Celiac.com 02/27/2019 - To avoid the chronic inflammation, discomfort and damage associated with celiac disease, celiac patients need to follow a strict, lifelong gluten-free diet. That can be a challenge for teens and young adults, as shown by a number of earlier studies. Some studies have indicated that the challenge of following a gluten-free diet can cause stress and raise the risk for disordered eating behavior in some people.

Teens and young adults with disordered eating behaviors face a greater risk of developing full-blown eating disorders. To better understand the issues involved, a team of researchers recently set out to assess the incidence and risk factors for disordered eating behaviors among individuals with celiac disease, and to examine a connection between a gluten-free diet and disordered eating behaviors.

The Israeli research team included Itay Tokatly Latzer, Liat Lerner-Geva, Daniel Stein, Batia Weiss, and Orit Pinhas-Hamiel. For their Level V, cross-sectional descriptive study, the team submitted a personal and dietary survey that included questions on gender, age, weight, disease duration, along with two self-rating questionnaires that assessed disordered eating behaviors and adherence to a gluten-free diet: the Eating Attitudes Test-26 and the gluten-free diet questionnaire.

They collected a total of 136 responses from celiac disease patients. They found disordered eating behaviors (DEBs)  in 7% of male and nearly 20% of female subjects. In general, patients who experienced disordered eating were overweight, older, and female. 

About one in three patients reported strict adherence to a gluten-free diet, independent of age, disease duration, age at diagnosis of celiac disease, or being overweight.

According to this data, a significant number of adolescents with celiac disease experience disordered eating patterns, especially those who are overweight, older and female. Extra attention to this issue might help to disrupt these patterns and to prevent them from becoming worse in the future. 

Read more at Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity

Celiac.com 04/09/2018 - Children with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) often have enlarged tonsils and adenoids. Additionally, lymphatic hyperplasia, an increase in the number of normal cells that are contained in lymph nodes, is common to both OSA and celiac disease. Lymphoid hyperplasia is usually due to an infection with bacteria, viruses, or other types of germs and is part of the body's reaction to the infection.  A team of researchers recently set out to investigate the effect of a gluten-free diet on OSA symptoms in children with celiac disease.

The research team included A Yerushalmy-Feler, R Tauman, A Derowe, E Averbuch, A Ben-Tov, Y Weintraub, D Weiner, A Amir, H Moran-Lev, and S Cohen. They are variously affiliated with the Pediatric Gastroenterology Unit, the Pediatric ENT Unit, and the Pediatric Sleep Center at "Dana-Dwek" Children's Hospital, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv, Israel; and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.

The team recruited children with celiac disease from ages 2-18 before the children began a gluten-free diet. As a control group, the team included children with negative celiac serology who underwent gastrointestinal endoscopies for other reasons.  All participants completed a validated OSA-related symptoms questionnaire and the pediatric sleep questionnaire (PSQ) at the start of the study, and again 6 months later. 

The team recruited thirty-four children with celiac disease, along with twenty-four control subjects. Both groups were similar in terms of gender, body mass index or season at recruitment between the two groups.  The control group showed more OSA-related symptoms compared to the celiac group, both at recruitment and at the 6-month follow-up. Both groups showed significant improvement in PSQ scores at the 6-month follow-up, but improvement was significantly higher in the celiac group compared to the control group.

Kids with celiac disease had fewer OSA-related symptoms than control subjects, but they had much higher levels of symptom improvement once they were on a gluten-free diet. 

Overall, the data from this study suggests that a gluten-free diet provides strong improvement of OSA-related symptoms in children with celiac disease.

Source:

• BMC Pediatr. 2018 Feb 7;18(1):35. doi: 10.1186/s12887-018-1039-5.

Celiac.com 11/02/2017 - What is the link between the autoimmune diseases Sjögren's syndrome and celiac disease? In a study, 14.7% of Sjögren's syndrome patients were found to have celiac disease and 11.8% of non-celiac Sjögren's syndrome patients were found to have inflamed mucosa in the small intestine. With this knowledge, people who suffer from Sjögren's syndrome may be able to find relief for their symptoms with the gluten-free diet.

