Celiac Disease

Sure, May is full of flowers blooming after April’s showers, but there’s another reason that it’s my favorite month: it’s the time for celiac disease awareness. What is celiac disease, and what should you know about it? 

Let me start off by saying that my name is Celia and I have celiac disease. This icebreaker has a 100-percent success rate when starting a conversation and simply being entertaining. My last name also begins with a C, making my email address the oh-so-ironic celiac30@lakesideschool.org. Feel free to email me any questions! 

Now, what is celiac disease? Some say that I’m “allergic” to gluten, while others ask whether I can drink milk. (I can.) Celiac disease is a rather rare, invisible autoimmune disease. 

So, what is the difference between autoimmune disease and allergy? Here is a definition from the National Institutes of Health (NIH): A condition in which the body's immune system mistakes its own healthy tissues as foreign and attacks them.

Whereas an allergy is (also from NIH): An exaggerated response from the body's immune system to otherwise inert substances present in the environment.

An autoimmune disease means the body is attacking itself, whereas an allergy is the body attacking an outside substance. Celiac disease is the former, and the most important piece of information you need to understand the workings of this ailment is that - if you have celiac disease - your body attacks its own cells when exposed to gluten. 

This is a perfect segue into another burning question: What is gluten? This is another area where people might become slightly confused; it’s all a very a-square-is-a-rectangle-but-a-rectangle-is-not-a-square situation (#geometry skills). Gluten is a PROTEIN that is FOUND in wheat, barley, rye, and malt (and some other grains that don’t like to keep up appearances). When confronted with gluten, the body of someone with celiac attacks its own villi, which are parts of the intestine that absorb nutrients. As you might guess, the effects of flattened villi (in a nutshell) = bad. However, the trickiest thing about this disease is diagnosis.  Symptoms vary wildly from anemia to the appearance of OTHER autoimmune diseases such as diabetes, Crohn’s, and Graves’ disease. 

How are we doing so far?? Now that you’re more informed, we can go deeper into the actual experience.

My day-to-day life is very similar to someone without this disease, with school, meals, and homework interspersed throughout. It’s only during social gatherings that my life and my experience become that of an outsider. This is where the webs of this story twist, turn, and round unexpected corners. It’s hard to communicate that my life is the same, but it’s different, but it’s the same and still different. In my own eyes, everything is normal; I’ve lived with this diet for 10 years now (which is startling to realize), and it’s my personal reality that I wouldn’t abandon for anything. However, when faced with Zeeks pizza under my nose or the delicacies of Krispy Kreme wafting through the air, that’s when I feel distanced from my friends and community.

I understand that there’s no way to fix these issues; I don’t have the authority - or the need - to stop the stream of crispy, flaky breads or sappy, sugary sweets that love to wave at me at the grocery store. So it’s difficult to hit the nail on the head for this question: what do we in the celiac community need? How is this article at all meaningful, at all helpful, if I don’t give you any guidance to take away? Yes, this isn’t a school class, but I wrote this for a specific reason: informing people. 

Sure, it’d be great if people didn’t ask me if I can drink milk from here on out, but I’ve found that it comes with the territory; people will always be uninformed. However, that’s why I’m here: to teach.

I don’t expect anybody to make a profound change to their behavior or their lifestyle. Heck, if this is simply an entertaining read, I’ll just be glad I could conjure up some laughs (or cringing groans; either is accepted). My job is to remind you that this is a matter in our Lakeside community, something you can be aware of. May is Celiac Awareness Month, and this is why I picked this last issue of The Lakeside Leo, to say my piece, make my peace. Hopefully, you were able to learn something from this.

Enjoy the rest of the year! Remember: the world is your oyster, with or without celiac disease.