The research team found that gliadin, the part of gluten that causes the most trouble for those with celiac disease, binds to the CXCR3 receptor. This results in the release of zonulin, a human protein that lowers the intestinal barrier to make it more permeable. While this effect is temporary in most people, the barrier stays down for long periods of time in people with celiac disease, causing disruption in the body’s system.

The finding may help in research on the cause and treatment for other autoimmune diseases, Fasano said. People with type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis may experience a similar condition in which offending antigens enter the body through this gateway in the intestines.

“For the first time, we have evidence of how the foreign antigen gains access to the body, causing the autoimmune response,” said Fasano, who is also a pediatric gastroenterologist at the University of Maryland Medical Center. “Further study is needed, but this could allow us to intervene before the zonulin is either released or activated, preventing the immune response altogether.”

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Jerusalem – The website of 2Eat, (www.2eat.co.il) a popular Israeli Hebrew restaurant, reports that 85 percent of Israel’s restaurants now offer healthy or dietetic options to diners that often include a salad bar.

Restaurateurs who were polled said that more than one-third of their lunchtime customers order a green salad or some other salad with their meal compared to 20 percent last year.

Noam Shaked, who manages the website, said that some 8 percent of the restaurants offer a separate healthy foods menu including calorie counts of items. Even fast food chains such as McDonaldsand the popular coffee chain Aroma are providing options for diabetics and celiac sufferers. Shaked said that out of the 100 restaurant owners polled, one third said there is an increasing demand from customers for healthier menu choices.

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As the diagnosis continue to grow, so does the attention focused on the disease by doctors, so I wouldn’t be surprised if even more people than previously thought have some form of gluten sensitivity.

Another benefit that comes with the disease getting more attention is the attention provided by cooks, restaurants, and even large corporations, who are looking to capitalize on this with gluten free products.  Here is one story of how far things have come in the last decade (from the Current Argus):

Once considered a rare condition, celiac disease or gluten intolerance is becoming one of the most common genetic conditions in the world, with a wide range of symptoms that can range from digestive problems to depression.

The disease cannot be cured, only controlled through careful diet.

For sufferers in Carlsbad, there is much help to be found through the local Celiac Disease Support Group.

The group offers good information on alternative food choices as well as recipes and general information on how to cope with the disease and diet. However, members agreed, the emotional support is probably the most important offering at the meetings.

Angie Madl was diagnosed eight years ago. For her, the support group has meant a great deal as far as the sharing of important information she might not have found on her own. What keeps her coming back is the camaraderie of knowing others who suffer from the same disease.

“I was diagnosed too late,” Madl said, noting she wasn’t given any information or told what to do.

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When you receive the hepatitis B vaccine series, your immune system is supposed to respond by producing antibodies to the hepatitis B virus. In addition, some of the immune cells that are involved in the body’s response to the vaccine become what’s known as “memory cells.” Many studies have shown, however, that in patients with celiac disease, the vaccine does not always produce adequate (or “protective”) levels of antibodies or memory cells.

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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.

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Here is an excerpt from their post:

Thanks to the research of Diter von Wettstein and a new grant of nearly $1 million from the National Institutes of Health, millions of people around the world suffering from Celiac disease have new reasons for hope.

Dr. von Wettstein, who is R.A. Nilan Distinguished Professor in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences at Washington State University, will use the four-year, $837,000 NSF grant to advance his research to develop gluten-free wheat varieties safe to eat by people with Celiac disease.

NIH has declared urgency
“Medical experts at the National Institutes of Health have declared urgency in dealing with the most food-sensitive intestinal condition in humans, and require faster and more decisive methods such as transgenic breeding,” Dr. Von Wettstein said.

Dr. Von Wettstein, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and his team have discovered a fully viable, lysine-rich mutant which lacks gliadin-type proteins in barley, showing the way to make Celiac-safe wheat. Lysine is an amino acid essential for an optimal diet, but typically deficient in wheat.