Four million Americans are suffering from a disease they don't even know they have and their doctors don't even know to test for. Sound familiar? If you're familiar with my work as a gluten-free advocate, you have probably guessed that what I'm describing is celiac disease, an autoimmune reaction triggered by gluten, a protein component in wheat, barley, and rye. If that was your guess, you would actually be wrong: there is another underdiagnosed and common autoimmune disease that we and our doctors need to be aware of—Sjögren's syndrome, which affects the exocrine, or moisture-producing, glands. Unlike celiac disease, Sjögren's syndrome doesn't have a standardized effective treatment, but fortunately, research is demonstrating a link between these two autoimmune diseases, bringing good news for Sjögren's patients who may see relief of their symptoms by eliminating gluten from their diet.

Chances are, many haven't heard of Sjögren's syndrome. This relatively unknown and underdiagnosed disease is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the tear and saliva glands of the body, reducing their production and resulting in dry mouth and eyes and other symptoms. Complications of Sjögren's include tooth decay, corneal ulcers, and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. In women, vaginal dryness can also be a symptom. According to the UK's National Health Service, 9 out of 10 people who suffer from this condition are women, and the average age onset is between the ages of 40 and 60 years old.

In a study by the Institute of Medical Technology, University of Tampere, Finland, 34 Sjögren's syndrome patients and a control group of 28 people were given a small bowel biopsy; five (14.7%) of the Sjögren's patients tested positive for celiac disease and four (11.8%) of the non-celiac patients were found to have inflammation in the mucous membrane of the small intestine. According to the study's conclusions, "The findings show a close association between Sjögren's syndrome and celiac disease."

Currently, there are two classifications of Sjögren's syndrome as either primary, meaning that it has developed on its own, or secondary, which means that it has developed as the result of another autoimmune disease, such as rheumatoid arthritis or lupus. There is no "cure" for Sjögren's; researchers have identified a combination of factors—environmental, genetic, and hormonal, according to the National Health Service. There are a variety of treatments which can vary in effectiveness, including saliva-stimulating medication and eye drops. The good news is that Sjögren's patients who are found to be celiac may see the relief of their symptoms through a gluten-free diet, currently the effective and only treatment used for celiac disease.

Just as with celiac disease, Sjögren's syndrome is under diagnosed relative to its frequency. As a diagnosed celiac American, I consider myself very lucky that I've been correctly diagnosed with celiac disease. With the help of advocate groups all over the country, gluten-free awareness and celiac diagnosis is on the rise. By spreading the word about the association between Sjögren's syndrome and celiac disease, we can help those with Sjögren's achieve better health and quality of life.

Resources:

• National Health Service (UK): Sjögren's syndrome http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Sjogrens-syndrome/Pages/Introduction.aspx 
• National Institutes of Health: Celiac disease and markers of celiac disease latency in patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10201480 
• Nutritional Healing: Articles.
• Sjögren's World: Links http://www.sjogrensworld.org/links.htm 

Celiac.com 04/06/2017 - A new study showing connections between anorexia nervosa and celiac disease, both before and after celiac diagnosis, is raising eyebrows and inviting questions. Results of the study appear in the April 3 issue of Pediatrics.

Because the two conditions share a number of symptoms, including abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, and underweight, doctors can have some difficulty telling them apart.

Until now, previous data linking anorexia with celiac disease came mostly from individual case reports. To get a better picture, Karl Mårild, MD, PhD, from the Barbara Davis Center, University of Colorado, Aurora, and colleagues conducted a cohort and case-control investigation examining the connection between celiac disease and timing of diagnosis for anorexia nervosa.

To do this, the research team reviewed records from Sweden's 28 pathology departments. They looked at 17,959 cases of small intestinal biopsy-verified celiac disease in women from 1969 through 2008, and compared them with 89,379 sex- and age-matched population-based controls. The team confirmed cases of anorexia nervosa through inpatient and hospital-based outpatient records.

They also looked at individuals undergoing biopsy who showed small intestinal inflammation or normal mucosa, but tested positive for celiac-related autoantibodies. They recorded educational level, socioeconomic status, and type 1 diabetes status.

Their results showed that the hazard ratio for developing anorexia nervosa after a celiac diagnosis was 1.46, which fell to 1.31 beyond the first year after celiac diagnosis (with a 95% confidence interval for both). The odds ratio for association of previous anorexia nervosa diagnosis among people with a diagnosis of celiac disease was 2.18, with a 95% CI.

