What do I need to do now that I have Celiac disease?
As a person with newly diagnosed celiac disease, an important aspect of taking care of your health is by restricting gluten from the diet. A few arrangements will be made to screen for your health as celiac disease is associated with a risk of acquiring other medical conditions.
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Dietician consultation
Many dietary foods, such as bread, cakes, and pasta, contain gluten. It can be challenging to identify at first, what type of foods you need to avoid. Therefore, with the diagnosis, a consultation is made with the Dietician to reduce the amount of gluten in your diet.
You might ask “Why should I restrict gluten?”. It is important in cases of celiac disease as it can help improve gastrointestinal symptoms (e.g., bloating, diarrhea), and reduce the risk of iron-deficiency anemia and associated autoimmune disorders. It can also help improve bone health by decreasing the loss of bone mass. Celiac disease may contribute to a slight increased risk of small bowel cancers (e.g., adenocarcinoma, lymphoma) with long-term gluten exposure, hence it is important to restrict gluten intake.
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Labwork and regular follow up
Your family doctor or gastroenterologist (if you are seeing one) will give you a requisition for labwork to be done to check a couple of parameters regarding your health. Celiac disease can affect the gut absorption of certain vitamins and may also affect thyroid health. Hence, your blood counts, vitamin B12, and thyroid levels will be checked to obtain a baseline of your general health.
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Bone density scan
Your family doctor or endocrinologist (if you are seeing one) may consider having you complete a bone density scan. It is important to get a baseline idea of your bone density as conditions such as celiac disease may impact bone health.
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Self-reading
It can be very daunting to face a new diagnosis of celiac disease. Below are curated resources to support those with a diagnosis of celiac disease. As they say, knowledge is power!