Helping to diagnose your gut feelings

Kitty O’Leary is the nurse manager of the endoscopy suite at Mater Private Hospital, Cork. She is also a specialist nurse in intestinal disease.

Here she explains the general facts about gluten and the presenting symptoms seen often in patients with coeliac disease and gluten intolerance:

Gluten is a group of proteins found in grains like wheat, rye and barley of which wheat is by far the most common in Irish people’s diet. For example, gluten is not just in bread, biscuits and cakes but also pasta, beer, pizza and in many manufactured foods such as soups, gravy, dressings, crisps and chocolate.