The findings remain the same, even after the team adjusted for type 1 diabetes status and socioeconomic levels. Women who had positive celiac serology, but with no signs of villous atrophy, were also more likely to be diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, both before and after celiac diagnosis.

The researchers propose three explanations for these findings: First, celiac disease may have been misdiagnosed earlier as anorexia nervosa, or vice versa. Second, it's possible that closer scrutiny of patients diagnosed with one condition may have prompted a bias in detecting the second condition. Third, it's possible that people with a shared genetic susceptibility may face a higher risk of developing both conditions.

Whatever the reason behind the association, the study indicates that the connections between the two conditions are likely complex, and definitely invites further study.

In the meantime, the researchers write that the "bidirectional association between diagnosis of anorexia nervosa and celiac disease warrants attention in both the initial assessment, and in the follow-up of women with these illnesses."

As a result of this study, the team encourages "physicians to closely monitor these patients and calls for heightened understanding of factors that contribute to their co-occurrence."

Source:

• Pediatrics. Published online April 3, 2017

Celiac.com 07/31/2014 - Although the adverse mucosal reaction in celiac disease occurs mainly in the small intestine, other mucosal surfaces in the gastrointestinal tract and the gut-associated lymphoid tissue are also affected. To better understand the impact, a research team recently set out to examine histopathological findings in the oral mucosa of celiac disease patients.

Specifically, based on the assumption that the oral mucosa could reflect the histopathological intestinal inflammation seen in celiac disease patients, they wanted to determine the pattern of T-cell subsets in the oral mucosa of young adults with celiac disease. The research team included E. Bardellini, F. Amadori, A. Ravelli, M. Salemme, S. Lonardi, V. Villanacci, and A. Majorana.

For their study, they enrolled a group of 37 patients with celiac disease, ranging in age from 20-38 years. Twenty-eight were female, nine male. The team broke the 37 subjects into two groups. The nineteen patients of group A were following a gluten free diet (GFD); two patients for less than one year; 6 patients between 1 and 5 years; 11 patients more than 5 years. The 18 patients (group remained untreated.

Meanwhile, fifteen healthy volunteers (age range 18-35 years, 11 females and 4 males served as controls. Because the study involved observing untreated celiac patients, the team sought and received ethical approval for the research from the Ethics Committee.

The team took biopsy specimens from normal looking oral mucosa. They conducted immunohistochemical investigation with monoclonal antibodies to CD3, CD4, CD8, and gamma/delta-chains T cell receptor (TCR).

They found T-lymphocytic inflammatory infiltrate significantly higher in group B (p < 0.0001); as compared with group A and with the control group.

Their results confirm that the oral cavity is involved with adverse reactions to celiac disease triggers, and might offer potential for celiac diagnosis.

Source:

• Open Original Shared Link

Celiac.com 01/27/2014 - A team of physicians presents the case of a patient who experienced remission of severe aphthous stomatitis of celiac disease with etanercept.

The team included Adey Hasan, Hiren Patel, Hana Saleh, George Youngberg, John Litchfield, and Guha Krishnaswamy. They are variously affiliated with the The Department of Internal Medicine, the Division of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, and the James H. Quillen VA Medical Center at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN, and with the Departments of Medicine and Pathology at Quillen College of Medicine in Johnson City, TN.

The team presents a patient with celiac disease complicated by severe aphthous stomatitis that impairs swallowing, chewing and speaking, which have triggered weight loss, psychosocial problems, and impaired her work performance.

The woman tried a variety of topical and systemic medications symptoms, but saw little or no improvement in her symptoms.

She consented to treatment with etanercept, and experienced complete remission of aphthous stomatitis, decrease in arthralgia and fatigue and considerable improvement in her quality of life.

The team points out that newer biological agents, such as etanercept, might be useful in treating certain celiac disease complications, and may even help to improve patient morbidity.

They are calling for further study to determine long-term efficacy and safety of these drugs in the mucosal and/or systemic complications of this disease.

Source:

• Open Original Shared LinkOpen Original Shared Link

Celiac.com 12/09/2013 - People with celiac disease commonly suffer malabsorption, weight loss and vitamin/mineral-deficiencies. A team of researchers recently set out to assess the nutritional and vitamin/mineral status of current “early diagnosed” untreated adult celiac disease patients in the Netherlands.

