<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> I received many responses to my question about whether or not there is any connection between Parkinson's and CD. Some folks said no, and many folks said they were also curious. This was the only factual response I received and I find it very illuminating: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gluten may play role in nerve disease, study finds ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright (c)1996 Nando.net Copyright (c)1996 Reuter Information Service LONDON (Feb 8, 1996 8:00 p.m. EST) - People with mysterious neurological ailments such as lack of coordination or muscle weakness may need to inspect their dinner for a cause, doctors working in Britain said Friday. They found strong links between unidentifiable neurological disturbances and a sensitivity to gluten, which is found in wheat, rye and barley. A severe sensitivity to gluten, found in coeliac disease, can cause damage to the intestine. Coeliacs cannot absorb certain nutrients and vitamins and the disease is associated with neurological problems. Sufferers must avoid all wheat, rye and barley products -- including flour, bread and pasta -- for their entire lives. Dr. Marios Hadjivassiliou and colleagues at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield decided to test people with undiagnosed neurological symptoms to see if they had a sensitivity to gluten. They found that 57 percent of those with neurological problems of unknown cause also had antibodies to gliadin, which is a component of gluten. Sixteen percent of them had coeliac disease, a much higher level than normally found. Five percent with diagnosed disorders such as Parkinson's disease had the antibodies, while 12 percent of a group of healthy controls had them, they reported in the Lancet medical journal. "This seems to be much commoner than people think," Hadjivassiliou said in a telephone interview. "Up to at least one in 250 people may well have coeliac disease. If you include people that have anti-gliadin antibodies, who may not necessarily have coeliac disease but have gluten sensitivity, then the numbers get even higher." He said most of the patients with the anti-gliadin antibodies did not have other symptoms of coeliac disease such as poor absorption of vitamins. He said the anti-gliadin antibodies may mistakenly take neural tissue and attack and destroy it. This would explain why some coeliacs do not get better even when they stop eating gluten -- sometimes the nerve damage could be permanent. "The next step is to see if we eliminate these antibodies from these people, by sticking to a gluten-free diet, see what happens to their neurological illness," Hadjivassiliou said. In any case, Hadjivassiliou recommended that doctors test for gluten sensitivity in patients showing up with unexplained neurological problems. "It's a very easy test to do, a very useful screening test," he said. Hadjivassilou et. al. "Does cryptic gluten sensitivity play a part in neurological illness?" _The Lancet_ 1996; 347: 369-371. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Title Does cryptic gluten sensitivity play a part in neurological illness? Author Hadjivassiliou M; Gibson A; Davies-Jones GA; Lobo AJ; Stephenson TJ; Milford-Ward A Address Department of Neurology, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, UK. Source Lancet, 347: 8998, 1996 Feb 10, 369-71 Abstract BACKGROUND: Antigliadin antibodies are a marker of untreated coeliac disease but can also be found in individuals with normal small-bowel mucosa. Because neurological dysfunction is a known complication of coeliac disease we have investigated the frequency of antigliadin antibodies, as a measure of cryptic gluten sensitivity, and coeliac disease in neurological patients. METHODS: Using ELISA, we estimated serum IgG and IgA antigliadin antibodies in 147 neurological patients who were divided into two groups. There were 53 patients with neurological dysfunction of unknown cause despite full investigation (25 ataxia, 20 peripheral neuropathy, 5 mononeuritis multiplex, 4 myopathy, 3 motor neuropathy, 2 myelopathy). The remaining 94 patients were found to have a specific neurological diagnosis (16 stroke, 12 multiple sclerosis, 10 Parkinson's disease, 56 other diagnoses) and formed the neurological control group. 50 healthy blood donors formed a third group. FINDINGS: The proportions of individuals with positive titres for antigliadin antibodies in the three groups were 30/53, 5/94, and 6/50 respectively (57, 5, and 12%). The difference in proportion between group 1 and the combined control groups was 0.49 (95% CI 0.35-0.63). Distal duodenal biopsies in 26 out of 30 antigliadin-positive patients from group 1 revealed histological evidence of coeliac disease in nine (35%), non-specific duodenitis in ten (38%), and no lesion in seven (26%) individuals. INTERPRETATION: Our data suggest that gluten sensitivity is common in patients with neurological disease of unknown cause and may have aetiological significance. Language of Publication English Unique Identifier 96169974