Inflammation is a vital part of a healthy immune response. That said, when their is chronic inflammation the result is tissue damage.
An immune reaction to eating gluten is not an autoimmune disorder. The Body’s immune system is not attacking your healthy intestinal cells, it’s attacking the gluten protein.
An immune reaction to gluten is an inflammatory illness (triggered by gluten) that results in damage to a person’s duodenum – the upper part of your small intestine. Your duodenum is the first part of the small intestine to receive partially digested food (chyme) from your stomach.
Our first line of defense in maintaining good health is our digestive system. Our immune system – via gluten – unintentionally destroys this defense. It does so by damaging our villi – tiny hair like projections lining the wall of the duodenum.
It is through our villi that we absorb the nutrients from the food we digest. Our immune system will launch an attack on any gluten being absorbed through the villi.
An immune response to gluten causes the inner surface of the duodenum to become inflamed and swell. This in turn, causes the villi to either fall off or lay flat.
Our duodenum was never the intended target of our immune system. Thus, the unintended damage described above can be viewed as collateral damage. The collateral damage is the result of inflammation.
Inflammation (via gluten) also produces an outward appearance of a bloated stomach. But thankfully, say it loud and be proud, the human body is amazingly resilient – believe it. Villi damaged or destroyed will regenerate in a few days once gluten is completely eliminated from your diet.
Please know this, a digestive disturbances associated with an immune reaction to gluten may result in malabsorption. Children suffering from malabsorption (aka poor nutrient absorption), are more likely to experience stunted growth and be underweight. Malabsorption is an illness that can be physically and mentally disabling, even life threatening.
If left untreated (gluten-free diet), acute malnutrition may develop as a result of malabsorption of nutrients. A constant supply of macro and micro nutrients are needed for children to develop normally and for adults to stay healthy.
Celiac – a term that refers to an area of the body where your duodenum is located – hence the name Celiac disease. But it’s not a disease; simply put, it’s an illness that should be called duodenitis.
The term disease broadly refers to any condition that impairs the normal functioning of the body. Doctors can diagnose and treat disease that cause patient suffering. But, doctors can not prescribe medication to treat disease without a proper diagnosis.
Medication without a proper diagnosis could be harmful to the patient’s health and also be considered medical malpractice. So if disease wasn’t a broad term, there would be constraints on what doctors could label as a disease. In that event, and most importantly – their would have to be regulations in place for the use of prescription medications as a treatment.
If the above were the case, the Life Science Industry would suffer a financially induced lethal heart attack and stroke precisely at the same time. Their multi-trillion global health care market that exist at our expense would shrink into the billions. This is why disease is and will remain a broad term.