The research team included Nicolette J. Wierdsma, Marian A. E. van Bokhorst-de van der Schueren, Marijke Berkenpas, Chris J. J. Mulder, and Ad A. van Bodegraven.

They are affiliated with the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics and the Department of Gastroenterology at Celiac Centre Amsterdam in VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Researchers assessed 80 newly diagnosed adult celiac patients, averaging 42.8 years old, ± 15.1 years. They compared vitamin concentrations for those patients against a sample of 24 healthy Dutch subjects.

Before prescribing gluten-free diets to the patients, the researchers assessed nutritional status and serum concentrations of folic acid, vitamin A, B6, B12, and (25-hydroxy) D, zinc, haemoglobin (Hb) and ferritin.

Almost nine out of ten celiac patients (87%) measured at least one value below the lowest normal reference levels. Specifically, for vitamin A, 7.5% of patients showed deficient levels, for vitamin B6 14.5%, folic acid 20%, and vitamin B12 19%.

Likewise, 67% of celiac patients showed zinc deficiency, 46% showed decreased iron storage, and 32% had anaemia.

Overall, 17% of celiac patients were malnourished, with more than 10% experiencing undesired weight loss, 22% of the women underweight (Body Mass Index (BMI) < 18.5), and 29% of the patients overweight (BMI > 25).

Vitamin deficiencies were nearly non-existent in healthy control subjects, though they did show some vitamin B12 deficiency.

Interestingly, vitamin and or mineral deficiencies were not associated with greater histological intestinal damage or with adverse nutritional status.

This study shows that vitamin and/or mineral deficiencies are still common in newly “early diagnosed” celiac patients, even as rates of obesity upon initial celiac diagnosis continue to rise.

Thorough nutritional monitoring is likely warranted for establishing a dietary baseline and maintaining nutritional levels during the course of celiac disease treatment.

Source:

• Open Original Shared LinkOpen Original Shared Link

Celiac.com 06/03/2013 - Thrombophilias are defined as a group of inherited or acquired disorders that increase a person’s risk of developing thrombosis (abnormal “blood clotting”) in the veins or arteries.

People with celiac disease may present with thromboembolic features that have multiple contributing factors, such as hyperhomocysteinemia, B12 andor folate deficiency, methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase mutations, and protein C and S deficiency due to vitamin K deficiency.

However, there has been no research into how the well known thrombogenic factors, antiphosphatidylserine/prothrombin and antiprothrombin relate to celiac disease.

A team of researchers recently studied the thrombophilic network of autoantibodies in celiac disease.

The research team included Aaron Lerner1, Nancy Agmon-Levin, Yinon Shapira, Boris Gilburd, Sandra Reuter, Idit Lavi and Yehuda Shoenfeld.

They are variously affiliated with Epidemiology and Community Medicine, and the Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition Unit in the Carmel Medical Center of the B. Rappaport School of Medicine at the Technion-Israel institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, with the Zabludowicz Center for Autoimmune Diseases at Sheba Medical Center in Tel-Ashomer, Israel, and with Aira e.v./Aesku.Kipp Institute in Wendelsheim, Germany.

For their study, the team assessed blood autoantibody levels in 248 people, and then classified them into one of three groups.

Group 1 included 70 children with confirmed celiac disease. They averaged 7.04 years of age (±4.3 years), with a male to female ratio of 1.06 to 1.

Group 2 was a healthy control group that included 88 children, averaging 6.7 years of age (±4.17 years), with a male to female ratio 0.87 to 1.

The team then compared the pediatric population to group 3, which included 90 adults who were family members (parents) of group 1 (age: 34.6 ±11.35 years, male to female ratio 1.2). The check antibodies using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Results showed average optical density levels of serum antiphosphatidylserine/prothrombin immunoglobulin G antibodies of 32.4 ±19.4, 3.6 ±2.5 and 16.1 ±15.8 absorbance units in groups 1, 2 and 3 respectively (P less than 0.0001), with 45.7%, 0% and 7.8% of groups 1, 2 and 3 respectively positive for the antibody (P less than 0.01).

