Feature / N U T R I T I O N
FIRE IN MY
B EL LY Your gut and INFLAMMATION.
LT H O U G H
everyone experiences inflammation at times, problems with too much inflammation is an ongoing challenge for people living with an autoimmune disease. Inflammation is something that our body normally does when there is an injury, infection, or some other perceived “problem” in the body that needs to be fixed. It is usually associated with heat, redness, pain, and swelling, and is orchestrated by our immune system which plays a primary role in healing and regeneration. Inflammation is neither good nor bad; if we experience an injury or come down with the flu, we want our immune system to respond with
20 | Autumn 2020 Coeliac Link
inflammation to heal. Usually the symptoms of an inflammatory reaction are not pleasant, but we would not be able to heal without it. However, inflammation is not so good when it becomes chronic. [Nearly] all long-term health problems are linked to too much inflammation happening on a low-grade chronic level. Too much inflammation causes an overwhelm of painful symptoms that can show up in many areas of the body. Coeliac disease (CD) is an inflammatory condition. That’s why it’s not surprising to see other inflammatory health problems such
as bone loss, fertility issues, arthritis, muscle weakness, and skin conditions when CD is not well managed. When someone with CD is exposed to gluten, an inflammatory response develops in the gut, leading to an array of symptoms that our readers are familiar with. Most people with CD find they are unaffected if they follow a strict gluten free diet. However, there are a proportion of people who experience ongoing inflammatory symptoms, even when gluten exposure is kept at bay. When there’s ongoing inflammation we need to look closer at
