celiac PART ONE

[Guest guest]

http://www.denvernaturopathic.com/news/celiac.html

 

Celiac disease, triggered by gluten proteins from wheat in susceptible

people, can damage the central nervous system. The cell walls of Candida,

the yeast responsible for oral thrush, vaginal infections and intestinal

Candidiasis, contain the same protein sequence as wheat gluten and may

trigger or stimulate Celiac Disease.

 

 

Our understanding of celiac disease has come a long way in the last few

years. Several recent studies have linked celiac disease to central nervous

system damage which may cause sporadic ataxia. Other studies have

identified the particular protein sequence in gluten which causes celiac

disease. Other researchers have identified a similar protein in candida

yeast and suggest that it may also trigger the same disease. These studies

suggest that the typical digestive symptoms we associate with celiac disease

are present less than 20% of the time. Having " normal " digestion no longer

rules out the disease.

 

This is a complicated business but I think rather than gloss over it many

people deserve and need the details. So please bear with me and skip over

the parts that get to thick.

 

First a bit of background:

Celiac disease is also called coeliac disease or celiac sprue. The Merck

Manual defines it as a " chronic intestinal malabsorption disorder caused by

intolerance to gluten. " [1] The villi of the small intestine atrophy and

nutrients are poorly absorbed resulting in steatorrhea (frequent greasy

stools) and malnutrition. Sufferers usually get better when gluten

containing cereal grains are removed from the diet. Although the syndrome

was described earlier, [2] it wasn't until 1950 that the link between

dietary cereals and the disease was figured out. [3] During the Second

World War when the Germans occupied Holland , children with celiac sprue

improved dramatically only to get sick again disease again at the end of the

war. During the war, wheat and rye were in short supply in Holland . The

researcher who noticed this was able to show that it was the gluten protein

in grains which triggered the disease. [4]

Celiac is a genetic disorder and the incidence varies among different

populations. Ireland and people of Irish descent have the highest

incidence, about 1 person in 300. In Europe and the United States the

incidence is much lower, reported at about 1 in 2,500 or less. The longer a

population has eaten wheat the lower the incidence. Europeans have

cultivated wheat for almost 9,000 years while the Irish have grown it for

only about 3,000 years. I suppose we could rename the disease Celtic Sprue

rather than celiac sprue. When tested 90% of people with celiac disease are

positive for the HLA-B8 antigen in their blood.

The classic problems associated with celiac disease are those of

malabsorption and nutritional deficiency. Children with the disease fail to

thrive; they are deficient in all of the fat soluble vitamins (A, E, K, and

D) and many of the minerals, especially calcium and magnesium. While

children are prone to osteomalacia, adults usually develop osteoporosis.

This has been the description of celiac disease that medical text books have

talked about for decades. Now for what's new.