What Causes Celiac Disease?

I’ve been reading up a little on the causes of celiac disease and I’ve discovered some interesting things.

Celiac disease is caused by three factors: environmental, genetic, and a highly permeable intestinal wall.  The environmental factor is quite simply the  introduction of gluten products into the diet.  But it took a while to figure that out.  In the first century AD the greek physician Aretaeus of Cappadocia was the first to officially recognize and document celiac symptoms.  He called the disease koiliakos, meaning “abdomen.”  But it was the British physician Samuel Gee that is the considered the modern father of celiac disease.  He describes the disease as “a kind of chronic indigestion which is met with in persons of all ages, yet is especially apt to affect children between one and five years old.”  He even suggested that diet was the cause of the disease but he seems to have missed the boat when he prescribed thinly sliced toast for his celiac patients (ouch!).

It was the Dutch physician Willem-Karel Dicke that helped to discover gluten products as the environmental culprit for the celiac symptoms.  He noticed a significant drop in death rates among children with celiac disease in the Netherlands after World War II due to the bread shortages.  He also noted the sudden rise in death rates among this group when wheat was once again available.  His discoveries led scientists to narrow the suspects down to gluten.  With the identification of gluten as the cause of the disease we have the only known treatment: the avoidance of gluten products.

In search of other methods of treatment, modern researchers are looking at other factors that can cause celiac disease.   Specifically, they are looking for the causes for the highly permeable intestinal walls found in celiac sufferers.  They have already identified a few possibilities.  One is a Vitamin D deficiency (particularly in infants when they are first exposed to gluten), and a second is a low levels of certain micro-organisms in the body’s intestines.  Both Vitamin D and these micro-organisms are very active in developing immune systems.

Vitamin D is thought to protect us from auto-immune disorders like diabetes, multiple sclerosis, allergies, and celiac disease. Vitamin D deficiency can lead to the development of these diseases.  The deficiency might stem from the fact that we don’t get enough sun, and when we are in the sun we use heavy layers of sunscreen.

Research has also shown that levels of the micro-organism Bifidobacterium in the intestines of celiac sufferers are lower than that of non-celiac sufferers.  These micro-organisms are beneficial to the development of the immune system and help lower intestinal permeability.

Some are suggesting that vitamin d supplements and probiotics for infants might help to prevent the development of celiac disease, but more studies are necessary to support this claim.  An overdose of Vitamin D can cause kidney stones so nothing like this should be tried without consulting a doctor.

With the high prices, the difficulty of food preparation, and the lack of availability of gluten-free food (although this is steadily improving), another method of treating celiac disease will be a welcome piece of news.  But for now, I suppose, I’ll go make my daughter another pot of rice noodles.