Jul 1, 2009 7:14 pm US/Pacific
Gluten Allergy Going Undiagnosed, Causing Illness
(CBS 5)
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Pizza crust, along with other popular dishes, contains gluten.
AP
Enjoying a burger on a bun, a crusty pizza or a plate of pasta should not hurt you. New research found, for a growing number of Americans with Celiac Disease, these foods can harm or even kill.
The study, done by scientists at the Mayo clinic and published July 1st in the medical journal Gastroenterology, found Celiac disease is under diagnosed, and that these undiagnosed cases have dramatically increased in the United States during the past 50 years.
Their results suggest that Celiac disease is four times more prevalent in the U.S. than it was in the 1950s.
The scientists also found that the death rate due to Celiac disease was four times higher in the past 45 years among people who did not know they had the condition.
People with Celiac disease can not tolerate gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye and barley. Gluten is also found in many everyday products as well, including vitamins, cosmetics and certain medications.
For patients with Celiac disease, when they eat any food that contains gluten, their immune systems rev up and attack their own small intestines. The body's response to the attack can be toxic.
The National Institutes of Health is more descriptive, writing how "when people with Celiac disease eat foods or use products containing gluten, their immune system responds by damaging or destroying villi - the tiny, fingerlike protrusions lining the small intestine. Villi normally allow nutrients from food to be absorbed through the walls of the small intestine into the bloodstream. Without healthy villi, a person becomes malnourished, no matter how much food one eats."
The symptoms of Celiac disease vary. In children, the most common symptoms according to the National Institutes of Health include abdominal bloating and pain, chronic diarrhea, vomiting, constipation, a foul-smelling or fatty stool, and weight loss.
In adults, according to N-I-H, the most common symptoms include unexplained anemia, fatigue, bone or joint pain, arthritis, osteoporosis, tingling numbness in hands or feet, depression or anxiety, even canker sores in the mouth.
The only treatment at this point is to adhere to a gluten free diet. Patients have to carefully read labels because gluten can be found in so many products, including bouillon cubes, soups, matzo, soy sauce, even communion wafers.
For more information, visit:
digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/celiac/
For website that details local resources, including shopping tips and Bay Area "gluten-free" dining, visit:
celiacsf.org
For Celiac support groups, check out:
celiacsupport.stanford.edu
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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