Do you find that you suffer from both Celiac Disease and bad allergy problems?  Apparently, some people believe that Celiac Disease may be associated with Allergy Problems:

Wheat is among the most common triggers of food allergy and sensitivity. People suffering from reactions to wheat or its constituent proteins gluten and gliadin often suffer from diarrhea, stomach pain, and other gastrointestinal discomforts. A condition called celiac disease is also characterized by intolerance to gluten and gliadin, found in wheat, rye, barley, oats; similar proteins are also found in buckwheat (a grass seed) and millet. Not all people experiencing reactions to wheat and other gluten/gliadin foods have celiac disease. Patients with celiac disease experience diarrhea, foul-smelling, greasy stools, and weight loss, due to multiple vitamin and nutrient deficiencies. They also have damaged small intestine tissue folds (known as jejunoileal fold pattern reversal) caused by exposure to wheat proteins. The liver is also damaged in celiac disease. A recent report in the Journal of Pediatrics states that one out of every 33 children in the United States may have this disease.

Despite some diagnostic differences, celiac disease appears to share many of the causes of other food allergies, including genetic susceptibility (particularly to people from northern and central Europe and northwest India), enzyme deficiency, and intestinal permeability. Children who are not breast-fed and who are introduced to cow’s milk early are at higher risk than other children for developing celiac disease. Additionally, celiac patients also tend to become lactose deficient, leading to lactose intolerance; they also frequently develop multiple food allergies, due to leaky gut.

Celiac disease has also been linked to Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus, schizophrenia, thyroid problems, and hives. Women with celiac disease are at a higher risk for experiencing reproductive problems, including infertility, miscarriage, and low-weight-infant births. Celiac disease is also implicated in bone loss and osteoporosis. In one recent study, 86 newly diagnosed celiac disease patients were placed on a gluten-free diet for one year. These patients, including postmenopausal women, showed a significant improvement in bone mineral density and bone metabolism compared to the control group that did not undergo the elimination diet.

Today I noticed that food allergies were featured in the Washington Post and figured I would share.  Though it isn’t specific to Celiac Disease, it certainly applies to us.    Here is an excerpt from their post:

The market for food-allergy and intolerance products is projected to reach $3.9 billion this year, according to Packaged Facts, a New York research firm. And the market for gluten-free foods and drinks is expected to hit $1.3 billion by 2010, up from $700 million in 2006, according to research firm Mintel.

An estimated 12 million people in the United States have food allergies, and another 2 million have celiac disease, a disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks itself when exposed to gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. Those figures are expected to rise. The number of children with peanut allergies alone has doubled in the past decade. Food-induced anaphylaxis, a potentially fatal allergic reaction, causes about 30,000 emergency room visits and 150 to 200 deaths annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Medical experts don’t know why the number of people with food allergies is increasing. Theories include reduced contact with germs, exposure to certain environmental pollutants and, in the case of peanut allergies, the way peanuts are processed and when they are introduced into people’s diet. None of the theories is backed by much research.

“We don’t know if some of them are true or there’s some truth to all of them,” said Marshall Plaut, chief of the allergic mechanisms section at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Until scientists learn more, the prescription for people with life-threatening food allergies or celiac is to avoid the foods that make them sick, a task that is getting easier.

Whereas a decade ago, the “free from” food market consisted of small manufacturers whose products were sold mainly in health-food stores, today it encompasses an ever-growing list of start-up companies, mainstream retailers such as Safeway and Giant Food, and some food industry giants such as General Mills.

When it comes to gluten free diets, there are two reasons to be on one, with one being more extreme than the other.   I am of course talking about the difference between Celiac Disease and Gluten Sensitivity.   While researching the difference between the two, I ran across this post and figured I would share with you:

What is the difference between celiac sprue and gluten sensitivity?
Gluten sensitivity implies that a person’s immune system is intolerant of gluten in the diet and is forming antibodies or displaying some other evidence of an inflammatory reaction. When these reactions cause small intestinal damage visible on a biopsy, the syndrome has been called celiac sprue, celiac disease, or gluten sensitive enteropathy. (Nontropical sprue and idiopathic steatorrhea are other terms that have been used for this disorder in the past.) The clinical definition of celiac sprue also usually requires that there is clinical and/or pathologic improvement following a gluten-free diet.

