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Celiac.com 05/01/2014 - While estimates indicate that about 1% of the world's population is affected by celiac disease, it is thought to be uncommon in both India and Asia. However, very little study has been done on celiac disease in Asian nations. A team of researchers recently set out to estimate rates of celiac disease in the Indian population. The research team included G.K. Makharia, A.K. Verma, R. Amarchand, S. Bhatnagar, P. Das, A. Goswami, V. Bhatia, V. Ahuja, S. Datta Gupta, and K. Anand. They are affiliated with the Department of Gastroenterology and Human Nutrition at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, India. For their cross sectional study, the team estimated rates of celiac disease in urban and rural populations in the National Capital Region in Delhi, India. For their estimate, they made door-to-door visits with a structured questionnaire, collecting socio-demographic data, and screening for features of celiac disease, namely chronic or recurrent diarrhea and, anemia. In children, they included short stature, and failure to thrive/gain weight. All respondents who screened positive for any of the above factors, and 10% of screen negative individuals received blood tests for the anti-tissue transglutaminase antibody. Those with positive blood tests were invited to undergo further evaluation including endoscopic biopsy. Diagnosis for celiac disease was made on the basis of a positive blood test, the presence of villous atrophy and/or response to gluten free diet. Overall, the team had 10,488 participants, just over 50% of which were male. A total of 5622 participants (53.6%) showed positive first screens. Of those, 2167 (38.5%) received blood test. The team also blood tested an additional 712 (14%) negative first screens. The team found a total celiac disease blood screen rate of 1.44%, with 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.22 1.69, and a total celiac disease rate of 1.04%, with 95% CI 0.85 1.25. The prevalence of celiac disease in this north Indian community is slightly over one percent, which is about the same as many western nations, and higher than generally recognized in India. Source: J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2011 May;26(5):894-900. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-1746.2010.06606.x.

Celiac.com 03/23/2011 - A group of researchers in India recently conducted a community-based study on the prevalence of celiac disease in the northern part of India. The research group included Govind K Makharia, Anil K Verma, Ritvik Amarchand, Shinjini Bhatnagar, Prasenjit Das, Anil Goswami, Vidyut Bhatia, Vineet Ahuja, Siddhartha Datta Gupta and Krishnan Anand. They are affiliated with the Departments of Gastroenterology and Human Nutrition, and Pediatrics and Pathology at the Centre for Community Medicine of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. Worldwide celiac disease rates are estimated at about 1%, but the disease is thought to be uncommon in both India and Asia. However, there has generally been a lack of study data on the actual prevalence of celiac disease in Asian nations. The research team set out to accurately estimate the prevalence of celiac disease in a specific Indian community. The team crafted a cross sectional study to estimate rates of celiac disease in urban and rural populations in the National Capital Region, Delhi, India. The team gathered data using a structured questionnaire administered via door-to-door visits. The questionnaire provided socio-demographic data and basic screening for features of celiac disease, such as chronic or recurrent diarrhea, and anemia. For children, the questionnaire included additional factors, namely short stature (linear height below 5th percentile for age) and failure to thrive/gain weight. All test subjects with positive screens and 10% of negative screen individuals were called for anti-tissue transglutaminase antibody blood test. All those with positive blood tests were invited to undergo endoscopic biopsy. The team diagnosed celiac disease on the basis of a positive blood screens, the presence of villous atrophy and/or response to gluten free diet. The team contacted 12,573 people in all. A total of 10,488 (83.4%) (50.6% male) agreed to participate. Screening showed 5,622 (53.6%) positive results. Of those who screened positive, 2167 (38.5%) submitted to anti-tissue transglutaminase antibody blood tests. The team also tested 712 (14%) subjects who had tested negative. The data showed an overall sero-prevalence of celiac disease was 1.44% (95% conï¬dence interval [CI] 1.22 1.69) and the overall prevalence of celiac disease was 1.04% (95% CI 0.85 1.25). Celiac disease in this north Indian community is 1 in 96, or about 1%. That means that celiac disease is more common than is recognized in India, and that rates are about the same as in other parts of the world, not lower, as conventional wisdom has held. Source: Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, March 2011 / DOI: 10.1111/j.1440-1746.2010.06606.x

Celiac.com 10/21/2010 - Jolly Pumpkin master-brewer Ron Jeffries just took home a gold medal from Denver's annual Great American Beer Festival. This is important, because the beer, Jolly Pumpkin's Belipago India Pale Ale, won in the "Specialty Beer" category against beers made with traditional malted barley. That's right, a gluten-free beer won in a respected competition against beers malted with barley. For beer lovers, and gluten-free people, and gluten-free beer lovers that is an earth-shaking achievement. Since their debut, Jeffries and Jolly Pumpkin have racked up a slew of awards for their unique, oak-aged artisanal sour beers, including a gold medal for their Oro De Calabaza, a strong Belgian ale brewed in the Franco-Belgian tradition of a Biere De Garde. However, Jeffries will tell you that path of Jolly Pumpkin was not an easy one. "It's still difficult to sell sour beer, it was even more difficult seven years ago when we first opened," says Jeffries, fresh off winning a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival for his Belgian-style, gluten-free India Pale Ale, "Belipago." Jolly Pumpkin has been well received over the years at the GABF. The fact that Jolly Pumpkin's prizes are a reflection of the beloved following the beer has developed among its legions of fans, seems like the icing on the cake for Jeffries. "It wouldn't be a lot of fun if we won all these awards but then everybody said, 'We just don't like your beer,'" Jeffries says. "It's fantastic to have everyone enjoying the beer than to have that validated, if you will, by a group of judges. That feels pretty nice too." Jeffries says he created Belipago as a beer for anyone to enjoy, not just a specialty beer for people with celiac disease and gluten intolerance. The challenge was finding a recipe that yielded a great beer without using malted barley or wheat, traditional brewing ingredients, which contain the protein gluten. They started small, and slowly developed and improved the recipe, Jeffries says, in part because "brewing gluten-free was all new to me. I didn't really enjoy the flavor of other gluten-free beers out there. It was important to me to brew something that craft beer drinkers could enjoy." In the end, Jeffries devised a recipe for a dry hopped, Belgian-style IPA, that incorporated sorghum, agave, chestnuts and other components. The resulting beer, Golden Manatee Belipago has a more pronounced floral hop character than most other Jolly Pumpkin beers, with hints of spice. According to official tasting notes, the beer pours with a golden brown color with a white head, and features a huge and citrusy aroma, medium heavy mouthfeel, with an explosion of citrus and flower notes followed by a nice bitterness. The yeast was very pronounced too, very nice. Finish had more citrus and some spice. A refreshing and very good Belgian-style IPA. On his victory, Jeffries says "I think we succeeded in accomplishing what we wanted to do with the beer. To win against regular malt beers with a gluten-free beer, that was very satisfying. I wanted to make sure that people wouldn't say, 'Well, that was good for a gluten-free beer.'" Jeffries plans to first grow distribution for Belipago through local drafts before he moves to bottling. He explained that small technical issues remain before they can begin bottling the beer commercially, but they are working to make that happen as soon as possible. "We have had a lot of interest about Belipago," Jeffries says.