Average optical density levels of serum antiphosphatidylserine/prothrombin immunoglobulin M antibodies were 14.2 ±8.7, 6.7 ±6.4 and 12.4 ±15.5 absorbance units in groups 1, 2 and 3 respectively (P less than 0.0001), with 7.1%, 3.4% and 9.9% of groups 1, 2 and 3 positive for the antibody.

Average optical density levels of serum antiprothrombin and antiphospholipid immunoglobulin G antibodies were higher in groups 1 and 3 compared with 2 (P less than 0.005) and in groups 1 and 2 compared with 3 (P less than 0.01), respectively.

Groups 1, 2 and 3 tested positive for antiphospholipid immunoglobulin G antibodies (groups 1 and 2 compared with 3) . Celiac disease blood samples contain a higher antiprothrombin immunoglobulin G level compared with controls.

These results suggest that increased exposure of phospholipids or new epitopes representing autoantigens have their origins in the intestinal injury, endothelial dysfunction, platelet abnormality and enhanced apoptosis recently described in celiac disease.

Those autoantibodies might play a pathogenic role in celiac-associated thrombophilia, and may also make good targets for possible preventive anticoagulant therapy.

Source:

•  Open Original Shared Link

Celiac.com 01/28/2013 - Some case studies point to a connection between celiac disease and systemic lupus, but there hasn't been much in the way of population-based studies.

Hoping to get data that would lead to a more solid answer, a research team recently set out to determine levels of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in 29,000 patients with biopsy-verified celiac disease.

The research team included J.F. Ludvigsson, A. Rubio-Tapia, V. Chowdhary, J. A. Murray, and J.F. Simard. They are affiliated with the Clinical Epidemiology Unit of Department of Medicine at Karolinska University Hospital and Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.

For their study, the team compared the risk of SLE in 29,048 individuals with biopsy-verified celiac disease (villous atrophy, Marsh 3) from Sweden's 28 pathology departments with that in 144,352 matched individuals from the general population identified through the Swedish Total Population Register.

For the study, the team defined SLE incidents as at least 2 records of SLE for any given patient in the Swedish Patient Register. They used Cox regression to estimate hazard ratios (HR).

They found that 54 individuals with celiac disease also had an SLE incident. This amounted to a HR of 3.49 (95% CI 2.48-4.90), with an absolute risk of 17 cases per 100,000 person-years and an excess risk of 12 cases per 100,000 person-years. After five years, the HR for SLE was 2.54 (95% CI 1.57-4.10).

Even though SLE incidents occurred mainly in female patients, the team found similar risk estimates in men and women.

When they restricted the outcome to individuals who also had a dispensation for a medication used in SLE, the HR was 2.43 (95% CI 1.22-4.87).

The HR for having 2 records of SLE diagnoses, out of which at least 1 had occurred in a department of rheumatology, nephrology/dialysis, internal medicine, or pediatrics, was 2.87 (95% CI 1.97-4.17).

From this data, the team concludes that people with celiac disease faced a three-times higher risk of SLE compared to the general population.

Although this elevated risk remained more than five years after celiac disease diagnosis, absolute risks were low.

Source:

• Open Original Shared Link

Celiac.com 10/17/2011 - Some research has shown celiac disease to be associated with higher rates of tuberculosis (TB), but study results have been inconclusive due to small sample sizes. A team of researchers studied a larger population to get a better look at the relationship between celiac disease and TB. The study team included J. F. Ludvigsson, D. S. Sanders, M. Maeurer, J. Jonsson, J. Grunewald, and J. Wahlström. They are affiliated with the Department of Paediatrics at Örebro University Hospital in Örebro, Sweden.

The team gathered biopsy data from all 28 pathology departments in Sweden. They then used the data to identify individuals who were diagnosed with celiac disease between 1969 and 2007. The included only individuals who showed Marsh 3 villous atrophy.  Their group included a total of 29,026 individuals. They then selected a group of sex- and age-matched control subjects were selected from the Total Population Register. They used Cox regression Cox to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) for TB from data in the Swedish national health registers.

They found that people with celiac disease faced a slightly increased TB risk (HR=2.0; 95% CI=1.3-3.0). For people with celiac disease, the absolute risk of contracting TB was 10/100,000 person-years, with an excess risk of 5/100,000. Risk estimates were the highest in the first year.

