Now that my doctor tells me I'm celiac -- which, as you'll find out below, I'm not sure I am -- I just got through re-reading Dr. Fine's June '03 lecture at the Greater Louisville Celiac Sprue Support Group.

According to Fine, celiac is but a small subset of the greater malady "gluten sensitivity."  Celiac is historically diagnosed via intestinal biopsy combined with a blood test looking for antigliadin antibodies.  Recent studies have shown that about 1% of the population meet these criteria and are therefore celiac.  He argues that just because you don't yet have damage to your intestinal villi doesn't mean, though, that you do not have negative reactions to gluten.  So we've way underestimated the impact of gluten.

Get this.  Of 227 normal volunteers tested by Dr. Fine, 9% had antigliadin antibodies in the blood.  But 76% had the antibodies in stool!  This suggests that up to three quarters of the population is gluten sensitive, seventy five times more than the new estimations.

I don't believe that Dr. Fine's study was peer reviewed, but it is very interesting.

-- 
_______________________________________________
Get your free Verizonmail at www.verizonmail.com