When a person has celiac disease, recovery and adaptation requires more than just avoiding bread. Gluten is a common binder that many food brands use to add texture, flavor, and protein to their products. People with celiac disease and gluten sensitivity need to learn how to avoid trace amounts of gluten, including cross-contamination, as well as how to manage symptoms caused by accidentally eating gluten or from years of undiagnosed celiac disease damaging their bodies. Functional medicine helps to address celiac disease while also focusing on how this disease affects your body and how symptoms present.
How Functional Medicine Can Help Address Celiac Disease
What Is Celiac Disease?
Celiac disease is an immune reaction triggered by eating gluten, which is a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye. When a person with celiac disease eats gluten, it degrades the intestinal lining over time and leads to malabsorption (the inability to properly absorb nutrients). This may cause malnourishment as well as a variety of other symptoms. The symptoms of celiac disease can vary from person to person, but many people with this disease may experience:
- Stomach pain
- Diarrhea
- Vomiting and nausea
- Impaired spleen function
- Nutrient deficiency
- Iron deficiency
- Weight loss
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Headaches
- Fatigue
- Brain fog
- Nerve pain
- Missing menstrual cycle (amenorrhea)
Because of the wide range of symptoms, celiac disease can be difficult to diagnose and treat. Many people benefit from holistic treatments such as functional medicine. Although there is no cure for celiac disease, a gluten-free diet and an understanding of your body and how it absorbs nutrients can help manage symptoms and encourage intestinal healing. A person with gluten intolerance (also called gluten sensitivity) will have celiac-like symptoms, but their body won’t develop antibodies or intestinal damage the way a person with celiac disease does. Symptoms of gluten sensitivity can also be addressed using functional medicine.
Functional Medicine And Celiac Disease
Because this disease can present so many different symptoms and impact people in different ways, it’s important that people with celiac disease access personalized, one-on-one care. Other than avoiding foods with gluten, your diet will need to be altered to help make up for nutrient loss while accounting for symptoms such as food aversion related to nausea and stomach pain. Functional medicine offers personally tailored holistic solutions that focus on treating your root illness while also understanding the interconnectedness of the body. Functional medicine helps you manage your celiac disease by teaching you how to alter your lifestyle and make healthier choices so that you can regain intestinal health and re-establish your body’s ability to absorb nutrients. Your individual wellness program may include a combination of advanced biomedical testing, nutritional counseling, supplementation, dietary strategies, detoxification programs, exercise and movement instruction, stress management tools, weight loss plans, and more, depending on your personal needs.
Want to learn more about how functional medicine can address your health concerns?
Read Why Functional Medicine Is The Best Choice For Optimal Health.
Address Celiac Disease And Gluten Sensitivity with Functional Medicine
If you have celiac disease or gluten sensitivity, functional medicine can help you manage your health by addressing your diet and creating a personalized treatment plan. A functional medicine doctor will use advanced scientific testing and a customized nutrition plan to help restore normal functions within your body. At Performance Health and Wellness in Irvine, our functional medicine doctors will evaluate you to uncover the underlying causes and triggers of dysfunction, including how your body rids itself of toxins, hormone regulation, the health of your digestive tract, and how your body absorbs nutrients, immune system function, and the inflammatory response. To schedule an appointment at Performance Health and Wellness, call 1-949-476-1250 or fill out the online contact form.
FAQ
What should I bring to my first functional medicine appointment?
To help the initial assessment go smoothly, have all medical records and previous lab results sent to Performance Health and Wellness when you book your appointment. This will help our doctors prepare for you and will ensure all information is accurate. If you need assistance or clarification about how to send documents, you can call our helpful and knowledgeable staff at 1-949-476-1250.
If I visit a functional medicine doctor for my celiac disease, do I still need other health services?
This will depend on the severity of your celiac disease, how well-managed it is, and what symptoms you present. Many people who suffer from anxiety and depression related to their celiac disease may also want to consult with a therapist, and many people also continuously visit their general practitioner.
Is a functional medicine doctor the same as a holistic doctor or naturopath?
Functional medicine is holistic in how patients are considered and includes the core concepts of naturopathic medicine, plus it uses the foundations of conventional medicine to address underlying causes with science-based knowledge. A functional medicine doctor analyzes which systems in the body are underperforming and then creates effective strategies to help restore normal function to those areas.