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• AJC.com takes a look at how to get rid of gluten while still being a glutton. This post covers how far Celiac awareness has come and talks a bit about Gluten Free Girl’s cookbook.
• US News and World Report talks about how advances in science have aided in the treatment and diagnosis of Celiac disease. It is interesting to see what things they are working on.
• Non-Celiacs going gluten free?  At first I thought they were talking about the fad that has swept the United States of non-Celiacs being on a gluten free diet to lose weight.   After reading, though, it looks like this article is about family members of Celiac sufferers going gluten free.

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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.

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I’m not sure I would classify it as a growing problem, but I think there is a problem with people having the disease and not knowing it.  Here is an excerpt from their post:

According to everything I’ve read, celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder in the small intestine that is aggravated by gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley.

But after talking to Jan Falwell, who suffered unknowingly with celiac disease most of her life, I soon learned there is far more to it.

Falwell thinks she’s had the disease for more than 40 years, probably triggered by mononucleosis when she was 18.

”About 50 to 60 ­percent of the population has the gene“ that causes the ­ailment, she said, ”but there usually has to be a trigger like an operation or stress or pregnancy.“

Falwell, 60, was fortunate to be diagnosed three years ago by an Irish physician practicing locally who ­recognized the symptoms because he was familiar with the disease.

The disease is ­diagnosed more frequently in Europe. Children in Italy must ­undergo a test for the ­disease before entering school, she said.

But in the United States, she said, doctors aren’t taught how to recognize the symptoms. Plus, the ­symptoms are many, varying from one patient to another.

Where there is weight loss and diarrhea for one patient, another will have weight gain and constipation. Other symptoms are gas and bloating, fatigue, dryness throughout the body, weakness, headaches, vomiting and a failure to grow in children, to name a few.

Celiac disease is often misdiagnosed as food ­intolerance or irritable bowel syndrome. Doctors can order blood tests to check for certain antibodies that signal the disease, but Falwell said the disease usually is advanced by the time it can be detected in the blood. A positive blood test could then lead to an endoscopy and biopsy for confirmation.

Long-term health ­problems such as iron ­deficiency anemia, ­osteoporosis, ­vitamin ­deficiencies, intestinal ­cancers, and diabetes can result if left untreated.

”It wipes out the villi in the small intestines,“ Falwell said. ”Mine looks like flat linoleum instead of a shag rug.“

It is through the villi that the body absorbs nutrients. Once nutrients are no longer absorbed, myriad ­physical problems can occur.

Pharmaceutical ­companies are starting to show interest in the disease, and a new pill that helps prevent the leakage of gluten into the small intestines is being tested.

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Many people haven’t ever heard of celiac disease, but for the millions of people unable to eat bread, cookies, pizza crust and pasta, it’s a reality they have to live with every day. Celiac disease is an autoimmune digestive disorder that wreaks havoc on the body’s intestines when foods containing gluten are consumed. It affects roughly twice as many women as men. In the United States, it affects two million people or about one in 133 people.

It may seem like an easy condition to manage, but gluten is a protein found in many grains and is in a multitude of foods that include wheat, rye, barley or oats. When foods with gluten are digested, an immune reaction is triggered that damages the surface of the small intestine, resulting in the body’s inability to absorb needed vitamins and nutrients from food.

The other problem is that celiac disease is difficult to diagnose. “In the United States, many cases remain undiagnosed because symptoms vary from person to person and because physicians have not been adequately trained in what to look for,” reports Alessio Fasano, M.D., professor of pediatrics, medicine and physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore and director of its Center for Celiac Research, in the center’s newsletter.

Celiac disease can develop at any time in a person’s life. It is more common in Caucasian people and those of European descent. If a family member has the disease, the risk for other members increases, as well. Celiac disease is associated with other autoimmune conditions, including lupus, Type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, colitis and thyroid disease.

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