What is celiac sprue

Villi absorb vitamins, minerals and other nutrients from the food you eat. If your villi are damaged, you can't get enough nutrients, no matter how much you eat. Some people with celiac disease don't respond to what they consider to be a gluten-free diet. Nonresponsive celiac disease is often due to contamination of the diet with gluten.

Working with a dietitian can help you learn how to avoid all gluten. In rare instances, the intestinal injury of celiac disease doesn't respond to a strict gluten-free diet. This is known as refractory celiac disease. If you still have signs and symptoms after following a gluten-free diet for six months to one year, you might need further testing to look for other explanations for your symptoms.

Celiac disease care at Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic does not endorse companies or products. Advertising revenue supports our not-for-profit mission. This content does not have an English version. This content does not have an Arabic version. Overview Celiac disease Open pop-up dialog box Close. Celiac disease Your small intestine is lined with tiny hairlike projections called villi, which absorb vitamins, minerals and other nutrients from the food you eat.

Email address. First Name let us know your preferred name. Last Name. Thank you for subscribing Your in-depth digestive health guide will be in your inbox shortly. Sorry something went wrong with your subscription Please, try again in a couple of minutes Retry. Your doctor may also need to examine a small piece of tissue from your small intestine. Treatment is a diet free of gluten. The information on this site should not be used as a substitute for professional medical care or advice.

Contact a health care provider if you have questions about your health. See, Play and Learn Videos and Tutorials. Resources Find an Expert. Start Here. What is Celiac Disease? Long-Term Health Effects People with celiac disease have a 2x greater risk of developing coronary artery disease, and a 4x greater risk of developing small bowel cancers. Treatment Currently, the only treatment for celiac disease is lifelong adherence to a strict gluten-free diet.

Read about the Gluten-Free Diet. A table illustrating how age of diagnosis influences the chances of developing another autoimmune condition Early Diagnosis Lowers Chance for Developing Another Condition Age of Diagnosis Chance of developing another autoimmune condition Undiagnosed or Untreated Celiac Disease Can Lead to: Long-Term Health Conditions Iron deficiency anemia Early onset osteoporosis or osteopenia Infertility and miscarriage Lactose intolerance Vitamin and mineral deficiencies Central and peripheral nervous system disorders Pancreatic insufficiency Intestinal lymphomas and other GI cancers malignancies Gall bladder malfunction Neurological manifestations, including ataxia, epileptic seizures, dementia, migraine, neuropathy, myopathy and multifocal leucoencephalopathy.

Other Autoimmune Disorders In a study, Ventura, et al. Coeliac disease is an autoimmune condition. This is where the immune system the body's defence against infection mistakenly attacks healthy tissue.

In coeliac disease, the immune system mistakes substances found inside gluten as a threat to the body and attacks them. This damages the surface of the small bowel intestines , disrupting the body's ability to take in nutrients from food.

It's not entirely clear what causes the immune system to act this way, but a combination of genetics and the environment appear to play a part. There's no cure for coeliac disease, but following a gluten-free diet should help control symptoms and prevent the long-term complications of the condition. Even if you have mild symptoms, changing your diet is still recommended because continuing to eat gluten can lead to serious complications.

This may also be the case if tests show that you have some degree of coeliac disease even if you do not have noticeable symptoms. It's important to ensure that your gluten-free diet is healthy and balanced. An increase in the range of available gluten-free foods in recent years has made it possible to eat both a healthy and varied gluten-free diet.