Good article this month re Coeliac.

[Guest guest]

Good article this month re Coeliac....................................................................For years CD was considered a rare disease outside of Europe. In North America, for example, classic symptoms were recognized in fewer than one in 10,000 people. In 2003 we published the results of our study—the largest hunt for people with CD ever conducted in North America, involving more than 13,000 people. Astoundingly, we found that one in 133 apparently healthy subjects was affected, meaning the disease was nearly 100 times more common than had been thought. Work by other researchers has confirmed similar levels in many countries, with no continent spared.How did 99 percent of cases escape detection for so long? The classical outward signs—persistent indigestion and chronic diarrhea—appear only when large and crucial sections of the intestine are damaged. If a small segment of the intestine is dysfunctional or if inflammation is fairly mild, symptoms may be less dramatic or atypical.It is also now clear that CD often manifests in a previously unappreciated spectrum of symptoms driven by local disruptions of nutrient absorption from the intestine. Disruption of iron absorption, for example, can cause anemia, and poor folate uptake can lead to a variety of neurological problems. By robbing the body of particular nutrients, CD can thus produce such symptoms as osteoporosis, joint pain, chronic fatigue, short stature, skin lesions, epilepsy, dementia, schizophrenia and seizure.http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=celiac-disease-insights