If you suffer from celiac disease, or think you might have it, there are two recent pieces of news that you need to be aware of — one involving your brain and the other your respiratory system.
Before we get into that, let’s review what we know about celiac disease. It’s a genetic disorder that causes your digestive system to have an immune reaction to gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye products, and sometimes in foods containing oats. This immune response causes damage to the small intestine and blocks the proper absorption of nutrients from food into the body.
This can lead to other problems, such as osteoporosis, osteomalacia (a.k.a. rickets), kidney stones, lactose intolerance, nerve damage, epileptic seizures, and even cancer. Symptoms of celiac disease can be hard to recognize, as they vary greatly and can be mistaken for other problems. They include: diarrhea, stomach pain, bloating, irritability, depression, joint pain, mouth sores, skin rash, and fatigue. The exact cause of celiac disease is unknown.
So, onto the news: First of all, a study published in the Archives of Neurology found a link between celiac disease and cognitive decline. Researchers took a look at the records of 13 patients who had been treated at the Mayo Clinic between January 1, 1970, and December 31, 2005. All of these patients had some level of cognitive decline within two years and they had starting experiencing celiac disease symptoms or an intensification of their symptoms.
Researchers found that most of the patients started experiencing mental difficulties — such as problems doing simple calculations, confusion, amnesia, and changes in personality — around age 64. For five of the 13 patients, this occurred at the same time that they started having celiac disease symptoms (or when their symptoms started getting worse). It was found that 10 of the patients also had “ataxia,” which is a movement and coordination problem that causes balance, speech, walking, and motor-control problems.
Four of the celiac disease sufferers studied had “peripheral neuropathy,” which is a type of damage to part of the body’s nervous system. The researchers found some similarities on the patients’ MRIs and also discovered that four people had marked deficiencies in vitamins B and E, and/or folate. When gluten was removed from their diets, three of the patients’ cognitive symptoms improved.
All of this means that there seems to be a significant link between the digestive system problem and neurological difficulties. The researchers speculate that this could be caused by the nutrient deficiencies seen in most celiac patients, but have yet to pinpoint specific vitamins or minerals, or an exact cause. More studies need to be done in order to further explore this connection.
In further news, a Swedish study found that celiac disease sufferers could be at increased risk for tuberculosis (TB) — bet you didn’t see that one coming!
TB, also termed “consumption,” is a contagious, bacteria- caused disease that mainly affects the lungs. TB rates have decreased greatly in North America due to an improved quality of life; however, the disease still exists here and it is a major problem in other areas of the world. People with weakened immune systems are more prone to it. Symptoms include fatigue, loss of appetite (and ensuing weight loss), fever, and cough. Fortunately, there are drugs to treat TB, although they do work slowly.
To see if there is any kind of connection between TB and celiac disease, researchers compared two groups of study subjects: 14,335 celiac disease sufferers and 70,000 people without the autoimmune problem. It was quite a large study. What they found was that those who had been flagged as having celiac disease when they were adults had a four times’ greater chance of having TB.
Meanwhile, people who had been diagnosed with the disease had three times the risk. Conversely, the researchers found that people who had already been diagnosed with TB were twice as likely to develop celiac disease.
Once again, researchers are not sure about the mechanism or the association between celiac disease and tuberculosis. However, they theorize that the malabsorption problem caused by celiac disease or the limitations of a gluten-free diet might lead to a deficiency in vitamin D and calcium, which could leave the immune system vulnerable to the bacteria that cause TB infection. Again, more research is required to back up this surprising link.
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Tags: Diets, joint pain, Lungs
