Hey guys you're probably here because you want to know all about celiac disease what is celiac
disease and what are the things that you can do that can help with celiac disease well i'm going
to answer that question along with many other different questions in this week's responding
to your comments where we look at fun questions we look at science-based questions but most
importantly we always look at the evidence harry harry could you do a video on celiac
disease please thank you harry harry thank you for your comment this is from the acid reflux
video that we did a while ago and of course i can do a video on this topic i'm going to give you as
much information as i possibly can so what we're waiting for let's begin so for every 100 people
one person has celiac disease so that's one percent so if you look at it worldwide that
could equate to about 80 million people which is quite a large number so the next question is
what is celiac disease now i'm going to try and make this as simple as possible so celiac disease
is where your immune system is triggered not by a germ like bacteria or a virus or anything like
that instead it's triggered by a protein which we call gluten so then your immune system produces
antibodies against the gliadin aspect of gluten now these antibodies cause inflammation they
cause swelling of your intestine which produces all the symptoms that are associated with celiac
disease now that's very basic and celiac disease is basically what we call an autoimmune disease
where your own body your own immune system is attacking your own body now this inflammation this
swelling actually flattens your villi villi are in your intestine there's loads of them they're like
finger-like structures to help increase the absorption of nutrients into your body so
by flattening them they basically don't work well or they don't work as efficiently as they
do when they're upright and they can lead to many different problems which going to talk about later
so as we mentioned earlier celiac disease is an autoimmune disease these are actually a genetic
disease so if someone has it in your family you're more likely to get it and because it's
an autoimmune disease because it's genetic we currently have no cure for it now the good news
is that not all celiac disease are the same so for example you could test positive for celiac disease
you could test positive for the antibody but you could also have healthy villi however if you do
get tested positive foresee that disease you will have to eat gluten-free foods for the rest of your
life to stay healthy so the next question is what are the symptoms of celiac disease now we're going
to look at them in a second but it's important to remember if you have any of these kinds of
symptoms you need to speak to a healthcare professional as soon as possible so they can
check you out and if you do come out with celiac disease if you're diagnosed with it the sooner
you can get that checked out and that diagnosis made the better because you can then make changes
and adjustments to your lifestyle to hopefully prevent any long-term health problems that is
the most important thing so the main symptoms of celiac disease the first ones are gut problems
such as bloating constipation diarrhea wind and nausea these could all be signs of inflammation
caused by the celiac disease the second thing that you can look out for is tiredness
anemia and constant mouth ulcers all of these can be caused by a reduction of your nutrients that
you're absorbing such as iron such as b vitamins such as vitamin d remember the villi that we spoke
about earlier that inflammation is going to affect how many nutrients we can absorb and the last
thing i want you to look out for is any unexpected weight loss so this is when you're losing weight
without you actually trying you might feel that your clothes feel looser your trousers feel looser
and also a loss of appetite all of these kinds of symptoms are what we call red flags for you
to speak to your healthcare professional you need to get in touch with your healthcare professional
as soon as possible if you have any of these kinds of symptoms that we spoke about because
they can then investigate to see what's going on i am going to leave a full list of them
in the description below as well and also remember these kinds of symptoms of the gut they don't just
happen in celiac disease there can be many other conditions that have these kinds of symptoms as
well that affect the gut or effect elsewhere in the body so remember any of these symptoms please
make an appointment as soon as possible to speak to your healthcare professional that is the most
important thing and one last thing before we move on to those tips to help with see that disease
please remember if you have any of these kinds of symptoms that we've just spoke about do not
make a self-diagnosis that you think it might be celiac disease you need to speak to a healthcare
professional but the reason i'm saying don't make that self-diagnosis and don't start eliminating
gluten from your diet is that what your healthcare professional is going to do is they're going to
do a blood test and that blood test is going to check for those antibodies that we spoke about
right at the start about how gluten and the immune system response causes the antibodies okay
and if you're going to reduce your gluten intake or stop gluten those antibodies aren't going to
be produced so what's going to happen they're going to do a blood test and it's going to be
a false negative so what's going to happen what that means is that because you stopped having that
gluten the antibodies aren't going to be raised so it's going to look like you're fine you don't have
to that disease so please please please speak to your healthcare professional first before making
any changes now if you haven't your healthcare professional and have told you that you need to
stop your gluten or being diagnosed would see that disease then the next steps the next tips
that i'm going to go through are for you so step number one probably the easiest of all the steps
get rid of any food in your household that contains gluten this includes things like
