According to a new study published Monday in the Annals of Medicine, cases of intestinal disorder known as Celiac disease are on the rise with many adults developing the disease. It has been seen that prevalence of the disease more than doubled among a group of 3,511 seemingly healthy adults between 1974 and 1989. Researchers retested blood samples collected decades ago and determined that 15 of the 16 people who had celiac disease were not diagnosed at the time by their doctors. Authors believe this study should prompt physicians and scientists to reexamine some of their fundamental assumptions about the autoimmune disorder that is usually diagnosed early in life.
Dr. Eric Esrailian, a gastroenterologist at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, a independent observer said, “A lot of those rules of thumb have to be reevaluated as we learn more about it and we find patients developing the disease later in life.”
According to present knowledge Celiac disease is triggered by eating foods that contain gluten, an essential protein found in grains like wheat, barley and rye. Gluten prompts the immune system to destroy the lining of the small intestine, which prevents people from absorbing the nutrients in food and leaves them at risk of malnourishment. Symptoms include diarrhea, weight loss, constipation, anemia and fatigue. Around one in 133 people in the U.S. have the disease. It was believed that this disease appeared in childhood in response to initial exposure to gluten. It is inexplicable why people could eat gluten with no problems for decades and then suddenly lose their ability to tolerate it. Now the study conducted by experts from the Center for Celiac Research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine changes this belief.
This study was combined with a larger study looking at risk of cancer and heart disease. They found that the prevalence of the disease more than doubled from 0.21% to 0.45% and at least two people developed the disease after the age of 50. Dr. Alessio Fasano, the pediatrician who led the study said that the team was surprised at the findings. He said that this phenomenon could be explained by a host of factors like genetics and environment. He explained that environmental factors may trigger changes in the immune system that could activate anti-gluten gene. But identifying those factors would not be easy. “What has changed in the environment in the last 30 years? We have more antibiotics, more vaccinations, bioengineered foods, chemicals we haven't been exposed to, and pollutants that haven't been around in the concentrations we have now,” he added.
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