What’s Celiac Disease Awareness Day?

Every September 13 we celebrate Celiac Disease Awareness Day! And Happy Birthday, Dr. Gee!

Wait, you don’t know Dr. Gee? And what is celiac disease, anyway? Maybe a little unsure about what gluten is, too? Not to worry. You’re not alone, which might be one reason why Congress decided to dub September 13 National Celiac Awareness Day (S.RES.219). 

It’s the one day a year when celiac disease is on everyone’s minds (well, ok, maybe not everyone’s).

First off, who is this Dr. Gee and what does he have to do with celiac disease? Dr. Samuel Gee’s 1887 lecture, “On the Coeliac Affection,” marked the first published study of what we now recognize as coeliac (celiac) disease.

Largely because symptoms were so varied, patients had languished until Gee’s research.

He is now singularly credited with publishing its first clinical description, as “a kind of chronic indigestion which is met with in persons of all ages.”

However, perhaps Gee’s greatest accomplishment with regard to the study of celiac disease was his recognition of the importance of food, not medicine — a principal we celiacs still live by over 100 years after Gee’s death, and one I would humbly suggest could benefit most everyone to some degree.

For a complete explanation of celiac disease, how to get tested, what symptoms to look for and the healing process, go to my article on celiac disease and celiac testing.

What Is Celiac Disease …

(Also known as celiac sprue, coeliac disease, non-tropical sprue or gluten sensitive enteropathy) is information which you should share with others, as it may help someone you know avoid a lifetime of compromise, fatigue, pain, illness and perhaps even an earlier death.

Celiac is a chronic and permanent sensitivity to the food protein gluten, found in the grains wheat, barley and rye. Developing celiac disease requires three things: a genetic predisposition (meaning you have to have the genes for it); exposure to gluten through digestion (you have to be eating gluten, but most people do it daily); and a trigger that starts the immune system’s injurious response (that’s the part researchers are still trying to understand).

Celiac disease occurs in people of all ages. It is the most common genetic disorder in North America and Europe, and is found in populations all over the world, although more studies are needed, as reporting and testing varies widely by country.

In fact, the latest studies point to the incredible fact that 1 in 70 people has celiac disease, meaning well over 2 million people in the United States have it, but somehow most people remain undiagnosed. Its difficulty to diagnose is due largely to the fact that it causes such varied symptoms, and can masquerade as so many different varied afflictions.

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease, meaning the body attacks itself in an inappropriate immune system reaction.

In this case, the reaction is to exposure to gliadin, a protein of the food molecule gluten, which is found in wheat, barley and rye.

In most all other autoimmune diseases, the catalyst for starting the body’s inappropriate reaction is not yet known. But celiac disease is the only autoimmune disease for which we know the trigger and therefore can stop it: completely eliminate gluten from your diet.

Once on a gluten-free diet, a celiac’s body will begin to heal and put the disease into remission. Diagnosed children recover more quickly than do adults for whom the mean time to symptom relief is four to eight weeks.

Early Diagnosis of Celiac Disease is Important

It’s critical to get properly diagnosed if you have celiac disease, and to get diagnosed early (another reason to share this information with others!). The longer your body suffers with an active autoimmune disease, the more likely you are to also contract or suffer from other maladies like inflammatory bowel diseases and other autoimmune diseases (like rheumatoid arthritis, Lupus, Type 1 Diabetes, multiple sclerosis, Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) including Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis, Addison’s Disease, Graves’ Disease, Sjögren’s syndrome, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and others).

Due to the importance of early diagnosis, Italy has just started a mass screening initiative, requiring all citizens between 1-17 years of age to be screened for both type 1 Diabetes and celiac disease. This policy was implemented after a study showing that only 40% of children with celiac disease were diagnosed, indicating that without a mass screening strategy not based on symptoms or risk factors, 60% of patients with celiac disease remained undetected in Italy.

For a complete explanation of celiac disease, how to get tested, what symptoms to look for and the healing process, go to my article on celiac disease and celiac testing.

For more information on NON-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity, go to my article all about it here.

On Celiac Awareness Day and every day, we can thank Dr. Samuel Gee for first recognizing that the key to healing celiac disease lies in the diet alone. Please share this information with anyone you know who might be suffering unknowingly from celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity.
You could be just the messenger they need.

And if this puts you in the mood for birthday cake, I happen to have a delicious gluten-free cake recipe perfect for the occasion!

Celiac NEWS!

This Celiac Awareness Day, please take 3 minutes to contact your Congressional representatives and let them know that passage of the ADINA Act is important!

ADINA: Allergen Disclosure In Non-Food Articles Act is a proposed amendment to the current Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act and will require all over-the-counter and prescription medications indicate on their labeling (or company website) in full transparency whether the medication contains any of the top allergens, gluten or a gluten derivative. 

Sample Scripts to use

Petition to Sign