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any south-indians diagnosed with celiacs?


hersheygirl9

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hersheygirl9 Explorer

I'm not yet sure if I have celiacs and with my research I've noticed that a huge majority of euro-descent population have celiacs or the chance to get it. I was wondering if anyone had any knowledge about south-asian or south indians, specifically ones born in india, and raised in the U.S. and their chances of having celiacs. No one in my family has ever shown signs or tested for it. Nor have they had any autoimmune disorders. Obviously a certain ethnicity isn't going to have a 0 chance of having the disease as our bodies are the same but I'm a bit curious about this and also worried about my chances of having celiac. 

This is a bit of an odd and specific question but any help would be great. Thank you!


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kareng Grand Master

Some of the leading Celiac researchers are in India.  You might do a little google searching.

Posterboy Mentor

hersheygirl9,

Here is some research that might answer your question.

The Punjab area is the region of India most associated with Celiac disease.

Here is  a study about the topic.

https://www.celiac.com/articles/24375/1/Punjabi-Americans-Have-Highest-Celiac-Disease-Rates/Page1.html

Here is another article that summarizes that Northern Indian are the most likely to be diagnosed with Celiac disease.

It is estimated that is because this region of India relies more heavily on wheat than other regions.

https://www.celiac.com/articles/23030/1/Celiac-Disease-More-Prevalent-in-North-Indian-Asian-Populations/Page1.html

This article goes on to say quoting " Another finding of the study shows that Asians with celiac disease are more likely to be anemic. This tells us that celiac disease should be considered as a diagnosis for unexplained anemia in Asian patients."

CNN actually ran an article about the current state of Celiac disease/diagnosis rates called "Gluten Free: Diets Where do we Stand?"

It is actually a good overview article laying out the timeline of how Celiac disease became to be a diagnosable disease.

Open Original Shared Link

They quote Dr. Fasanoa a leading researcher into how Celiac disease develops and how often it occurs.

It used to be considered a mostly Northern European disease but he says now quoting from the cnn article

"Celiac disease was considered extremely rare, almost nonexisting in the United States, and that was a quite interesting observation given at the same time in Europe, where I was coming from, there was a rampage of epidemics of celiac disease all over," Fasano said.
 
He started to conduct research as to why celiac disease was uncommon in the United States. It turned out that celiac disease was just as prevalent in the US as it was in Europe but had been generally ignored, according to a 1996 paper that Fasano authored and published in Open Original Shared Link.
 
Dr. Fasano goes on to say quoting
 
"Now you know, whenever you look for it, you find it, provided there are genes and environmental triggers," Fasano said of celiac disease.
 
"We have a major problem of celiac disease in India for example now, particularly in the northern region of the Punjab," he said. "We have problems of celiac disease in South America. We have a growing rampant problem of celiac disease in China, anywhere that you have the genetic background and the westernization of your diet."
 
CNN concludes the article by summarizing Dr. Fasano thoughts entitled 2017: what the future might hold.

Quoting again.  "Fasano hopes the pendulum on gluten's reputation will swing in the opposite direction, from painting gluten as a monster back to depicting it as a simple protein that some can healthily digest and others cannot.

"The pendulum was all the way to left, where before, the pioneer patients with celiac disease really had a hard time to survive," Fasano said.
 
"Now. the pendulum is all the way to the right, where this is a fashionable diet," he said. "I think that in the future, we will see a readjustment of the pendulum. and hopefully we'll go back to where it belongs. I of course think everybody with celiac disease needs to be on a gluten-free diet. The people that will be affected by other gluten-free-related eating disorders, like wheat allergy or non-celiac gluten sensitivity, should go on a gluten-free diet, and then there is a question mark for others."

It is me again.

But for now in summary if your from Southern India it seems safe that you are at most a NCCS and probably not a Celiac but even that is not certain.

Because as he (Dr. Fasano) said quoting again "Now you know, whenever you look for it, you find it, provided there are genes and environmental triggers," Fasano said of celiac disease.

