A Surprising Study

As shared by Jens Gluten Free Blog.

I just read about an astounding study about the effects of gluten.  Dr. Mark Hyman writes about it in the Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/gluten-what-you-dont-know_b_379089.html).

Dr. Hyman reports that according to a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association people with diagnosed celiac disease, undiagnosed celiac disease, and gluten sensitivities have a higher risk of death than the average person.  Apparently they looked at 30,000 patients from 1969 to 2008 and divided them into three groups: those with celiac disease, those with intestinal inflammation but not full blown celiac disease, and those with a gluten sensitivity (positive blood test, negative endoscopy).  The people with celiac disease have a 39% increased risk of death, those with intestinal inflammation have a 72% increased risk of death, and those with a gluten sensitivity have a 35% increased risk of death.  Most of these risks are associated with heart disease and cancer.  It was unclear to me from Dr. Hyman’s article whether the celiacs in this study were following a strict gluten-free diet.

The most surprising aspect of this study is the fact that one does not need to have full blown celiac disease in order to be at risk from serious health issues related to gluten.  Even if you are gluten intolerant,you can become very sick from eating gluten.  Dr. Hyman points out that while 1 in 133 people are believed to have celiac disease, 1/3 of Americans are believed to be gluten intolerant!  99% of them don’t even know it.  They are being diagnosed with IBS, inflamatory bowel diease, osteoperosis, anemia, and scores of other illnesses and are completely unaware that gluten is the cause of their health problems.

Dr. Hyman strongly recommends that if you want to know if you have a gluten sensitivity try the gluten-free diet for 2-4 weeks and see if you are feeling better.  If when you reintroduce gluten into your diet you suddenly feel your symptoms return, you are probably gluten sensitive and you should stay away from gluten.  Similarly if you test positive for gluten anti-bodies but your endoscopy is negative, you should still stay away from gluten.  You are gluten intolerant and can become very sick.
Chek out the article with the link I provided above.  It is well worth the read.