Baldwin County Residents Learn If Celiac Disease Can Become Crohn’s if Left Untreated?

Celiac and Crohn’s Disease are two diseases that affect your gut and are often mistaken for each other. Many people with Celiac Disease have mild symptoms but they can experience significant consequences if they leave it untreated. Crohn’s and Celiac Disease are two diseases that can cause many gut related issues. If you’re having any issues with your gut health, or think you have Crohn’s or Celiac symptoms, then The Gut Authority can help you determine what’s going on.

What Is Celiac Disease?

Celiac Disease is a genetic disorder, which becomes an autoimmune disease over time, through repeated exposure to gluten. Individuals who have this genetic variant experience damage to their cells each time they are exposed to gluten. If you have the genes that predispose you to Celiac Disease, when you consume gluten, your body sees the gluten as a foreign substance and sends out “fighter cells” to attack the invader. However, over time these “fighter cells” can end up attacking and damaging the small pockets in your intestine called villi. This can be when Celiac flare up symptoms tend to start.

When these villi have become too damaged, your body cannot absorb nutrients from the foods you eat. When your body can’t absorb the nutrients it needs, you may experience a variety of symptoms such as diarrhea, gas, fatigue, constipation, and weight loss. Celiac Disease symptoms in females can slightly differ as well, simply due to biological differences between men and women. In order to diagnose you with something like Celiac Disease, medical doctors may first perform a blood test. If that is positive, then they will attempt to confirm their diagnosis by performing a biopsy of your small intestine walls and looking for damaged villi.

What Is Crohn’s Disease?

Celiac and Crohn’s are genetically similar and have nearly the same symptoms. Often, people mistake one disease for the other. Some people even wonder, “Can Celiac turn into Chron’s?”. Crohn’s Disease is an inflammatory bowel disease which means that people can experience inflammation and pain anywhere along the digestive tract.

The disease also causes sores to develop along the walls of the digestive tract. Whereas gluten triggers an immune system attack that can lead to Celiac Disease, Crohn’s Disease flare-ups can be triggered by a variety of irritants. Some people with the disease may seem to tolerate gluten but have to avoid other foods such as dairy and spicy foods to avoid flare-ups. 

How These Diseases are Different

Even though Celiac Disease and Crohn’s Disease share a lot of the same characteristics, they are different in many ways. For example, Crohn’s Disease is also an autoimmune condition, but its symptoms may appear to be much harder to control than the symptoms of Celiac disease. People with Celiac disease can often live a normal, symptom-free life if they avoid gluten.

However, Crohn’s Disease symptoms can often be triggered by foods that were previously tolerated. Sores can become infected and medical treatment of people with advanced Crohn’s disease can involve the removal of parts of their intestines While the damage from Celiac disease is generally limited to the intestines, Crohn’s disease can trigger inflammation in other parts of your body such as the eyes. 

What Happens If Celiac Disease Goes Untreated?

Having one of these conditions doesn’t mean you’ll get the other one. However, you are at an increased risk of developing Crohn’s disease if you have Celiac disease. Also, if you continue to eat gluten and don’t treat your Celiac Disease then you can develop bigger problems such as:

• Greater risk for developing other autoimmune disorders such as type I diabetes and multiple sclerosis
• Development of anemia
• Problems with red, itchy skin rashes
• Increased risk of osteoporosis, infertility, and miscarriage
• Development of certain neurological conditions such as migraines and even epilepsy

There’s also an increased risk of developing cancers, especially in the intestines. 

Call The Gut Authority Today

The Gut Authority wants to see you living the healthiest life you can, even if you have either of these diseases. Our team can come up with a plan and help you make dietary and lifestyle changes to better manage your symptoms and support your body’s natural healing ability. We want to see you thriving and living a full life! Call us now so we can help you out.