I have an RSS feed on the celiac.com forums page. This week, I read an interesting recent post on Celiac facts that came from a recent lecture at an in Indiana celiac group. Someone took notes at the lecture and posted them for everyone. The whole post is worth reading, but I’m reposting some of the factoids that I found most interesting:
- 1 out of 133 in general population have Celiac (from what I’ve been reading, the number of celiac cases has increased because of newer, better, more specific tests).
- The connection of gluten to Celiac was identified only 61 years ago, and came as a result of WWII. Grains like wheat were in short supply then, and people found that celiac children’s health improved during this low-wheat dietary period!
- Gluten is the only protein the human body can not break down with enzymes. The protein is toxic for a celiac.
- Since Celiac is the only autoimmune disease for which the trigger is known and the disease progression can be reversed, it is being used as a model by which to study autoimmune disease. Currently many scientists are switching from studying autoimmune diseases such as Type I diabetes or MS to Celiac research (also on the celiac.com board was an article suggesting that narcolepsy is also an autoimmune disease, which I think is just wild!)
- The most current research finds that the ideal time to introduce gluten to an infant, in order to decrease the likelihood of developing Celiac, is at 12 months.
The Glutonic Woman 