Knowing The Celiac Disease Symptons
The symptoms of celiac disease vary depending on the patient's condition. There are no typical symptoms for CD unlike other diseases. The major factors that determine the type and severity of the disease are mostly the amount of damage done to the intestine and the length of time that there has been an abnormality on the nutrient absorption. Surprisingly, some people with celiac disease have not reported any symptoms at all.
Dr. C. Robert Dahl, MD, stated during the CSA Annual Conference that of 100 patients with CD, a little more than 10 percent present has classical obvious symptoms of mal-absorption such as diarrhea, weight loss, and nutritional deficiencies, around 10 percent are incorrectly and inappropriately diagnosed for a period of time, and in some cases, 40 percent present are manifested in an unusual manner, which leads to long delays in diagnosis. About 33 percent of celiac disease patients are also suffering from silent disease and around 7 percent have latent CD but may develop into an acute celiac disease.
The type of symptoms, the length of presence, and frequency of occurrence vary from person to person. Some of the symptoms felt by the person with celiac disease are cramping or bloating of the abdominals, abdominal distention, acidosis, increased food cravings, collapse of the lumbar vertebrae that would result to back pain, constipation, decreased clotting ability of the blood, diarrhea, dehydration, edema, depletion of electrolytes, loss of energy, feeling of fatigue, pain in the feet due to reduction of fat padding, flatulence, sores and cracks in the corners of the mouth, hands and legs experience muscle cramps, blindness at night, very dry skin, abnormal tool excretion (e.g. loose, abnormal size, foul smell, discoloration, highly rancid), abnormal tongue appearance, defects in the tooth enamel, feeling of weakness, and loss of weight.
The patient's emotional state is also affected by celiac disease. Just like the physical symptoms, emotional symptoms also vary from person to person. The emotional inconsistencies and frequency of occurrence should be taken into consideration. These are symptoms like feeling of depression, lack of interest in doing normal activities, irritability, frequent mood changes, and inability to concentrate.
There are also other conditions that you should look out for which could result to other diseases and affect other organs due to the celiac disease. These are symptoms like amenorrhea, iron deficiency resulting to anemia, development of bone disease, and hyperthyroidism.
As mentioned, the disease could trigger at any age. So you should also look out for symptoms in children upon diagnosis of celiac disease. Again, symptoms could also vary even in children. Some may experience all, some or even none at all. Some of the symptoms in children that you should look out for are slow physiological development (e.g. height or weight loss), growth failure, diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal bloating for children under 3 years old. Finally, for older children, there is an attitude of crankiness, difficulty in concentrating, irritability, poor memory, and changes in personality.