Celiac disease can be difficult to parse because it’s not just GI symptoms that crop up. Some people with celiac are forced to make emergency trips to the bathroom or suffer abdominal pain after eating bread, but the disease doesn’t always hit like that. Kids with celiac disease most often come in with classic GI symptoms, like diarrhea or abdominal pain, but adults may not. In fact, only one-third of adults with celiac disease have diarrhea at all, according to the Celiac Disease Foundation (CDF). It’s not always glaringly obvious what’s going on, which is why the CDF estimates 2.5 million Americans with celiac are undiagnosed.
Just some of the more than 200 celiac disease symptoms include: abdominal bloating and pain, chronic diarrhea or constipation, vomiting, weight loss, iron-deficiency anemia, fatigue, joint pain, tingling or numbness in the legs, sores inside the mouth, tooth discoloration, unexplained infertility, and anxiety and depression.
The intensity of celiac disease symptoms isn’t always the same, either. “I have some patients who say they get bloated, but nothing bad. Others say they feel like they walk past a bakery and poop in their pants—this is not a one-size-fits-all disease,” says Mark T. DeMeo, MD, section chief of gastroenterology at Rush University Medical Center.