Is The Prevelance Of Celiacs Only 1:133?

[Jungle]

Everything I've read show that celiacs effects 1:133 in the general population. But every day it seems there is someone else who also has celiacs. So...are there more celiacs now or is that number still accurate?

[cassP]

Everything I've read show that celiacs effects 1:133 in the general population. But every day it seems there is someone else who also has celiacs. So...are there more celiacs now or is that number still accurate?

i would bet money it's higher than that

[rosetapper23]

I just read a study that as many as 4% of adults have it.

[AMom2010]

I saw somewhere that as many as 1 out of 80 women have celiac disease.

[paperbagprincess]

I always thought it was 1:100. It's not going to be possible to get an accurate picture. There are people who have celiac disease and are asymptomatic or can't be tested or just accept it's normal or told they have IBS or people who are too embarrassed to talk to their doctors. There was a lady I use to work with, her daughter has celiac disease, but doctors wont test her because she's over weight! I said 'find a new doctor!'

[sa1937]

I've always read 1 in 133 have celiac but gluten sensitivity is also now being recognized (finally). There's an interesting article in the new issue of Open Original Shared Link magazine...an interview with Dr. Fasano from the Univ. of Maryland School of Medicine's Center for Celiac Research.

Remember the big push in May to get the FDA to come up with labeling laws as Jules Shepard and others baked a very tall gluten-free cake. Open Original Shared Link

[rosetapper23]

I believe that one of the reasons for the varying figures is that different populations have been tested for each study. I believe that the 1:133 figure resulted from the grant-funded study that Alessio Fasano did a number of years back that convinced the medical establishment in the U.S. that celiac is common here. That's the largest study that has been done and 1:133 is recognized the "official" figure. However, at a celiac conference I attended last year, one gastroenterologist who spoke stated that he conducted his own test in his city (sorry, can't remember where it was, but I believe it was in the mid-west somewhere), and his results pointed to a 3% incidence of celiac disease. Now, since the population in his city is largely comprised of Caucasians who descended from Northern European countries, it would make sense that the figure would be higher than the national average, which had included all ethnicities. Even though African-Americans, Asians, and Hispanics have been found to have celiac, too, the incidence of their having celiac may not be as high, which diluted the national figure. If a study were to include only U.S. citizens of Scandinavian and Irish heritage, I believe the figure would probably be much higher, but who knows? Also, since it appears that more women than men have celiac, it would make sense that women would have a higher ratio than 1:133.

[Skylark]

Any figure in a study will be blood and biopsy proven celiacs, which means they are underestimates. Maki found 2.7% in Finnish adults, which is 1 in 37.

They also don't take non-celiac gluten intolerance into account. Judging by my friends and family, I'm betting gluten intolerance is more like 1 in 10 among people with western or northern European heritage.

[rosetapper23]

I think the 1:33 study and the others I've read were based solely on blood tests....but I agree that there are many, many people with gluten sensitivity.

[come dance with me]

My little one was recently diagnosed but after talking to others in her school it turns out many of the parents or grandparents are only being diagnosed now as adults in their 30s to 60s.

[ErinP]

Having recently been studying the plethora of information about this, I tend to think grain consumption is probably not good for most people.

But as with exposure to any other poisons, many people can build up a tolerance. That doesn't, however, change the fact that it's a poison...