Celiac Disease Celiac disease is an immune disorder in which people can’t stand gluten because it harms the inner lining of their small intestine and stops it from absorbing nutrients. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley and occasionally in some products such as vitamins, nutrient supplements, lip balms, and even some medications. When people with celiac disease eat foods containing gluten, their immune system acts by damaging or destroying villi which are the tiny fingerlike protrusions in the inner lining of the small intestine. The villi absorb nutrients from food and absorb the nutrients through the walls of the small intestine and then are passed on into the bloodstream. No matter how much food people with Celiac Disease eat, without healthy villi those people will become malnourished because you can’t absorb the nutrients necessary to survive. …show more content…
While there is no cure for Celiac Disease most people see an amazing difference in their lives when they switch to a gluten free diet. Health care providers will usually tell people with the disease to see a dietitian who specializes in treating people that have Celiac’s. The dietitian will tell them to avoid gluten while keeping a healthy and nutrition filled diet. The dietitian will also teach them how to read food and product labels, identify ingredients that contain gluten, make healthy choices about the types of foods to eat, and design everyday meal plans. For most, committing to a gluten-free diet will halt symptoms, heal some of the intestinal damage, and prevent any further damage from happening. Symptoms have the potential improve within days to weeks of starting the gluten free diet. Complete healing of the small intestine can take several years in adults. Once the intestine heals, the villi will go back to absorbing the nutrients from food into the bloodstream as it once