wheat rye and barley some celiacs are sensitive to oats too now when i say get rid i don't mean throw
them in a bin donate them to a food bank or give them to a friend or a family member don't throw
them in the bin that's not nice step number two research the foods that you can eat remember right
at the start of the video i said there's probably about 80 million people will see that disease
around the world and because of that there's loads of online resources like forums and charity
websites we see that disease that exists with loads of useful information about different foods
that you can and can't have and we'll leave links to them in the description below but see what you
can and can't have research into it and also keep a list keep a diary everyone has one of these keep
a list keep a diary of what foods you've eaten what foods you've got on well with and what foods
you haven't gotten well with and try and avoid them foods step number three probably something
that a lot of people forget about remember where you prepare food has to be gluten free as well
so what i mean by that is if you're preparing food at the place where someone else also prepares food
who isn't on a gluten-free diet there can be cross-contamination so remember to have your own
separate area and clean and tidy everything before you use it otherwise you might get contamination
and then you might get a flare-up and nobody wants that step number four accept that sticking to a
gluten-free diet can be difficult look don't be hard on yourself it's very difficult to maintain
a gluten-free diet especially when you're first beginning so whether you do it intentionally or
you do accidentally don't be too hard on yourself step number five allow time for your gut to heal
look remember i started the video we talked about the inflammation caused by the gluten
that can flatten your villi give it time once you go gluten-free those villi will recover
and the inflammation will reduce so don't be too hard on yourself and don't worry about it
just try and maintain that gluten-free diet to help with the re-healing process of the gut now
learning which foods have gluten in them and which are gluten-free can take a bit of time
and it requires you to build that knowledge slowly now i can list loads of different foods in this
video but we're going to be here till tomorrow and i'm sure you don't want that but what i will do
is i'm going to leave loads more information and resources in the description below all about this
so if you do want more information about it feel free to check out that description step number six
i really do feel like i should have used this step as step number one but unfortunately i've already
filmed the other ones so i'm going to do it at step number six please involve a dietitian in
your health care if you have celiac disease you need to get a dietitian involved in your health
they are awesome they know so much about what to eat all about celiac disease and
they can really get a plan and get you involved into creating something great that you like
so please get a dietitian involved if you're in england if you live in the uk the nhs does have
access to dietitians that you can speak to so if you speak to healthcare professionals you speak to
your gp practice they can get you involved with a dietitian quite easily but if you live abroad
speak to healthcare professionals or get in touch with your dietitian directly i don't know how it
works abroad you will probably know better than me so the next question is what are the long-term
health problems of celiac disease look if see that disease is not controlled you are an increased
risk of getting these kinds of health problems so for example nutritional deficiencies is one
of them which is quite important when you hassle that disease your healthcare professional will do
regular blood tests on you to check your vitamin d levels to check your other vitamin levels to
check your blood levels to make sure that you have no nutritional deficiencies because if
you do you could be at a higher risk of let's say osteoporosis now your spleen may also become less
effective at fighting off disease which is why it's super important if you do have celiac disease
you do get vaccinated regularly for whichever vaccines you require for example vaccination
for influenza vaccination for pneumonia now unfortunately you will be at a higher risk of
developing certain cancers like hodgkin's and non-hodgkin's lymphoma as well as small bowel
cancer and if you ever are feeling anxious or depressed about your celiac disease then please do
speak to your healthcare professional about it so they can help you manage your condition better and
help you have a better quality of life so harry harry thank you for your comment i really do hope
that you found this information about see that disease useful and i hope anyone else is watching
who's searched this video or found it however you found it i hope you found this information helpful
you now know all about celiac disease you now know all about how it happens why it happens you know
i know all about the tips on how to manage the condition and you also know about the symptoms
to look out for what to do and the importance of speaking to your healthcare professional as soon
as possible if you have any of the symptoms that we spoke about earlier which i've also
left in the description below so you're a pro so tell your friends tell your family tell your
loved ones tell everyone you know because you now know about celiac disease so it looks like we've
run out of time again in this week's responding to your comments if i didn't get back to your
question i'm really sorry we are getting so many comments and so many questions these days it's
really difficult to fit them all into one episode of responding to your comments so what i say every
single week leave another comment if i miss your comment please keep on leaving those comments and
eventually i will get back to you that's the end of this week's video always remember that
you're awesome and i will see you next week hey guys thanks for watching this week's video make
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