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Diet and Coeliac Disease Information
Introduction
There are many conditions in Western industrialised societies today that were unheard of, or at least very rare, just a century ago. The same conditions are still unheard of in primitive peoples who do not have the 'benefits' of our knowledge. There is a very good reason for this: They eat what Nature intended; we don't. The diseases caused by our incorrect and unnatural diets are those featured on these pages.
Dietary causes:
Cereal grains - wheat, barley, rye, oats, possibly maize (corn).Celiac disease
Celiac disease is an intestinal disorder in which gliadin, a fraction of gluten — a natural protein commonly found in many grains, including wheat, barley, rye and oats — cannot be tolerated by the body. This causes a malabsorption of food with symptoms of diarrhoea and fatty stools; failure to thrive and grow at normal rates are often the symptoms first noticed in children with celiac disease. In normal, healthy people, gluten is digested like any other protein or nutrient. It is then absorbed through the finger-like protrusions called villi (and the even tinier hair-like protrusions called microvilli) that hugely increase the surface of the small intestine. But in people with celiac disease, gliadin causes an immune reaction in the body, leading to inflammation and damage to the villi and microvilli of the small intestine. The result is that the intestine cannot absorb nutrients properly and the sufferer can become malnourished.
Recent studies, using specific and sensitive tests, have revealed that celiac disease is one of the most common lifelong disorders in both Europe[1] and the United States.[2] The clinical symptoms of this condition can range from the typical syndrome of malabsorption (chronic diarrhoea, weight loss, and abdominal distention) to symptoms and conditions that can affect any organ system. It is thought that most cases go undiagnosed, often because it is assumed that other diseases cause the symptoms or because symptoms are mild. But because so many cases remain undiagnosed athe condition carries a risk of long-term complications, including osteoporosis, infertility, and cancer.
Celiac disease is most common among people of northern European descent and it is particularly common in people with blond hair and blue eyes. Although many cases are diagnosed in childhood, it can be diagnosed at any age.
Celiac disease is considered to be an autoimmune condition because the body's own immune system damages the intestinal villi, even though the process is started by eating gliadin. People with celiac disease also tend to have an increased risk of developing other autoimmune diseases, such as type-1 diabetes, systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis and thyroid disease. Other conditions that may coexist with celiac disease include dermatitis herpetiformis (an itchy, blistering skin rash similar to eczema), liver disease and immune system abnormalities.
The medical profession has told celiac disease sufferers for a long time that they were twice as likely to suffer an early death, and they were in line for lymph cancers, such as Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. But a study published in 2004 shows this not to be the case. This study looked at the risks of cancer in celiacs.[3] What it found was that there was a slight increased risk in cancers compared to people without the condition — but this was almost all in the first year after diagnosis. After that first year, celiacs had a noticeably reduced risk, particularly of the two main cancers: breast cancer, which is the major cancer among women, was reduced by almost two-thirds, as were lung cancers, which are the most important cancers in both sexes. Only lymph cancers such as Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which are rarer, were increased.
The treatment for the illness is a diet that strictly avoids all foods that contain gluten. This means not only the obvious ones such as bread and pasta, but also hidden gluten as is often found in packaged foods that contain unspecific substances such as 'modified starch'.
After diagnosis, therefore, celiacs would start cutting down on concentrated carbs and their blood glucose levels would be likely to fall. And, as high levels of glucose increase the risk of cancers, merely the change of diet following diagnosis would reduce their cancer risk. This explains why most cancer risks disappear after that first year.
It seems that in the past, celiacs were more likely to worry themselves to death with all the bad news medicine was telling them than from the diseases they were supposed to develop. What looked like a major risk has now been reduced to a slight one.
References
[1]. Catassi C, et al. The coeliac iceberg in Italy: a multicentre antigliadin antibodies screening for coeliac disease in school-age subjects. Acta Paediatr Suppl 1996; 412: 29-35.
[2]. Fasano A, et al. Prevalence of celiac disease in at-risk and not-at-risk groups in the United States: a large multicenter study. Arch Intern Med 2003; 163: 286-292
[3]. West J, et al. Malignancy and mortality in people with coeliac disease: population based cohort study. BMJ 2004; 329: 716-719
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