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This study confirms you don't need to be a biopsied, confirmed celiac to
benefit from a gluten-free diet.  One asks how many other medical
conditions are cause by a gluten sensitivity rather than villous atrophy?

J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2003 Sep;74(9):1221-4

Dietary treatment of gluten ataxia.

Hadjivassiliou M, Davies-Jones GA, Sanders DS, Grunewald RA.

Department of Clinical Neurology, The Royal Hallamshire Hospital,
Sheffield, UK. Department of Gastroenterology, The Royal Hallamshire
Hospital.

BACKGROUND: Gluten ataxia is an immune mediated disease, part of the
spectrum of gluten sensitivity, and accounts for up to 40% of cases of
idiopathic sporadic ataxia. No systematic study of the effect of gluten-
free diet on gluten ataxia has ever been undertaken. OBJECTIVE: To study
the effect of gluten-free diet on patients presenting with ataxia caused by
gluten sensitivity. METHODS: 43 patients with gluten ataxia were studied.
All were offered a gluten-free diet and monitored every six months. All
patients underwent a battery of tests to assess their ataxia at baseline
and after one year on diet. Twenty six patients (treatment group) adhered
to the gluten-free diet and had evidence of elimination of antigliadin
antibodies by one year. Fourteen patients refused the diet (control group).
Three patients had persistently raised antigliadin antibodies despite
adherence to the diet and were therefore excluded from the analysis.
RESULTS: After one year there was improvement in ataxia reflected in all of
the ataxia tests in the treatment group. This was significant when compared
with the control group. The diet associated improvement was apparent
irrespective of the presence of an enteropathy. CONCLUSIONS: Gluten ataxia
responds to a strict gluten-free diet even in the absence of an
enteropathy. The diagnosis of gluten ataxia is vital as it is one of the
very few treatable causes of sporadic ataxia.

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