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 It's a common misconception - even among many doctors - that celiac
disease is limited to people who are underweight.
“Being overweight certainly does not exclude the diagnosis, as this
paper shows,” said Dr. Peter Green, director of the Celiac Disease
Center at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, who
was not involved in the new study.
Between 0.5 percent and 1 percent of people living in the developed
world are thought to have celiac disease, in which gluten in food
triggers a damaging immune response in the small intestines.
Patients with celiac disease often, but not always, have diarrhea.
They also have trouble absorbing nutrients from food.
To find out the prevalence of celiac disease among overweight and
obese children, Dr. Raffaella Nenna and colleagues used data
collected at a nutrition center at the University of Rome between
1998 and 2003, from 1,527 overweight and obese children and young
adults between the ages of two and about 24 years.
Seventeen children, or about 1 percent, tested positive for celiac
disease through blood work and damage to their small intestines, the
authors reported in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and
Nutrition.
Those who tested positive for celiac disease were invited to start a
nutritionally-balanced gluten-free diet, according to the
researchers.
The children who had symptoms of celiac disease reported improvement
once they started the gluten-free diet. They also tended to lose
weight.
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“There are two things when you go on a gluten free diet,” said
Green. “You need to learn what to avoid and what to eat. Patients
will often get information on how to make a gluten-free diet a
healthy diet.”
He added that people with celiac disease are encouraged to see a
nutrition specialist when starting a gluten-free diet so they don’t
just replace what they’re currently eating with junk food.
Green also said it’s important that people – including doctors –
don’t discount a person’s potential celiac symptoms based on
appearance.
“The clinical manifestations are very diverse,” he said. “Physicians
just looking at a patient can’t say they couldn’t have it if they’re
overweight or tall.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1KeUQnY Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology
and Nutrition, online December 8, 2014.
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