Here’s a list of potential medical problems you may need to watch for and potentially treat. In addition, I recommend you peruse this list of questions to ask your doctor after your celiac disease diagnosis to get more information on your future medical needs.
Since your body should begin absorbing nutrients again once you start the gluten-free diet, you may resolve some of these deficiencies on your own, although this may take several months or more. Because of this, you also may want to talk to your healthcare provider about taking supplements to bring your levels up more quickly—just make sure you use only gluten-free vitamins.
A few medical studies indicate that people with untreated celiac disease risk developing additional autoimmune conditions. The autoimmune conditions most closely associated with celiac include autoimmune thyroid disease, psoriasis, Sjögren’s syndrome, type 1 diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis, although others also may be related.
Research indicates that keeping to a strict gluten-free diet following your diagnosis may help reduce your risk of developing an additional autoimmune disease. In addition, some people find that adopting a gluten-free diet helps their already-diagnosed autoimmune conditions—for example, if you have chronic psoriasis, you may discover that it clears up or at least improves when you go gluten-free.
It’s also pretty common for undiagnosed celiac women to have painful menstrual periods or to suffer from endometriosis (see my article on celiac disease and pelvic pain for more information). Again, in many cases, these symptoms improve or clear up completely on the gluten-free diet.
Finally, did you know that celiac disease can impact your sexuality? Well, it can, and research shows that sticking to your diet may help improve your sex life.
A few celiacs have more serious liver diseases, including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and autoimmune hepatitis. Although research is scanty, there’s some evidence that—guess what?—going gluten-free and sticking to the diet can halt or even reverse these serious liver conditions.
Many people find their mood improves dramatically as soon as they adopt a gluten-free diet. However, studies show that you need to follow the diet strictly in order to keep your mood up, and it’s not uncommon for diagnosed celiacs—even those who have been on the diet for a long time—to suffer from recurrent depression when they get glutened. If you find after some time on the diet that this happens to you, it may help you to look for places where gluten cross-contamination may be sneaking in.
In fact, many of us knew we were lactose intolerant long before we were diagnosed with celiac disease; lactose intolerance frequently represents an early sign of celiac disease.
There’s good news, though: it’s possible—even likely—that your tolerance of lactose will return once your intestinal lining starts to heal on the gluten-free diet. That doesn’t mean you should run out and buy a gallon of milk to drink right away; instead, try to take it slowly and experiment with small amounts of lactose in your diet to see how much you can tolerate.
Still, the risk of cancer in people with celiac disease actually is really small (even though it’s greater than the risk of the general population). In addition, once you’ve been following the gluten-free diet for five years, your risk reverts to that of the general population, meaning you’re no more or less likely to be diagnosed with cancer as anyone else.
However, lack of adherence to the gluten-free diet may increase your risk of cancer. As well as increasing the of risk of some of the other potential health problems I’ve mentioned. Therefore, if there’s one bit of advice I’d like to give you as a new celiac, it’s: Please Don’t Cheat. Cheating can really impact your health.
