I am a paediatrician myself – and years ago, when seeing occasionally my sister-in-law, who is a bit younger, I thought “oh, how pale and irritated her skin looks”, certainly she has too much stress and not enough sleep, … and I booked a spa weekend for her, to have her really pampered with some expensive beauty treatment.

But before heading for the lovely spa she saw her physician who diagnosed substantial iron deficiency anaemia and sent her up front for endoscopy: thus, her coeliac disease was diagnosed directly!

As a consequence, her first-degree relatives had blood test done and one brother was found to be positive. He had suffered for years from “irritable bowel syndrome”!

Therefore, please remember: pale and “cracked” skin might not only be a sign of a stressful life, but due to iron deficiency, again an important sign of coeliac disease!

On a gluten free diet my sister-in-law’s skin is again lovely, however, she wishes to head for a spa treatment anyway????

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels (the photo is symbolic)