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Found the following in a newsgroup. Don Wiss.


From: [log in to unmask] (Claire Callahan Goodman)
Newsgroups: alt.support.crohns-colitis
Subject: More on celliac
Date: Thu, 08 Feb 1996 18:12:47 -0700

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Gluten may play role in nerve disease, study finds
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Copyright =A91996 Nando.net
Copyright =A91996 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.