Should you suffer from celiac disease, you will require treatment for life. Unfortunately, the only real celiac disease treatments and medications have to do with changing your diet. You cannot consume any wheat and foods with gluten, which include farina, triticale, spelt, graham flour, rye, durum, malt, bulgur, semolina, and barley. If you have received a diagnosis, you are likely to also be referred to a dietitian to help you.
The Best Celiac Disease Treatments and Medications – Removing Gluten from Your Diet
Once you stop consuming gluten, the inflammation in the intestine that comes with celiac disease will start to lessen. Usually, you will feel better in just a few days, with symptoms completely disappearing after a few weeks. It can take months to years for the villi to be completely healed, however, although this tends to be faster in children.
In case you eat food with gluten accidentally, it is likely that you will get diarrhea as well as experience abdominal pain. Sometimes, people with the disease do not experience symptoms at all, but harm is still being done to their intestines.
Avoiding gluten can be difficult because it can be hidden in common products. These include:
– Food stabilizers, preservatives, and modified food starch
– Over the counter and prescription medication
– Mineral, vitamin, nutritional, and herbal supplements
– Lipstick
– Mouthwash and toothpaste
– Stamp and envelope glue
– Play-Doh
Medication
As stated, the best celiac disease treatments and medications have to do with lifestyle changes. However, you may start to experience nutritional deficiencies, in which case you may be prescribed medication to handle this. Most of the time, this will include supplements with:
– Folate
– Calcium
– Vitamins B-12, K, and D
– Zinc
Usually, these will be offered as a pill, although injections also exist. Make sure the supplements are gluten-free, however.
Aftercare
Celiac disease is a lifelong condition and you will require regular checkups to make sure your lifestyle changes are effective as treatments. You need lifelong support, which will include regular blood tests to determine how you are responding to treatment. These tests help to detect celiac disease, and they should be offered around six months after someone has started treatment. The tests should come back negative for the disease after six months of being gluten free.
That said, it is important to understand that these tests still need to be perfected. Sometimes, the results are negative even though people have been exposed to high levels of gluten. If left untreated, celiac disease can permanently damage the intestines, so treatment is absolutely vital.
If your symptoms persist or recur after treatment, you will need to visit your physician again. He or she will likely to take a biopsy to make sure you have started to respond to the treatment. It is also quite common for those who are diagnosed in adulthood to have regular biopsies to make sure that the disease is no longer present. Additionally, it will show a physician how your progress is going, as recovery tends to take a long time and must be monitored.
