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80 Percent of Gluten-Free Eaters Do Not Have Celiac Disease, Study Finds

By the latest estimates, about 1.8 million people in the U.S. have celiac disease, though 1.4 million of them have not been diagnosed. That’s the result of a Mayo Clinic literature review published today in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

What’s particularly surprising about this gap in diagnosis is that it doesn’t reflect attitudes about gluten: 1.6 million people who do not have celiac disease still follow gluten-free diets. That means that 80 percent of those on a gluten-free diet have not been diagnosed with celiac disease.

“There are a lot of people on a gluten-free diet, and it’s not clear what the medical need for that is,” said Dr. Joseph Murray, a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist and co-author of the study in a statement. “It is important if someone thinks they might have celiac disease that they be tested first before they go on the diet.”

  1. rofreshment reblogged this from huffingtonpost and added:
    Interesting article
  2. parkerlewiscanlose reblogged this from huffingtonpost
  3. asmartwoman reblogged this from huffingtonpost and added:
    Dear HuffPo, your link to the actual position paper that some of us will read gives a 404. Also, this whole thing just...
  4. istellar reblogged this from huffingtonpost
  5. pioneerman reblogged this from huffingtonpost and added:
    for binx…
  6. disssorderr said: This is such a misleading article. You may have gluten intolerance and not celiac disease. It’s the same concept as lactose intolerance. Your body just can’t process it.
  7. religionisbullshit said: thats fucking retarded
  8. zaynganjavadd reblogged this from huffingtonpost
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