Why a List of Gluten Intolerance Symptoms Doesn't Help Much

If you are trying to determine whether or not you have celiac disease, you may have hit up your favorite search engine for a list of symptoms. But I'm afraid gluten sensitivity can't be encapsulated with a simple list. Let me explain why.

There Are Over 250 Symptoms Associated With Gluten Intolerance

The first reason any list will not help you is that celiac disease and varying degrees of gluten sensitivities feature an enormous, evolving and growing list of symptoms. Most people experience just a small subset of those symptoms, but that subset of symptoms could often represent an entirely different disease or condition.

If you were to look at a genuine attempt at a complete list of symptoms of celiac disease, it would read like an overwhelming collective list of dozens of other diseases or conditions. It could also imply to some people that if they didn't experience a large number of those specific symptoms, they did not have celiac sprue disease. And that is dangerously mistaken.

Gluten Sensitivity Symptoms Often Overlap With Other Problems

For example, in adults anemia is a common symptom of gluten sensitivity. But anemia could also occur if you are not consuming enough iron in your diet or if you have some other problem with your digestive tract, like an ulcer or Barrett's esophagus.

Osteoporosis is another symptom among celiac adults. But osteoporosis can represent a wide variety of conditions or simply represent a lack of vitamin D and/or calcium in the diet.

The most common symptoms associated with an intolerance to gluten are diarrhea, constipation, gas and bloating, along with cramping. All of these could also indicate a wide number of conditions, including ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease.

Lactose intolerance and candida problems can also mimic problems digesting gluten, so if you are worried about suffering from celiac sprue disease because of certain symptoms, you should also have yourself evaluated for these problems.

The Terms Gluten Intolerance, Wheat Allergy and Celiac Disease Are Not Synonyms

Another reason a simple list of gluten intolerance symptoms may not help you too much is that many websites often confuse a wheat allergy for a gluten sensitivity or vice versa. Furthermore, some assume that if you have an intolerance to gluten that you automatically have celiac disease, which is not true.

Others may imply that if you test negative for celiac disease than you can consume gluten. That definitely is not true as there are varying degrees of gluten intolerance and one can be diagnosed with non-celiac gluten sensitivity and still require a gluten-free diet.

So try to delineate the differences between these different terms and understand what the symptoms you personally are experiencing may mean in the context of your diet and your overall health profile.