This week in class we have been learning about the digestive system and what happens to it as we age and some of the conditions that can occur. One of the interesting articles that I found was about Celiac Disease and how difficult it can be to diagnose and how hard and long of process it can be to diagnose. Celiac disease is not only a disease that affects the elderly but can affect anyone at any age, and is a digestive disorder when damage is caused to the small intestine when gluten, which is a protein that is found in wheat is eaten. For people who have this disease they need to follow a strict gluten free diet, to avoid getting any serious heath complications or other diseases or disorders such as osteoporosis and lymphoma. For patients of this disorder it takes about ten years for a diagnosis to occur if one occurs at all. A study has shown that there are 3 million Americans who suffer from Celiac disease and about 95 percent of them are yet to know that that's the diagnosis. Some of the symptoms of Celiac disease include bloating, diarrhea and weight loss. For one patient her symptoms began in childhood but as she aged they only continued to worsen.
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/health/healthguide/esn-celiac-ess.html
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