Celiac Explained: West Side Story Style

We all know that Celiac Disease (CD) is under-diagnosed, and mostly under-rated. It makes sense if you think about it- the symptoms are so varied that diagnoses is difficult, and with the treatment as “easy” as changing what you eat (as opposed to multiple surgeries and radiation), Celiac can seem like no big deal. Unless you have it, that is :)

Something else I have noticed, though, is that Celiac is also under-understood. (Yes, forget about using real words here, folks :) This is also understandable. There are so many letters, numbers and technicalities involved in explaining the disease that it is easy to miss something in the translation. Today, my goal is to cut away all of the technicalities and explain exactly what Celiac is. Wish me luck!

First, let me tell you what CD isn’t: CD is not a food intolerance. It is not an allergy or the imagination of picky eaters. Celiac is an autoimmune disease, which means that it makes your immune system go all wacky. Of course, now the natural question is “why?” How is it possible that gluten can cause so many issues? To find that answer, I’m going to rely on the information found in several different studies (past, current and ongoing) from the good folks at CFCR.

Thing is, the problem is not all of gluten really, but gliadin, a component of gluten, that causes the problem. Everything starts here. I’m at risk of falling back into technicalities now, so I’m going to go into story/example mode and lay out the process for you.

Imagine that the wall of your intestines is the door to a very exclusive club. The bouncers at this club are pretty harsh. They only let in the “pretty people”, (in this case, healthy nutrients). The management team, Zonulin, gets to decide when the doors open and when they don’t. Whenever there is a problem in the club, it is Zonulin’s job to open the doors wide. When all is right in the body, the system works well. Good, healthy stuff gets to enjoy the party of feeding the body, and the riff raff gets left in the cold.

Now, let’s look at what happens in someone with CD:

There is someone who is always hanging around outside the club (it is the receptor CXCR3, but I’m going to name it Sam). Sam is harmless. He occasionally takes odd jobs around the club and is friends with most of the bouncers.

Enter Gliadin. This character is nothing but trouble. Sam and Gliadin completely hit it off and attach to each other on first meeting. Gliadin is not allowed in the club and is not happy about it. Sam offers to help, not realizing that Gliadin is part of the terrible Gluten Gang. They devise a plan to get the club doors open long enough to let Gliadin in. Just for fun, let’s say that they drug the bouncers and pull the fire alarm. That part has no medical reference whatsoever, but it is an interesting mental picture :)

When this happens, Zonulin (being the efficient workers they are) flood to the doors and open them wide. This lets in all sorts of nasty riff raff, including Gliadin and the rest of the Gluten Gang. (This is the leaky gut syndrome) The Gluten Gang begins to live it up. Meanwhile, the riff raff that was let in with them begins to wreak havoc in the club (your body).

At this point, the upper management in the club (the immune system) sees what is going on and calls in the authorities to restore order. Well, when they show up in full riot gear the fight begins. Now the hopping club that is your body is beset by damage in all different areas. The ones that don’t want to leave are hiding in out of the way corners, and tearing up whatever they need to. This is the reason that CD has so many different symptoms. There are so many places in the body for that riff raff to go that it’s hard to predict where they’ll end up.

So, here we are- researchers have narrowed down the problem. The only defense is to make sure that Sam and Gliadin never meet. The only way they’ve found to do that is to make sure the Gluten Gang doesn’t get anywhere near the club, hence a gluten free diet. The research goal is to make Sam completely immune to Gliadin’s charms so that if they do meet, nothing will happen.

This, of course, brings us back to the importance of Celiac awareness and support for our researchers. I don’t have a story for that right now, though, so you have to read some other articles to get the scoop on that.