Celiac Disease and Elders or Seniors

“Celiac disease doesn’t only affect the young”…”but can strike a person for the first time later in life” begins a story from Reuters, 24 Jul 09: Celiac Disease May Strike the Elderly Too. Their facts come from BMC Gastroenterology, online 29 Jun 09.
Celiac disease, or gluten syndrome, is an immune response to certain proteins found in cereal grains-especially, wheat, rye, barley, possibly oats and others. Cross food contamination from any particles or derivatives of these grains creates the same response. A reaction may occur from as little as 1/8 teaspoon of product, and the response may last in one’s system for two years. Crumbs count.
There may be over 300 gluten induced diseases, including autoimmune diseases. This, of course, complicates recognition and identification. Some part of the medical community only wants to recognize celiac disease as a small intestinal irritation proven by positive biopsy. Others want to define it as a neurological disease proven by serology and symptomatology.
Reuters (BMC Gastroenterology) go on to say researchers concluded that the elderly could develop the disease later in life. “Past research has shown that undetected celiac disease can lead to significant health problems in older people…” “in one study including 35 people 60 and older, 15 had been seeing their doctor for 28 years, on average, with symptoms, without being diagnosed.” Mine was 48 years. My mother was never diagnosed, knew she was allergic to wheat, somehow. She developed Lupus and eventually succumbed to complications of that. It’s not pretty.
“Doctors should be aware of the possibility that their older patients may have or develop celiac disease, Vippula, et al, say, and they should use blood tests to confirm the disease-even though a negative test doesn’t mean that a person won’t develop the condition later on.” A negative serology or biopsy doesn’t absolutely rule out the existence of disease related to gluten ingestion/inhalation/absorption. This is why many want to change the nomenclature to gluten syndrome and refer to it as a neurol-ogical condition. This is especially true if there are symptoms of the more than 300 related diseases. Largely this correlation goes unrecognized or unquestioned. The truth being that every human being has a negative response to gluten! (Fasano @ CSA Conference, Nov 2010). More later.