The terms Celiac or digestive disorders or celiac disease all refer to one of the well-known diseases that affect the digestive system, where one in every hundred people can have celiac disease.
People may not know they have celiac, as its symptoms cover a wide range, including digestive issues, stomach pain, joint pain, making it hard to diagnose.
In this article, we will learn about the importance of exercise for people with celiac disease.
Celiac or digestive disorders disease
Digestive disorders or celiac disease is an autoimmune condition. When gluten enters the body, it triggers the immune system to start attacking the digestive tract. Over time, this damages the small intestine villi, which absorb nutrients from food.
Celiac disease can cause many serious problems like poor nutrition, weak bones, infertility, miscarriage, lactose intolerance, cancer, and nerve issues.
Unfortunately, there is no effective cure for celiac disease, the only treatment is to remove gluten from the special diets for patients, and start following gluten-free diets.
The importance of exercise for people with celiac disease
Avoiding gluten is the only treatment for celiac disease, but still about 30% of patients have symptoms even after following a gluten-free diet.
Research shows diet helps control celiac symptoms, but other factors matter too, like doing exercise.
There is growing evidence that physical activity reduces the chances of getting digestive disorders. Scientific research shows exercise can help ease symptoms of other digestive diseases, like Irritable Bowel Syndrome IBS, and improve quality of life.
Some studies found that people with celiac disease who joined a 12-week exercise program saw a drop in digestive disorder symptoms and better quality of life.
Benefits of exercise for digestive disease patients
Exercise can bring many key benefits to those with digestive disorders, including:-
1. Exercise helps lower inflammation
Celiac disease messes with the immune system because of gluten. It causes inflammatory reactions in the body, which harms the digestive system and leads to other issues and complications.
Exercise can help reduce inflammation, which helps manage digestive disorders. Studies showed that just 30 minutes of exercise can have anti-inflammatory effects in the body.
Also, it’s not just high effort that counts. Even 20-30 minutes of moderate activity, like brisk walking, can have anti-inflammatory benefits.
2. Exercise helps build strong muscles
One key benefit of exercise is that it helps build strong muscles. As we age, muscle mass slowly decreases. People with digestive disorders have a higher chance of muscle weakness due to their illness.
After thirty, inactive people lose about 3-8% of muscle mass every 10 years on average. Doing physical activity including strength training at least twice a week is one of the best ways to keep muscles healthy and build them.
You can do this by trying some exercises like:-
Exercises can also be Weight lifting a good option, or adding resistance bands to the workout.
3. Exercise helps build bone density
After some time with celiac disease, this can lead to Malnutrition andOsteoporosis, so it's important to do regular exercise to help keep bones healthy and strong as much as possible.
Osteoporosis and other bone problems are common issues faced by people with digestive disorders, due to poor absorption of the mineral calcium, which is an important element for keeping bones strong.
So, any kind of weight-bearing or resistance training can help build bone density, including exercises Weightlifting andwalking long distances andrunning rock climbing anddancing.
Besides strengthening muscles and building bone density, they can also help increase body movement, flexibility, and balance. This might reduce the chances of falling and breaking bones.
4. Exercise supports blood circulation
Regular exercise can help increase blood flow, which supports digestion and helps the digestive system heal from damage caused by digestive disorders.
Exercise can improve circulation that helps heal the intestines. Some of the best exercises to boost blood flow are aerobic activities, like swimming running, dancing, andcycling and brisk walking.
5. Exercise improves mood
Illnesses generally cause mood swings, and it's not much different for celiac disease. Anxiety and depression are common side effects of having a digestive disorder.
Actually, people with celiac disease have a 91% chance of developing some type of mood disorder. Exercise is proven to help boost mood and lower anxiety feelings,depression, because it makes the body release endorphins that cause happiness.
Research shows that a type of physical activity, like walking, can help ease anxiety and depression by helping shift your perspective and distracting your mind from unhealthy thoughts.
6. Exercise supports following healthy diet plans
Exercise is tied to following healthy eating plans, which is a key part of managing symptoms of digestive disorders.
Studies have found that following a balanced and gluten-free diet can help people feel better overall and cut down on digestive problems.
Other studies showed that people in exercise programs were more likely to pick healthy food choices like veggies, fruits, and whole grains, and avoid unhealthy options like processed foods and bad fats.
7. Exercise supports a healthy weight
People with digestive disorders struggle to keep a healthy weight and often either lose weight or gain weight.
Weight loss is a common side effect of digestive disorders because of poor nutrition. But weight gain can also happen because people eat more to make up for poor absorption from celiac disease or because they think gluten-free diets are always healthy.
8. Exercise supports the digestive tract
People with digestive disorders have imbalances in their gut microbiome, which is the group of bacteria living in their digestive system. This hurts many health aspects, including immunity.
Exercise has been positively linked to maintaining a healthy gut microbiome.
Exercise can also help improve sleep quality, which helps improve mental health and ease digestive disorder symptoms.
Whatever exercise you choose, it’s okay to start slowly with small steps, then build up your strength over time.
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