In the past, celiac sprue could only be diagnosed after somebody developed certain symptoms like diarrhea, weight loss, or growth failure in children. A biopsy would be performed and if abnormal and typical of celiac sprue, and if a gluten free diet brought resolution of diarrhea, weight gain, or growth, only then would a diagnosis of celiac sprue be made. However, recent advances in diagnostic screening tests and application of these tests to people at heightened risk or to general populations have allowed detection of celiac sprue, sometimes even before damage to villi has occurred. This latter scenario is often called gluten sensitivity.

Doctors have always told patients that the only treatment for Celiac Disease is to the lifelong avoidance of ingesting gluten. But is this really true? We know that there is such a thing as gluten intolerance, and we know that some people are more sensitive to gluten than others.

Over at APhAnet they recently tackled the question, how much gluten is to much gluten?  A couple key points from this article:

Key point: There is insufficient evidence to suggest a definitive threshold of gluten intake for patients with celiac disease (CD); however, less than 10 mg of gluten daily is unlikely to cause significant mucosal abnormalities.

Finer points:A systematic review of 13 clinical trials evaluating CD patients and gluten intake tolerance revealed that patients who consume more than 200 mg of gluten daily for a minimum of 4 weeks are likely to develop intestinal changes. Only three randomized, controlled trials were identified in this review.

Overall, studies were conducted in four continents and assessed gluten intake ranging from 1 to 200 mg/day for periods of 1 week to 8 years. Endpoints varied and included quality of life, mucosal histology, and symptoms. Investigators were unable to conduct a meta-analysis because of the significant heterogeneity in study design, quantity of gluten ingested, length of gluten exposure, and assessment of gluten effects among the clinical trials.

And also:

What your patients need to know:Tell patients with CD to avoid gluten to minimize symptoms. Encourage these patients to consume products that are naturally gluten-free. Explain that even products labeled “gluten free” typically contain the protein, albeit in small amounts. No one knows for sure how much gluten is too much for CD patients, but less than 10 mg daily is generally well-tolerated. Tell patients to be aware of how much gluten their body can tolerate and adjust their consumption accordingly.

Today I was reading about a new medicine that is currently in the early testing phase that may perhaps be a treatment for Celiac Disease. According to Yahoo Health:

In one study, researchers found that an investigational medicine called AT-1001 may protect celiac disease patients from exposure to gluten. The drug does this by preventing gluten from crossing the intestinal mucosa.

While most people with celiac disease do well on a gluten-free diet, inadvertent exposure to gluten is the leading cause of persistent symptoms in adults with celiac disease.

The study of 86 patients found that those who were given gluten and AT-1001 had fewer symptoms of gluten toxicity than those who were given gluten and a placebo. The researchers are now conducting a larger, longer trial.

“Even allowing for the fact that people in clinical trials may practice healthier habits, the fact that all of the groups showed improvement in the first week of the study is significant and helps us to plan better celiac studies,” study author Dr. Daniel Leffler, clinical research director at the Celiac Disease Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, said in a prepared statement.

“This work offers great promise for patients who, in the near future, may have a treatment that improves upon dietary restrictions alone,” Leffler added.

A second study concluded that the criteria for diagnosing celiac disease may be too stringent, meaning some patients go undiagnosed and, therefore, untreated. Current diagnostic criteria for celiac disease include small intestinal muscosal membrane villus atrophy and inflammation.

This study included 145 people suspected of having celiac disease. Of those, 71 were found to be endomysial antibody positive. Of those 71, 48 met the current criteria for celiac disease diagnosis. The other 23 patients were randomly divided into two groups — one group ate a regular diet, while the other ate a gluten-free diet. They were re-assessed after one year.