CONTRIBUTED CONTENT — Celiac disease: More than gluten sensitivity — what’s really happening

When most people think about celiac disease, they think about gluten. Avoid the gluten, avoid the symptoms. While removing gluten is essential, it is only part of the story.

Celiac disease is often viewed as an intestinal disorder, but the process that leads to it rarely begins in the small intestine. Like many chronic health conditions, it develops over time as the body's protective systems become overwhelmed.

Think of it like a dam with a growing crack. The flooding downstream may be obvious, but focusing only on the flood doesn't repair the damaged dam. Until the source of the problem is addressed, the flooding continues.

Digestion begins in the mouth. The foods we eat must be properly chewed, salivated and processed before they ever reach the stomach. The tongue communicates continuously with the brain through complex pathways. This lingual-neural communication helps the brain assess what’s entering the body, how it’s processed and the resulting immune surveillance throughout the digestive tract.

So, the digestive system is already gathering information and preparing its defenses before food ever reaches the stomach. Poor chewing, inadequate saliva production, chronic stress, nutritional deficiencies, oral infections, disturbances in the oral microbiome, and impaired neural signaling between the tongue and brain can all affect this critical first stage of digestion.

From there, food moves into the stomach, where strong acid and digestive enzymes further break proteins into smaller pieces. With inadequate stomach function, larger protein fragments continue downstream, increasing the burden on the digestive and immune systems.

The small intestine is where the consequences often become visible. In celiac disease, the immune system enters an autoimmune phase, creating inflammation that damages the intestinal lining. As the villi become injured, nutrient absorption suffers. Deficiencies in critical nutrients follow, contributing to other symptoms that seem unrelated to celiac, such as fatigue and brain fog.

This is why celiac disease is much more than a gut condition. It can affect the entire body.

Eliminating gluten remains essential because it removes an important trigger. However, many people continue to struggle even after adopting a strict gluten-free diet. Therefore, it is worthwhile to investigate additional factors that influence digestive and immune health, including oral health, neural regulation of digestion, nutrient status, inflammation, microbial balance, stress, environmental exposures, and other underlying contributors.

Acupuncture can be a valuable part of this process. Acupuncture influences digestion and immunity through multiple mechanisms. Acupuncture helps regulate inflammation, immune cell activity, gastrointestinal motility, gastric emptying, tissue hypersensitivity, gut-brain communication, intestinal barrier integrity, modulates the gut microbiome, stress-related digestive dysfunction, sleep quality, and promotes the release of compounds involved in tissue repair and pain regulation.

The goal is not simply to stop the flooding. The goal is to identify and repair the damaged dam so the body can function the way it was designed to.

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Holly Carling is a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Licensed Acupuncturist, Doctor of Naturopathy, Clinical Nutritionist and Master Herbologist with over four decades of experience. Holly is a “Health Detective.” She looks beyond your symptom picture and investigates WHY you are experiencing your symptoms in the first place.

Holly is currently accepting new patients and offers natural health care services and whole food nutritional supplements in her Coeur d’Alene clinic. Visit her website at www.vitalhealthcda.com to learn more about Holly, view a list of upcoming health classes and read other informative articles.

Holly Carling can be reached at 208-765-1994 and would be happy to answer any questions regarding this topic.