Clinical Services
Digestive Diseases
Celiac Disease
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The Celiac Disease Center at NewYork-Presbyterian's Columbia University Medical Center campus has particular expertise in diagnosing and treating celiac disease, and is conducting extensive research to better understand this disease and improve outcomes.
About Celiac Disease
Celiac disease (CD), also known as gluten-sensitive enteropathy, is an inflammatory autoimmune disease in which eating gluten, a component of certain grains – (wheat, rye, and barley) – results in the destruction of the small intestine's villi, small fingerlike structures which are responsible for absorbing nutrients. When villi cannot absorb nutrients from food, malnutrition results, which can affect many of the body's organs and tissues, including the skin, bones, and teeth, the nervous system, and reproductive organs.
Prevalence of Celiac Disease
Thought at one time to be fairly rare in this country, new research conducted here at NewYork-Presbyterian and elsewhere indicates that celiac disease (CD) is fairly common in the US. Experts estimate that about 1 in 100 Americans have CD, but about 97% remain undiagnosed. About 3 million Americans are thought to have the disease.
Conditions Associated With Celiac Disease
Conditions associated with untreated celiac disease include osteoporosis, anemia, and many other autoimmune diseases including thyroid disease, certain cancers (of the small bowel, Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and esophageal cancer), seizures, miscarriage, neural tube defects, depression, chronic fatigue syndrome, a skin disease called dermatitis herpetiformis which is characterized by an itchy blistering rash, and in children, failure to grow.
Contact
- Digestive and Liver Diseases, NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia
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Directions
(212) 305-8156
- Gastroenterology and Hepatology, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell
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Directions
(646) 962-4463
