Alternative Health Blog

Long an unknown illness in this country, celiac disease has gained much greater awareness in the past decade. Alternative health practitioners have been at the forefront of creating a consumer knowledge base about celiac disease, which is basically a condition of an adverse immune system reaction to gluten in the diet.

Now comes news of an even more heightened awareness of celiac disease. A Mayo Clinic study published in this month’s issue of the mainstream medical journal Gastroenterology report that celiac disease is four times more common today than 50 years ago. Another key finding: Individuals who don’t realize they suffer from celiac disease (and never treat it) were four times more likely to have died during 45 years of monitoring in this study as compared to individuals not affected by celiac disease.

It’s a much more serious matter than whether or not your cakes and breads are gluten-free.

“Celiac disease has become much more common in the last 50 years, and we don’t know why,” says Dr. Joseph Murray, the Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist who led the study. “It now affects about one in a hundred people. We also have shown that undiagnosed or ‘silent’ celiac disease may have a significant impact on survival. The increasing prevalence, combined with the mortality impact, suggests celiac disease could be a significant public health issue.”

You there are holistic doctors, nurse-practitioners and nutritionists out there nodding their heads in satisfied agreement—and maybe asking, “what took so long?”

Of course, anyone struggling with celiac disease recognizes that a protein called gluten highly available in wheat, barley or rye, causes the immune system to attack the body and itself. The villi, finger-like protrusions in the small intestine that increase absorption capability for nutrients, are damaged during those attacks. Compromised villi can lead to diarrhea, abdominal discomfort, weight loss, anemia, loss of teeth, premature bone loss and even unexplained infertility.

“Celiac disease is unusual, but it’s no longer rare,” says Murray. “Something has changed in our environment to make it much more common. Until recently, the standard approach to finding celiac disease has been to wait for people to complain of symptoms and to come to the doctor for investigation. This study suggests that we may need to consider looking for celiac disease in the general population, more like we do in testing for cholesterol or blood pressure.”

This is seminal stuff. Mayo Clinic is confirming a long-held belief in the alternative health community that celiac disease and other food reaction illnesses need to be more commonly and widely screened in seemingly healthy people. But routine and general-public screening is easier said than accomplished.

 “Part of the problem is that celiac disease symptoms are variable and can be mistaken for other diseases that are more common, such as irritable bowel syndrome,” he says. “Some studies have suggested that for every person who has been diagnosed with celiac disease, there are likely 30 who have it but are not diagnosed. And given the nearly quadrupled mortality risk for silent celiac disease we have shown in our study, getting more patients and health professionals to consider the possibility of celiac disease is important.”

Bob Condor blogs for Alternative Health Journal every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.