Jennifer Esposito was living with celiac disease and she didn’t even know it. The 43-year-old actress was on the “Samantha Who” set when all of a sudden her tooth fell out of her mouth, just as she was filming a scene. That’s when she ran to the doctor’s office and demanded answers.
She knew that something was wrong, but her doctor wasn’t listening. “But what do you when people aren’t listening. And I went back to the doctor and I said, ‘Please, I need help. Please keep me here because I’m jumping out of my skin.’”
Instead of getting checked in to the hospital, she got checked into a psych ward. She was having a nervous breakdown because of the inexplicable disease that was not only cause her teeth to fall off, but her hair, eyelashes and even fingernails.
Esposito has Celiac disease, an autoimmune disease that caused her all of those problems due to gluten intolerance. According to the Celiac Disease Foundation, celiac disease is a genetic autoimmune disorder where the ingestion of gluten leads to damage in the small intestine. It is estimated that this disease affects 1 in 100 people worldwide and 2.5 million Americans are undiagnosed and at risk for long-term health complications.
Long Term Health Conditions
- Iron deficiency anemia
- Early onset osteoporosis or osteopenia
- Infertility and miscarriage
- Lactose intolerance
- Vitamin and mineral deficiencies
- Central and peripheral nervous system disorders
- Pancreatic insufficiency
- Gall bladder malfunction
- Neurological manifestations, including ataxia, epileptic seizures, dementia, migraine, neuropathy, myopathy and multifocal leucoencephalopathy
If left untreated, it can lead to several types of cancer, such as Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, small intestinal adenocarcinoma, esophageal carcinoma, papillary thyroid cancer and melanoma. Every case is different and there can be over 200 symptoms associated with celiac disease, which makes the diagnosis difficult.
“Everybody has different stages with this disease and, for me, because it was left undiagnosed for so long, I still deal with it,” said Esposito to Allergic Living in 2014. “For me, it’s very much an autoimmune disease. Some days are good, some days I feel pain in every muscle and I feel horrible. It is definitely something I have to pay attention to every day.”