So it might be they have  not looked for it sufficiently in Southern India yet because they don't yet suspect to find it there or the environmental triggers are not strong enough to trigger the genetic response.

But it seems to indicate that when we look for it (Celiac disease) we find it in more and more populations these days.

I hope this is helpful.

posterboy,

 
  • 2 weeks later...
hersheygirl9 Explorer
On 3/21/2017 at 6:09 PM, Posterboy said:

hersheygirl9,

Here is some research that might answer your question.

The Punjab area is the region of India most associated with Celiac disease.

Here is  a study about the topic.

https://www.celiac.com/articles/24375/1/Punjabi-Americans-Have-Highest-Celiac-Disease-Rates/Page1.html

Here is another article that summarizes that Northern Indian are the most likely to be diagnosed with Celiac disease.

It is estimated that is because this region of India relies more heavily on wheat than other regions.

https://www.celiac.com/articles/23030/1/Celiac-Disease-More-Prevalent-in-North-Indian-Asian-Populations/Page1.html

This article goes on to say quoting " Another finding of the study shows that Asians with celiac disease are more likely to be anemic. This tells us that celiac disease should be considered as a diagnosis for unexplained anemia in Asian patients."

CNN actually ran an article about the current state of Celiac disease/diagnosis rates called "Gluten Free: Diets Where do we Stand?"

It is actually a good overview article laying out the timeline of how Celiac disease became to be a diagnosable disease.

Open Original Shared Link

They quote Dr. Fasanoa a leading researcher into how Celiac disease develops and how often it occurs.

It used to be considered a mostly Northern European disease but he says now quoting from the cnn article

"Celiac disease was considered extremely rare, almost nonexisting in the United States, and that was a quite interesting observation given at the same time in Europe, where I was coming from, there was a rampage of epidemics of celiac disease all over," Fasano said.
 
He started to conduct research as to why celiac disease was uncommon in the United States. It turned out that celiac disease was just as prevalent in the US as it was in Europe but had been generally ignored, according to a 1996 paper that Fasano authored and published in Open Original Shared Link.
 
Dr. Fasano goes on to say quoting
 
"Now you know, whenever you look for it, you find it, provided there are genes and environmental triggers," Fasano said of celiac disease.
 
"We have a major problem of celiac disease in India for example now, particularly in the northern region of the Punjab," he said. "We have problems of celiac disease in South America. We have a growing rampant problem of celiac disease in China, anywhere that you have the genetic background and the westernization of your diet."
 
CNN concludes the article by summarizing Dr. Fasano thoughts entitled 2017: what the future might hold.

Quoting again.  "Fasano hopes the pendulum on gluten's reputation will swing in the opposite direction, from painting gluten as a monster back to depicting it as a simple protein that some can healthily digest and others cannot.

"The pendulum was all the way to left, where before, the pioneer patients with celiac disease really had a hard time to survive," Fasano said.
 
"Now. the pendulum is all the way to the right, where this is a fashionable diet," he said. "I think that in the future, we will see a readjustment of the pendulum. and hopefully we'll go back to where it belongs. I of course think everybody with celiac disease needs to be on a gluten-free diet. The people that will be affected by other gluten-free-related eating disorders, like wheat allergy or non-celiac gluten sensitivity, should go on a gluten-free diet, and then there is a question mark for others."

It is me again.

But for now in summary if your from Southern India it seems safe that you are at most a NCCS and probably not a Celiac but even that is not certain.

Because as he (Dr. Fasano) said quoting again "Now you know, whenever you look for it, you find it, provided there are genes and environmental triggers," Fasano said of celiac disease.

So it might be they have  not looked for it sufficiently in Southern India yet because they don't yet suspect to find it there or the environmental triggers are not strong enough to trigger the genetic response.

But it seems to indicate that when we look for it (Celiac disease) we find it in more and more populations these days.

I hope this is helpful.

posterboy,

 

Thank you  very much! 

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