Much has been written about the link between celiac disease and Type 1 Diabetes, and the challenges of living with both. Unfortunately, when you suffer from an autoimmune disorder such as these, your odds of developing another are increased. For this reason we are always interested to hear about new research with a goal of reducing the instances of these conditions.

Research has shown that the intestinal microbiome plays a large role in the development of Type 1 Diabetes and now, recent research at Mayo Clinic has found that gluten in the diet may modify the intestinal microbiome, increasing instances of Type 1 Diabetes. Click to continue reading »

A recent Swedish study finds no link between celiac disease and autism spectrum disorders.

The study’s lead, Dr. Jonas Ludvigsson of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, says that this is one less thing for people who have celiac disease or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to worry about.

According to Ludvigsson, people who were diagnosed with an ASD in the study were no more likely to be diagnosed with celiac disease than people without an ASD.

Ludvigsson and his colleagues linked several Swedish databases to compare the celiac disease diagnoses among people with ASDs to a group of people without the developmental disorders. The researchers had data from 250,000 people.

Roughly 44 people per 100,000 were diagnosed with an ASD before they were diagnosed with celiac disease. That compared to about 48 people per 100,000 who were diagnosed with an ASD but not with celiac disease.

The study did find, however, a link between ASDs and a positive blood test for celiac disease, which alone is not enough to diagnose someone with the condition. A celiac disease diagnosis requires both a positive blood test and evidence of damage to the small intestine.

Ludvigsson cautioned that the link between ASDs and a positive celiac blood test is based on a small number of cases. There could be a real relationship between the two or it could be a result of doctors overtesting people with ASDs, he said.

The study also does not shed any light on whether a gluten-free diet improves ASD symptoms. The study is published in JAMA Psychiatry.

http://medcitynews.com/2013/09/study-finds-link-celiac-disease-autism/

Gluten-free folks here in the US are more than familiar with our friends at Udi’s. Now it’s the UK’s turn to try Udi’s goodies! Boulder Brands have launched their Udi’s bakery range in up to 800 Tesco stores this week.

Nineteen products are being introduced in the UK, including fresh sliced white and brown sandwich bread, bagels, breakfast bars and Udi’s new ancient grain crisps. The company plan to launch up to 50 more of their gluten-free products over the next year.

The $500m business revealed in May that it was planning to launch in the UK when they acquired Cheshire based gluten-free operation, Davies Bakery. Click to continue reading »

Further trials of a drug which could some day treat celiac disease have been approved and will begin later this year. Trials will be carried out in two-parts (single and repeated) in 32 patients at a world-leading site for celiac disease research in Finland. The study will be a double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose escalation study of the drug, currently named BL-7010

The primary objective of the study is to assess the safety of single and repeated ascending doses of the drug in well-controlled celiac patients.

So, what exactly is this drug and how does it hope to treat celiac disease?

BL-7010 has a high affinity for gliadins, the proteins in gluten which cause celiac disease. By segregating these proteins, the drug effectively masks them from enzymatic degradation and prevents the formation of peptides which trigger the immune system. The drug is eventually excreted with gliadin from the digestive tract, preventing the absorption of these peptides into the blood. This significantly reduces the immune response triggered by gluten.

“We are very enthusiastic about this unique product, which is generating a lot of excitement from both the scientific and medical communities. Despite the unmet medical need and the huge size of the celiac market, there is no available treatment for the disease apart from a lifelong gluten-free diet, which is extremely difficult to maintain. Since there are also very few products currently in clinical-stage development, we see a significant opportunity in this market for our product.” – Dr. Kinneret Savitsky, Chief Executive Officer of BioLineRx (the biopharmaceutical development company developing the drug).

We look forward to hearing more about this trial and it’s findings!

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/biolinerx-announces-regulatory-submission-for-phase-12-trial-for-novel-treatment-of-celiac-disease-2013-09-24

Post authored by Laura (Gluten Free Traveller) http://glutenfreetraveller.com/

We’re proud that Julie has joined the Triumph Dining blogging lineup.

Julie has been gluten-free for eight years now and has taken an active role in helping others new to a gluten-free lifestyle. In fact, she was one of the first people I met along my own experiments in avoiding gluten.

Julie, her husband, two sons and dog live in Chicago-land. She is committed to helping Triumph Dining blog and newsletter readers learn about new products to market, safe restaurants and ways to live gluten-free.

Researches have found that sugar substitutes may optimize nutrition and improve the quality and taste of gluten-free bread.

You many be thinking that gluten-free products often have enough added sugar and other nonsense so do we really need more? I’m with you, but I also think this is some interesting research; most of the gluten-free bread on the market is pretty mediocre.

Researchers from the University of Campinas in São Paulo, Brazil say that adding prebiotic and sweetener “opens up new opportunities to develop gluten-free breads that may present similar properties to those of wheat-based breads.”

Prebiotics like inulin and oligofructose (fructoologosaacharides), try saying that one after a shot of tequila!, belong to a class of carbs known as fructans and they can have a positive influence on physiological and biochemical processes in the body, resulting in the improved health and reduction in the risk of developing many diseases. This is interesting since many people with celiac disease go on to develop other autoimmune disorders.

