Dr. Chris Steele has coeliac disease

Our own Dr. Chris Steele has been diagnosed with coeliac disease. He revealed his condition yesterday on ITV’s This Morning show, where he is the resident doctor.

Coeliac disease is an autoimmune disease caused by intolerance to gluten. Damage is caused to the gut lining when gluten is eaten. There is no cure or drugs for the condition and the only treatment is life-long adherence to a strict gluten-free diet.

Without a gluten-free diet, the disease can lead to other serious conditions, such as malnutrition, osteoporosis, infertility, multiple miscarriages and can cause bowel cancer.

Somewhat ironically, Dr. Chris has been an ambassador of Coeliac UK, the national charity for people with coeliac disease, for the past three years.

Over the past few months Dr. Chris had been suffering with abdominal symptoms and his own GP referred him to a gastroenterologist.

Following blood tests and then a biopsy the results came back to confirm he does have coeliac disease - at the age of 64.

“I was very honoured to be asked a few years back to be Ambassador of Coeliac UK as I wanted to give as much support as I could to help raise the awareness of the condition in the media and to the general public,” said Dr Chris.

“However, I never dreamt that I myself would then be diagnosed! I think I have been having symptoms of diarrhoea, abdominal pain and fatigue on and off for many years, but it wasn’t until they got so bad recently that I did anything about it and I will be encouraging everyone with similar symptoms to see their GP and be tested rather than suffering in silence,” he said.

At least 1 in 100 people in the UK has coeliac disease. However, only 12.5% of those have currently been diagnosed and Coeliac UK estimates that there are over half a million people undiagnosed in the UK.

Symptoms of coeliac disease range from mild to severe and can vary between individuals. They include bloating, abdominal pain, nausea, constipation, diarrhoea, wind, tiredness, anaemia, headaches, mouth ulcers, weight loss - but not in all cases, skin problems, depression, joint or bone pain and nerve problems.

More information:

Food allergy and intolerance

This article was published on Tue 19 January 2010