When the team restricted its focus to TB confirmed by (I) a record of TB medication (HR=2.9; 95% CI=1.0-8.3), (II) data in the National Surveillance System for Infectious Diseases in Sweden (HR=2.6; 95% CI=1.3-5.2) or (III) positive TB cultivation (HR=3.3; 95% CI=1.6-6.8) they saw increased risk levels.

The team also noted the positive association between celiac disease and TB prior to celiac disease diagnosis (odds ratio=1.6; 95% CI=1.2-2.1).

In the end, the team was able to confirm a slightly higher TB risk for people with celiac disease.

Source:

• Open Original Shared Link
  

The population-based cohort study was undertaken in order to to determine the risk of cataract among persons with biopsy-verified celiac disease. The research team included Kaziwe Mollazadegan, Maria Kugelberg, Birgitta Ejdervik Lindblad and Jonas F. Ludvigsson.

For the study, they collected data on celiac disease from reports on small intestinal biopsies performed between July 1969 and February 2008 in the 28 regional pathology departments in Sweden. They then compared those results to data from up to five age- and sex-matched controls for each patient. The team then used Cox regression analysis to estimate cataract risk.

They found 28,756 persons with clinically celiac disease, that is, with confirmed Marsh pathology stage 3 villous atrophy.

For the average follow-up period of about ten years, the researchers found 1,159 cases of cataracts among people with celiac disease, compared with an projection of 909 cases, based on the general population. With a hazard ratio of 1.28, 95% confidence interval: 1.19, 1.36. The team found that the absolute risk of cataract was 397/100,000 person-years for those with celiac disease, with an excess risk of 86/100,000 person-years.

This study confirms that people with celiac disease face a slightly increased risk of developing cataracts, compared with the general population.

Source:

• Open Original Shared Link

Celiac.com 05/20/2011 - Over the years, researchers have been discovering more and more about celiac disease, an autoimmune disease which is caused by gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye. Studies have linked the disease to a variety of other medical conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoporosis. Researchers have now found a connection between celiac disease and asthma.

Asthma is chronic lung disease that causes the passages of the lungs to become inflamed and narrowed, resulting in wheezing, shortness of breath, tightness in the chest area, and coughing. It often begins in childhood, and according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human services, more than 22 million people suffer from the condition. Many studies have linked asthma to airborne allergens, but doctors have begun to look into food culprits as well. One such study shows a connection to celiac disease, which isn’t an allergy but rather an autoimmune response to gluten.

In a study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, European researchers found that celiac individuals were 60 percent more likely to develop asthma than those without the condition. Celiac disease affects approximately one percent of the population and without treatment, which is a gluten-free diet, can cause a variety of physical and mental symptoms including chronic fatigue, headaches, malnutrition, chronic headaches, and stomach problems.

Dr. Jonas Ludvigsson of Orebro University Hospital and the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and his colleagues compared more than 28,000 Swedish celiac patients to more than 140,000 similar people without the disease. The study concluded that only a link between the two could be demonstrated, not that one condition causes the other; the researchers weren’t able to identify the reason for the association.

One possible factor may be Vitamin D. According to Reuters Health, Dr. Ludvigsson said in an email, "Personally, I think the role of vitamin D deficiency should be stressed." Vitamin D has been demonstrated to be a factor in the development of tuberculosis and osteoporosis, both of which celiacs are more likely to develop. In celiac disease, gluten causes an autoimmune reaction that causes the immune system to attack the small intestine, specifically the villi, the finger-like structures that absorb the nutrients from food; thus celiac patients usually exhibit deficiencies in vitamins and minerals. If a celiac patient isn’t getting enough vitamin D into their system, according to Dr. Ludvigsson, the risk for asthma disease may be increased.

According to Dr. Ludviggson, Swedish celiac patients adhere well to the gluten-free diet. The study didn’t determine how closely the 28,000 subjects were sticking to their diets, but Ludviggson told Reuters health, "Generally dietary compliance is high in Sweden, so I actually believe that also patients with good adherence are at increased risk of asthma.”

It is recommended that people who suspect they may have celiac disease or asthma should consult with a qualified medical practitioner for testing, diagnosis, and treatment.

Resources:

• U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: Open Original Shared Link
• Gluten Free Society: Gluten Sensitivity Increases the Risk for Asthma: Open Original Shared Link
• Reuters: Asthma linked to celiac disease: Open Original Shared Link