In college, Jules Shepard?s doctors told the English major to eat more protein and fiber to calm her irritable bowels.
“I was the really annoying student who skated in late, satin the back and munched on shredded wheat all through class,” she said. “Little did I know, I was destroying my intestines.”
Ten years later, she was diagnosed with celiac disease ? an autoimmune disorder categorized by an extreme reaction to the gluten found in wheat and barley.
Wheat gluten is widespread in packaged and canned goods, though it may be the most problematic grain in our diet, said Dr. Alessio Fasano, lead researcher at the Center for Celiac Research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.
Celiac disease is the most common autoimmune disorder, according to the National Institutes of Health ? affecting 2.5 million to 3 million Americans. For each person diagnosed with celiac disease, an estimated 60 to 70 people go undiagnosed.
Celiac is the only autoimmune disorder with a known aggravating factor, Fasano said, and his lab developed a simple and dead-on blood test to identify the disease.
“Gluten is the trigger, because when you diagnose someone with celiac disease and put them on a gluten-free diet … they heal completely,” he said. “We?ve always thought of autoimmune disease as one-way. … It gives us hope that if we knew the trigger for [other autoimmune diseases] we could stop the progress of disease.”
The first challenge is to diagnose people.
Since it attacks the intestines, many sufferers have symptoms related to malnutrition because they can?t digest calcium or iron, Fasano said. Symptoms can include nausea, irritable bowels, anemia, chronic fatigue and bone weakness.
At a glance
Finding information about celiac disease online:
» The University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research: www.celiaccenter.org
» Jules Shepard?s Web site: www.nearlynormalcooking.com
» The Celiac Disease Foundation: www.celiac.org
