In 1994 I was diagnosed with celiac disease, which led me to create Celiac.com in 1995. I created this site for a single purpose: To help as many people as possible with celiac disease get diagnosed so they can begin to live happy, healthy gluten-free lives. Celiac.com was the first site on the Internet dedicated solely to celiac disease, and since then it has become an invaluable resource to people worldwide who seek information about celiac disease and the gluten-free diet. In 1998 I created The Gluten-Free Mall, Your Special Diet Superstore! which was also another Internet first—it was the first gluten-free food site to offer a shopping cart-style interface, and the ability for people to order gluten-free products manufactured by many different companies at a single Web site.
I am also co-author of the book Cereal Killers, and founder and publisher of Journal of Gluten Sensitivity.
Celiac.com 08/08/2002 - Dr. Anette-G. Ziegler, of the Academic Teaching Hospital Muenchen-Schwabing in Munich, Germany, and colleagues looked at seven first-degree relatives of patients who had type 1 diabetes and were under seven years of age and found that their titers of type 1 diabetes-associated autoantibodies did not improve after one year on a gluten-free diet. At the same time the subjects IgG antibody titers to gliadin were reduced. The researchers conclude that even though studies have shown that a gluten-free diet protects against autoimmune diabetes in animal models, it does not appear to do so in humans, although there is research that shows that it can reduce the frequency of type 1 diabetes in patients with celiac disease. According to the researchers, gluten is not the driving antigen for type 1 diabetes-associated islet autoimmunity.