<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

I can't believe the emotional reaction to Dr. Kasarda's post seems to
have obscured some interesting possibilities (to my mind anyway!) of
this apparent connection between smoking and celiac:

1. Could this explain why there is a discrepancy between the
predicted frequency of celiac in the general population and the lack
of observed symptoms at the same frequency in the general public?  In
other words there could be a sizable population that has celiac and
just happen to smoke who would never need to see a doctor for
symptoms they don't have and certainly wouldn't end up reading this
list. (For all we know maybe their being celiac is why they get
cancer in the first place!  Maybe all those 100 yr olds who smoked
since they were 12  simply don't have the celiac gene)This could also
be a contributing factor to their smoking habit--since whenever they
try to give it up they would suddenly feel awful and go back to
smoking.

2. Smoking is delivering a drug to the body.  Smoking causes
cancer--as far as I understand it nicotine does not.  Would it not be
exciting to think that you could avoid the effects of accidental
gluten ingestion by something as simple as chewing a piece of
nicotine gum before dinner?

This is all somewhat wild speculation, but I hope there is some
researcher out there willing to get beyond the PC reaction to
cigarettes and look into this a little more scientifically.

Joe Zaccardi ([log in to unmask])