The Doctor Gluten Project

The symptoms of Coeliac Disease are extremely wide-ranging.  The symptoms are indistinguishable from The Gluten Syndrome.  The “classic” picture of chronic diarrhoea, and failure to thrive is an unusual presentation nowadays.  Indeed, about 5% of new CD people are obese.

In adults, the most common presenting features are iron deficiency, tiredness and “irritable bowel”.

Check out the symptoms list.

Classic symptoms - Children?

When babies start to eat cereals they may:

• Become listless, miserable and irritable
• Go off their food and lose their appetite
• Grow poorly (poor weight gains, called failure to thrive)
• Have short stature (poor height gains)
• Have diarrhoea (often with bulky, pale, smelly bowel motions)
• Have muscle-loss, particularly around the buttocks
• Have `pot-bellies’ due to abdominal distension
• Have nutritional deficiencies (low iron, anaemia, hair thinning)
• Have immuno-deficiency (more illness and infections)
• Poor muscle growth (weakness and developmental delay) muscle wasting)
• Poor bone growth (osteoporosis)

Classic symptoms – Adults?

Often, in adults, intestinal symptoms may be absent.  In some patients, symptoms caused by malabsorption (the poor absorption of food) are the main complaints.  However, the predominant feature may not be the gut. 

The classic symptoms in adults include:

• Diarrhoea or constipation.
• Tiredness and fatigue.
• Anaemia.
• Mouth ulcers and sore tongue.
• Heartburn, abdominal pains, bloating.
• Weight loss.
• Infertility.
• Bone pain from osteoporosis.
• Weak muscles (myopathy).
• Damaged nerve function (neuropathy).
• Dermatitis herpetiformis (an itchy vesicular rash).