TBTCE: Celiac: Living with an Invisible Disease

Welcome to our new series, "Throw Back Thursday: Celebrity Edition" (or TBTCE). In the following weeks, we'll be featuring various celebrity interviews from over the years. Hope you enjoy!

TBTCE: Jennifer Esposito

The symptoms of celiac disease can be wide and varied, which makes it such a difficult disease to properly diagnose and treat.

And, unfortunately, may doctors are still not taking the disease seriously, or not educated in what to look out for or how to address the problem. As unbelievable as it is, some doctors still treating it as a "fad."

As you can imagine, this puts individuals suffering from the disease in a terrible place.

So, what can you do if you suspect you have celiac but your doctor refuses to listen to you?

First and foremost, change doctors. You also need to go in to any appointments educated... if you don't know the right questions to ask, it's more likely that your doctor will brush off your symptoms.

Keep pushing until you find someone who will listen.

Also, know this: simply cutting out gluten will not "cure" you. There may have been years of damage, and eliminating gluten will not magically make you all better.

Celiac is an autoimmune disease, after all... your body will continue to attack itself unless you attack the disease with a holistic approach.

In this segment, actress Jennifer Esposito shares her struggle with celiac, as well as ways you can make sure you have a voice in your diagnosis and treatment.