Celiac Disease: May is Celiac Awareness Month, and some people are surprised when they discover that some of the symptoms they’ve been experiencing are actually due to celiac disease.
Older adults in particular may be shocked when they find out that some symptoms they’ve been just coping with have an actual cause.
What Is Celiac Disease?
Celiac disease is an autoimmune condition. That means that your senior’s body is overreacting to specific situations. In this case, the small intestine is the area affected by an allergic response to gluten. The small intestine is the part of the intestinal tract that begins digesting food, helping to break it down and mix the food with enzymes and bile that enable the body to absorb nutrients. If the small intestine is damaged, then it’s not able to perform these functions as well, which can lead to a variety of issues.
Celiac Disease and Your Senior
Plenty of people are not aware that they have celiac disease. Even more develop it later in life, even if they didn’t have issues previously. It’s important that if your elderly family member starts to experience even a few of the symptoms of celiac disease that she talks to her doctor so that she can start treating the condition and hopefully minimize discomfort and damage to her intestines.
What Are the Symptoms?
There are a variety of symptoms of celiac disease, and many of them are digestive symptoms. Abdominal pain, bloating, and fatigue are extremely common. Your senior may also lose weight, experience nausea, vomiting, and more. But as common as the digestive symptoms are, many people have celiac disease and don’t experience any digestive symptoms. Your senior may experience anemia, bone loss or softening, or even skin rashes. These are related to being unable to absorb the nutrients that she needs from her food.
Making Headway with Celiac Disease
Malnutrition, bone weakening, and problems with her nervous system are just a few of the long-term effects of celiac disease that your senior could experience. The most helpful treatment is typically to eliminate gluten from her diet entirely. This can be difficult at first, mainly because some of her favorite foods may now be “off-limits.” Gluten-free eating can be a lot easier with a plan, and with help from an experienced person, like home care providers working with a menu that works for your senior.
Coping with celiac disease doesn’t have to feel overwhelming for your senior. As she starts to experience relief from her symptoms, she may find that it’s a lot easier to stick to her new way of eating.
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Today we are the oldest and most experienced private duty agency in San Diego County.She saw a need for quality private duty home health care and she worked diligently to build an agency that filled that need.I am proud to say, her vision is carried on today with our dedicated staff.
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