An estimated two million Americans suffer from celiac disease, but most may not know it.

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease of the small intestine that's triggered by gluten, the protein in wheat, barley and rye, which prevents food from being properly absorbed.

"There's a miscommunication and instead of the body digesting food it starts to actually digest the intestines and a person can get very sick from that,” said Trish Cyrs, PA-C of Gastrointestinal Associates of Tidewater.

Beverly Wymer suffers from celiac disease.

“My symptoms were stomach aches, headaches, severe diarrhea,” Wymer listed.

It took her eight years to find out why she was sick.

Like many of the estimated 1 in 133 people with celiac disease, she wasn't properly diagnosed. In fact, she, her husband and the internet figured it out.

Unfortunately, there is no cure. Untreated, the disease can have serious complications including osteoporosis, intestinal and colon cancer, and miscarriage, but there is a treatment.

It's cutting out anything in the diet that contains wheat, barley or rye, which means reading lots of labels. But, people with celiac disease say there are so many gluten-free products today, it isn't that hard to eat a gluten-free diet.

“What you do is go completely gluten free. You eliminate the gluten protein in your diet completely,” said Wymer. “I can't tell you, within two weeks I was feeling so much better."

The Tidewater Chesapeake Celiacs group is reachable through Celiac Disease Foundation or by Trish Cyrs at (757) 495-9622.

They meet on the 3rd Thursday of the month from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Chesapeake Lifestyle Center, 800 North Battlefield Boulevard in Chesapeake.