During Coeliac Awareness Week 2010, Dr. Bob Anderson, Chairman of the Coeliac Research Fund and Australia's leading researcher into the disorder, said that pharmacists should pay attention to check out for the symptoms of the disease, which include, mysterious swelling, diarrhea and/or constipation, tiredness or lack of stamina, anemia, slow growth, poor physical development and difficulty in focusing.

Coeliac disease is a frequent, but often under-diagnosed, autoimmune disorder where gluten causes the body to generate antibodies which injure the lining of the small bowel.

Patients who have a regular intake of iron supplements, foliate, laxatives, or multivitamins because they're constantly tired, could be suffering from coeliac disease and should be referred for testing immediately.

Coeliac Awareness Week is focused this time on improving low analysis rates in children in Australia. At least 1 in 100 children suffer from coeliac disease, but four out of five are not diagnosed at all.

If necessary steps are not taken in time, the consequences could be devastating in the longer run. Hence, more awareness and diagnoses within the right frame of time will benefit people in keeping the disease at bay.