New research out of the University of Maryland’s Center for Celiac Research reconfirms that celiac disease can present itself at any age — and it comes on more often than we think in the elderly. Basically it found that many adults are losing their tolerance to gluten as we age.
Celiac disease has often been considered something of a childhood-onset disease. But the new research unveiled today in The Annals of Medicine confirm an updated story: celiac disease can be triggered at any age — or another way to look at it, you’re never to old to develop it. This supports the idea that age shouldn’t make a physician rule out celiac disease as a possible diagnosis.
Gluten-Free Living’s blog highlighted this study and talked with Dr. Alessio Fasano, Director of the Center for Celiac Research,
“Fasano said the study shows that environmental factors cause a person to stop being able to tolerate gluten at some point in their lifetime. If individuals can tolerate gluten for many decades before developing celiac disease, something other than gluten must be in play… if those factors could be identified and manipulated, new treatments and prevention of celiac disease would be possible, he said.”
The next step will likely have researchers looking into what those environmental factors might be.
Tags: age, celiac, gluten-free, research
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