celiac disease

Your choice will be remembered for other online NHS services, such as the NHS App. Coeliac disease is a condition where your immune system attacks your own tissues when you eat gluten. This damages your gut (small intestine) so your body cannot properly take in nutrients. Coeliac disease can cause a range of symptoms, including diarrhoea, abdominal pain and bloating. Children with coeliac disease may not grow at the expected rate and may have delayed puberty . Coeliac disease is an autoimmune condition. This is where the immune system (the body's defence against infection) mistakenly attacks healthy tissue. In coeliac disease, the immune system mistakes substances found inside gluten as a threat to the body and attacks them. This damages the surface of the small bowel (intestines), disrupting the body's ability to take in nutrients from food. It's not entirely clear what causes the immune system to act this way, but a combination of genetics and the environment appear to play a part. There's no cure for coeliac disease, but following a gluten-free diet should help control symptoms and prevent the long-term complications of the condition. Even if you have mild symptoms, changing your diet is still recommended because continuing to eat gluten can lead to serious complications. This may also be the case if tests show that you have some degree of coeliac disease even if you do not have noticeable symptoms. It's important to ensure that your gluten-free diet is healthy and balanced. Complications of coeliac disease only tend to affect people who continue to eat gluten, or those who have not yet been diagnosed with the condition, which can be a common problem in milder cases. Less common and more serious complications include some types of cancers, such as bowel cancer , and problems affecting pregnancy, such as your baby having a low birth weight. But some experts think this may be underestimated because milder cases may go undiagnosed or be misdiagnosed as other digestive conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) . People with certain conditions, including type 1 diabetes , autoimmune thyroid disease, Down's syndrome and Turner syndrome , have an increased risk of getting coeliac disease. First-degree relatives (parents, brothers, sisters and children) of people with coeliac disease are also at increased risk of developing the condition. Testing is usually only recommended for people who have symptoms, or who have an increased risk of developing coeliac disease, such as those with a family history of the condition. Read about diagnosing coeliac disease for more information about when testing for coeliac disease should be done. Its website has useful resources, including information about a gluten-free diet, local groups, volunteering and ongoing campaigns.