New Delhi : Ignorance and self-medication proved fatal for 13-year-old Inakshi Gupta, an acute patient of gluten intolerance. The problem started during her infancy when she reacted to dishes made of wheat, bajra, jowar and many other cereals. Apart from dizziness and gastritis, she experienced rashes on her skin, constipation, and vomiting.
Doctors say gluten intolerance is a condition that causes reaction in an individual after consumption of gluten – a protein found in wheat, barley, rye and other cereals. Symptoms vary widely and include gastro-intestinal problems.
“Intolerance to gluten is not a minor problem as people consider it to be. If a child is intolerant to gluten then parents should not give items that contain the protein; otherwise the child may suffer from weight loss, dwarfism, obesity, rashes and intestinal problems. If not checked, it may lead to cancer and neurological disorders,” Nishant Wadhwa, senior consultant and pediatric gastro-enterologist at the Delhi-based Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, told IANS.
Wadhwa said that gluten intolerance was initially considered a disease of the West but has become “very common” among Indian children too. However, he added that in India about 40 percent cases had advanced symptoms due to self-medication and delay in consulting doctors.
Doctors said that gluten intolerance starts from childhood and continues into adulthood. It has to be managed through restrictions on the diet. They said that one reason for people not knowing of gluten intolerance has been lack of specific tests, which only started about five years ago.
According to the World Health Organisation, food allergy, which includes gluten intolerance, kills an estimated 2.2 million people globally. WHO has kept this year’s theme of World Health Day (April 7) as food safety.
A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that people with “diagnosed, undiagnosed, and latent gluten sensitivity” had a higher risk of death, mostly from heart disease and cancer.
Behram Pardiwalla, consultant in internal medicine at Mumbai’s premier Wockhardt hospital, said the most severe form of gluten intolerance is celiac disease – an autoimmune disorder that causes the body to attack healthy intestinal tissue when gluten is present.
(April 7 is World Health Day)
