Celiac disease, an immune reaction to gluten in the GI tract, continues to increase in the United States, according to a Fox News report.
Results of a longitudinal study show that the prevalence of the disease is five times greater now than in 1974 and that people can develop the disease later in life. Also, an analysis of 50-year-old preserved blood samples reported by Mayo Clinic showed that antibodies associated with celiac disease weren't as common in the 1950s as in recent years.
One theory is that as our diets and environments become less diverse, the variety of gut bacteria in our intestines becomes less diverse, too, making the GI tract more vulnerable to celiac disease. Other possibilities point to an increase of gluten in food sources or even exposing children with a predisposition to the disease to too much gluten at young ages.
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