Ever wondered why celiac disease is often misunderstood and misdiagnosed? In today's discussion, I'm sharing about this often misdiagnosed condition, revealing the top 10 symptoms that led to the diagnosis of over 700 celiac patients over a 14-year-long study. Not your typical list, I take you through the unexpected symptoms like osteopenia and osteoporosis, anemia, gastroesophageal reflux disease, and even recurrent miscarriages. A perfect reminder of the importance of not just recognizing but understanding these non-classical symptoms, as it's crucial for proper diagnosis and treatment.
I am also emphasizing the significant role of medical professionals in recognizing this wide range to facilitate accurate diagnosis and effective treatment. But this isn't just for the healthcare providers. It's a call to everyone to spread the word about celiac disease, to share experiences and knowledge to spread awareness. After all, knowing the signs could be the key to ensuring your loved ones get the care they need. So, come along and be part of this eye-opening conversation about celiac disease, its uncommon symptoms, and how increased awareness can change lives.
And I would love to connect with you on Instagram thehealthyceliac
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Music Credit bensound.com
Belinda Whelan:
So most of us with celiac disease know that there's a whole list of symptoms that are quite common or well known to those of us with celiac disease. But the thing is a study that was done over a period of 14 years by a team of researchers at a hospital. They researched over 700 people with celiac disease that presented at the hospital and what they found was this list of top 10 complaints that these patients were sharing with them, and a lot of them weren't those common symptoms that we know of. Some of them are, certainly, but a lot of them weren't as prevalent as the ones that you know most of us have heard about. So I wanted to share those with you today, and it's mostly about awareness, because the thing is people present to the hospital or their doctor with certain symptoms and they tend to get brushed off or misdiagnosed. So I guess today's episode is another one that's about awareness, and when you talk to people, when you hear people's stories, you might be able to help them and think a little bit outside the box when it comes to directing them to go and get a celiac disease diagnosis or test, rather. So, yeah, I thought it would be interesting to share these top 10 complaints that these researchers found from the celiac disease patient. So out of these symptoms, two thirds of them were actually non-classic symptoms and the first one being osteopenia and osteoporosis. So over 50% of these patients actually presented with this as a symptom. So whether it was the start of osteoporosis or the full-blown osteoporosis, so the main thing with that, I guess, is where I always say to people that it's important to continue to get bone mineral density testing done after your diagnosis. So it might not need to be a yearly thing, but ongoing. Your doctor should be able to work with you with that. So if you never initially had a bone mineral density test, it is definitely worth getting done just to check the condition of your bones and just see if it's something that you you know you need to monitor and keep an eye on. So I thought that was a really interesting one that that was quite prevalent in those patients that did present at this hospital.
Belinda Whelan:
All right, number two is anemia. So it's really interesting because so many people that reach out to me especially since I shared my recent story on having an iron deficiency myself so many people have reached out to me and shared that that is how they got their celiac disease diagnosis. So they had no other symptoms. But when they had a blood test done and they were found to be anemic, then their medical team went on and discovered that they in fact did have celiac disease. So of these 770 patients I believe it was 34% of those people had anemia. So it is rather common and, again, it's one of those things that it's great that medical professionals are looking deeper into. They're not just, you know, putting a bandaid on it and saying you need to increase your iron intake. They are looking deeper and looking at what has caused that anemia. So that's why a lot of people do get a celiac diagnosis after presenting with anemia, which is really interesting.
Belinda Whelan:
Now the next two. You know I've talked about these in the past. So one is constipation and the other one is diarrhea. We do know that diarrhea is quite a common symptom of celiac disease, so it's no surprise that that is in the list. So 27% of people presented with that, whereas 13% with constipation, and from the people that I work with, I do see that diarrhea is much more prevalent than constipation. But then there were people that talked about having so altering bowel movements or bowel habits, and they shared that. You know it changes, so it goes from one to the other and when I look at that, you know you can see that it is to do with people's diet and you know one day they might be eating more or less of something and it can completely change. It can also be affected by you know the stress of you know what's going on with their body, so that's a really interesting one to think about. So when people when people do say that they've got diarrhea, you know that just goes hand in hand with celiac disease for so many people. But when it's offering and it changes from one to the next, that is a very prevalent symptom as well, which is an interesting one.
Belinda Whelan:
And the next one is something that I suffered with majorly before my diagnosis and that was cankosaurs, or what we call here in Australia as mouth ulcers, and that was quite prevalent as well with people. And you know, once you do go on a gluten-free diet, it tends to clear up for me in the early days if I was accidentally getting glutened or there was a tiny bit of gluten somehow sneaking into my diet, I would be able to pinpoint it by getting mouth ulcers. That was one of the things that would give it away for me as well, when it was just a little bit of gluten sneaking in. So it's something to you know, keep an eye on as well for your own health if that's something that you have suffered with but, yeah, so many people just put it down to other things, such as stress and poor diet but yeah, it is very closely related to celiac disease, so that's an interesting one as well. All right, so the next one is gastroesophical reflux disease, and this was found in 12 percent of people. So, yeah, that's quite a quite a common one. I guess when we look at that as well, that's quite a high number.
Belinda Whelan:
And the next one I've talked about before as well is recurrent miscarriages like this is. This is sad that you know it's got to this point for many people, but to get a celiac disease diagnosis based on that and this is where I am so big on on talking to people around you and sharing your knowledge and sharing what you learn from this show, because you just have no idea who you could be helping. It might not be the person you're talking to. It might be their neighbour, it might be someone that they go and speak to and imagine if you've made that small difference in helping that family, you know, grow and have a baby. So I think that's something that needs to be talked about much more and I hope that you know you can share your message with people through through what you learn on this podcast as well.
Belinda Whelan:
And the last one is liver disorders.
Belinda Whelan:
So many people did present with a liver disorder of some form and again related to celiac disease. So, yeah, it's interesting that some of these issues aren't your typical. You know brain fog and fatigue and tiredness and all of these things. I don't know if I mentioned bloating sorry, bloating was the other one that was quite prevalent as well, so 20% of people said bloating was a big one for them as well that they presented with. So, yeah, it's very interesting that there's quite a vast list and they're not the common ones that we think about.
Belinda Whelan:
So I hope this has shed some light on these for you and, yeah, I hope it can just help someone that you know that may be. You know suffering in silence or suffering and not being able to get a diagnosis or not even having the thought to even be checked for celiac disease, and you know, because there are hundreds and hundreds of symptoms that are related to celiac disease. That's why I think it's important for the medical professionals to know more about celiac disease and to know more about these symptoms so that they can check more people for this disease and help them get on their path to wellness by eating a gluten-free diet and changing the trajectory of their health for the future. So I hope that helps someone who's listening today by you sharing it with them and and sharing a story or two with the people that you know and getting the word out there. So thanks for tuning in and I look forward to talking with you again very, very soon. Have a great week, take care. Bye.