This is something I had never considered before, but it looks like gluten free wheat may be on the way. According to Washington State University, scientists are working on developing a gluten free wheat for people with Celiac Disease.

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.

Here is the latest batch of interesting notes regarding Celiac and the Gluten Free Diet from around the internet:

• 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.

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.

Celiac Disease continues to get featured in more high profile places.   The most recent is Kentucky.com, who has posted that Celiac Disease is a growing problem.

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.

Click over to get the read the rest of the article.

When you attend Celiac events, are there are overwhelming number of women there compared to men? According to a post at Newswise, Celiac Disease affects twice as many woman.

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.

Click over to check out the rest of the article!