The study found that gluten-free breads make with oligofructose were the most acceptable in terms of overall enjoyment, including aroma, volume and texture of the bread. Oligofructose gave tasters a perception of sweetness in the bread, not far from that of raw sugar.

http://www.bakeryandsnacks.com/R-D/Sweet-findings-Prebiotic-sugar-replacers-pack-nutrition-improve-gluten-free-bread

Post authored by Laura (Gluten Free Traveller) http://glutenfreetraveller.com/

Research conducted in a variety of different countries has shown that there is a definite rise in people being diagnosed with celiac disease. In the last couple of weeks we wrote about rising levels in both Scotland and Australia. Why would this be? Is modern wheat the reason for this increase or it is something else?

The following article was originally published on 09/27 on GlutenFreeTraveller.com.

There has been a lot of talk recently about how modern varieties of wheat may be to blame for the rise in celiac disease but not everyone believes this is really the case.

Most of you will have heard of the book, Wheat Belly. It says that modern wheat is different from the wheat our ancestors ate and removing it from our diets will help all of us to feel better.

“Wheat is the most destructive thing you could put on your plate, no questions.” says Wheat Belly author, William Davis. “You take wheat out of the diet and you literally see lives transformed.”

The book has been very popular and lots of people follow this belief but I’ve always been a little cynical. I was excited to find this article from NPR, which challenges this belief and suggests we need to look further at the reasons for the rise in celiac disease.

Most doctors are not of the same opinion as Davis and don’t believe that wheat causes problems for most people. Davis’ theory is that the wheat of years ago did not make people sick and it’s modern strains are to blame. However, whilst breeders did introduce new varieties of wheat around 40 years ago, scientists who work with the crops don’t believe that it’s making more people sick that it used to.

Donald Kasarda, a research chemist for the USDA, has studied gluten proteins for more than 40 years. He is extremely skeptical that the rise in celiac disease is related to this modern wheat. Kasarda found no significant differences between the gluten levels in wheat during the early part of the 20th century, compared with those from the latter half. So, if there isn’t more gluten in modern wheat than the wheat of the past, can we really blame modern wheat for an increase in celiac disease?

Kasarda presented his research at this week’s International Celiac disease Symposium in Chicago. “When it comes to an increase of gluten in modern wheat? I didn’t find any evidence that this is true.”

Daniel Leffler, who directs research at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center shares this view. He believes that the increase in celiac disease is due to many different factors, including the Hygiene Hypothesis – the idea that the environment in which we live has become so clean that our immune systems no longer have to fend off many bugs and infections, the result being that our immune systems overreact to things which should be harmless; such as wheat and other allergens.

Other theories are possible changes in gut bacteria, antibiotic use and the early introduction of wheat to babies. There is of course also the growing awareness of and testing for celiac disease.

Whilst we don’t have all the answers yet, this is certainly a fascinating topic. and I eagerly await further research into the reasons for the rise in celiac disease!

What are your thoughts on this? Is modern wheat to blame, or at least a contributing factor, for the rise in celiac disease? Or is it something else?

Post authored by Laura (Gluten Free Traveller) http://glutenfreetraveller.com/

There are plenty of articles out there which talk about a link between celiac disease and autism. Many autistic children show a vast improvement in symptoms when they stick to a strictly gluten-free diet.

Interestingly though, a new nationwide study from Sweden claims that there is no link between celiac disease and autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

In the study, people who were diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder were no more likely to be diagnosed with celiac disease than people without ASD. Click to continue reading »

Earlier this month, we brought news of research from Australia suggesting that celiac disease appears to be a lot more common that previously thought. Now, researchers in Scotland have also found that the number of children with celiac disease may have reached record levels.

Scientists have discovered that celiac disease now affects six times more children living in Scotland than it did in 1990.

Researchers based at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh found that the rate of children being newly diagnosed with celiac disease increased from 1.7 per 100,000 children in 1990-1994 to 11.8 per 100,000 in 2005-2009.

The team considered a number of possible reasons for this rise. Factors could include changing patterns of childhood infections as a result of ongoing improvements in healthcare, greater awareness of celiac disease and it’s symptoms or simply the result of better and more rigorous testing.

Peter Gillett, of Edinburgh University’s department of child life and health thinks there is more behind this increase than heightened awareness and better testing.

“It also confirms the need to look further at factors influencing why we are seeing more patients with coeliac disease.”

Why do you think more and more people are being diagnosed with celiac disease? Is is simply better awareness and testing or something more?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-24124878

Post authored by Laura (Gluten Free Traveller) http://glutenfreetraveller.com/

We’ve known for a while that tennis player, Novak Djokovic, follows a gluten-free diet. He became the world’s Number One player three years ago after going gluten-free and now he has a new book in which he shares his diet and training secrets.

His new book, “Serve to Win: The 14-Day Gluten-Free Plan for Physical and Mental Excellence”, talks about the success he achieved whilst following a gluten-free and low-sugar diet. Whilst his nutritional secrets include quite the variety of things from drinking plenty of warn water throughout the day to eating Manuka honey from New Zealand, the biggest change for him was removing gluten from his diet. Click to continue reading »