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Gabrielle Russell

Professor Freeland

English 1201

16 Mar 2022

Literature Review

Have you ever wondered why some people have to eat gluten free? Having celiac disease

can be a main reason for eating this way, but there are also many other reasons to eat gluten free.

Celiac disease can be developed over time, or it can be a disease people are born with. There are

also many effects to people's lives that have celiac disease. This disease can cause many

disruptions and changes to a person's eating habits because gluten is included in a lot of everyday

food choices, which many people do not realize. I am curious; how is celiac disease developed

and what are the effects of celiac disease?

The diagnosis of celiac disease has strongly developed overtime. Many people who were

asymptomatic went their whole life without knowing they had celiac disease. People were

unaware of the symptoms of celiac disease, therefore many people thought they had

gastrointestinal systems. Now with the new electronic improvements, people are getting

diagnosed with celiac disease at a very young age. As stated by Melissa Pedretti, the author of

“Is the Clinical Pattern of Pediatric Celiac Disease Changing? A Thirty-Years Real-Life

Experience of an Italian Center”, “This may be explained by the expanding implementation of

routinary screening programs in asymptomatic patients and the increasing awareness about

atypical signs and symptoms of CD or Eis, mainly in older patients” (par. 27). This shows how

the numbers of celiac disease patients has continued to increase overtime due to technology

advancing and more people getting screened for the disease regularly. Overall, celiac disease
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used to very rarely be diagnosed to people until technology advanced greatly. This article by

Melissa Pedretti is written to inform people of the side effects of celiac disease as well as the

testing availability to children and people wanting frequent tests.

Throughout the articles, there were many main points brought up. As stated by Bethany

Montoya, the author of “Celiac Disease: The Truth About Gluten”, “Celiac disease is an

autoimmune condition caused by the small intestine’s sensitivity to gluten, a type of protein

primarily found in foods containing wheat, rye, and barely.” This article by Bethany Montoya

was written to share a person's experience with being diagnosed with celiac disease and adjusting

their life to stay healthy and avoid stomach pains and other symptoms. Another main point was

many people who develop celiac disease are born with it, but they either develop symptoms later

in life or are tested at a young age. Also, the effects of celiac disease include an upset stomach,

throwing up, diarrhea, delaying tooth development, and many other symptoms that vary from

person to person. The last main point is celiac disease causes people to eat a gluten free diet

which can be very challenging to many people.

To begin, celiac disease is a condition in which the small intestines react badly towards

gluten consumption in many people. As stated by Marlisa Brown, the author of “Celiac Disease

and Gluten Sensitivity”, “When people who have celiac disease consume gluten, their immune

system responds by damaging the fingerlike villi in the small intestine, preventing them from

absorbing vital nutrients such as iron, folate, calcium, and vitamin D” (par. 5). This demonstrates

the process in which gluten affects a human’s immune system. A person with celiac disease has a

bad reaction in their immune system to the gluten they consume. The article written by Marlisa

Brown is written to further inform people of the details of celiac disease.

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To continue, celiac disease can be developed overtime or born with the disease. Many

people are born with the disease, but can be asymptomatic for a long period of time. As stated by

Melissa Pedretti, “Different infant feeding practices could influence the age at diagnosis and

clinical CD presentation” (par. 27). This further discusses how kids can gain symptoms of celiac

disease. Furthermore, when gluten is introduced to children at a very young age, they gain

symptoms of celiac disease faster in their life. Whereas children who have a delayed introduction

to gluten also have a delayed diagnosis of celiac disease.

Another main point of the articles are the effects celiac disease has on people. The

symptoms and effects of celiac disease can vary from person to person. As stated by Marlisa

Brown, “Jessica, 52, suffered from bloating, gas, diarrhea, and other gastrointestinal (GI)

problems” (par 1). As stated by Josh Baez, the author of “My Life With… Celiac Disease”,

“When I was 8 years old, I'd wake up with a stomach ache almost every morning” (par. 2). These

are two different people, both having celiac disease, having similar but not the same symptoms.

Also stated by Bethany Montoya, “Primary symptoms include diarrhea and/or constipation,

abdominal pain, bloating, fatigue, and weight loss. Aside from gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, a

person can experience malabsorption of vital nutrients, headaches, iron-deficiency anemia, skin

issues, osteoporosis or osteomalacia, joint pain, and neurological dysfunction” (par. 5). This lists

all of the possible symptoms to come with having celiac disease. The many different symptoms

is why every person has a different story of how they found out their diagnosis of celiac disease.

The article by Josh Baez is a story of his own life to share his first hand experiences with celiac

disease and help inform people of the many things to watch out for if there's any thought of

having celiac disease.

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The last main point is that celiac disease causes people to adjust their diet, so they are

eating a strict gluten free diet. This can be challenging to many people because gluten is almost

every food and many people do not realize this. As stated by Josh Baez, “That means not eating

any food that has wheat, rye, barely, malt, or some oats. In other words, no bread, pasta, cake, or

cookies. Once you start looking for gluten, you realize it’s in so many foods we eat everyday”

(par. 6). This demonstrates the strict diet celiac disease patients have to follow in order to stay

healthy and get rid of the terribly painful symptoms.

In conclusion, celiac disease is developed at birth, but many people are not diagnosed

until later in life. Most people are asymptomatic for a long period of time, until stomach aches

and other symptoms cause pain to them. Also there are many effects to having celiac disease.

Some effects can be symptoms of eating gluten which is; a stomach ache, vomiting, constipation,

or even skin issues. Along with those physical effects, becoming a celiac disease patient means

eating a gluten free diet. This diet can be extremely hard for many people because most foods

eaten on a daily basis contain gluten. Overall, celiac disease causes a large change in many

people's lives.
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Work Cited

BAEZ, JOSH, and JESSICA BLATT PRESS. “My Life With ... Celiac Disease.”

Scholastic Choices, vol. 37, no. 6, Mar. 2022, pp. 10–13. EBSCOhost,

https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=f5h&AN=155336447&site=eds-live.

Brown, Marlisa. “Celiac Disease and Gluten Sensitivity.” Today’s Dietitian, vol. 15, no. 4, Apr.

2013, pp. 12–17. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=ccm&AN=104271818&site=eds-live.

Melissa Pedretti, et al. “Is the Clinical Pattern of Pediatric Celiac Disease Changing? A

Thirty-Years Real-Life Experience of an Italian Center.” Italian Journal of Pediatrics,

vol. 47, no. 1, Dec. 2021, pp. 1–7. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1186/s13052-021-

01183-5.

MONTOYA, BETHANY. “PATIENT CARE. CELIAC DISEASE: The Truth about Gluten.”

RDH, vol. 42, no. 2, Feb. 2022, pp. 26–29. EBSCOhost,

https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=ccm&AN=155145824&site=eds-live.
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Ralbovsky, Nicole M., and Igor K. Lednev. “Analysis of Individual Red Blood Cells for Celiac

Disease Diagnosis.” Talanta, vol. 221, Jan. 2021. EBSCOhost,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.talanta.2020.121642.