July 23, 2010
Under normal circumstances, our bodies have built-in protection against microscopic things that could kill us. If a virus or bacteria breaks through the outer defenses of the skin, specialized cells trigger a cascade of events that tell white blood cells to destroy the potentially harmful pathogen. Occasionally this well-tuned system backfires and the immune cells attack the body instead — what’s called an autoimmune response.
Celiac disease, which affects nearly 2 million Americans, is one such malady. Researchers in Australia now believe they have identified three tiny compounds responsible for the majority of the disease’s problem.
When you take a bite of food, a B.L.T. from Cortese’s for example, you begin the process of replenishing the nutrients your body needs to survive. The body can’t apply a bread slice directly to a muscle and make a stronger muscle, you need to break the bread down into its individual components first. This starts in the mouth, where the teeth take the bite and physically break the food into small pieces. After you swallow the food, various chemicals go to work on the smaller pieces, breaking down the bread and peanut butter into the vitamins, carbohydrates, fats and proteins the body can use.
Photo by NOAA
Your body absorbs the nutrients through structures called villi in the small intestine. Think of them like the tentacles of a coral; the digested food slurry wafts over the tentacles, and special gates in the tentacles move the stuff of life into your blood.
If you have celiac disease, that B.L.T. becomes a problem. The wheat component of the bread contains the protein gluten. Gluten is made up of smaller pieces called amino acids – the body uses these amino acids for growth and repair. When wheat proteins reach the small intestine of a celiac sufferer, the proteins enter the bloodstream. The immune system mistakes these proteins for foreign invaders and ends up damaging the intestine’s villi. After enough time, a celiac sufferer’s small intestine looks like the inside of a pipe instead of a coral. This means that the small intestine can’t absorb enough nutrients for the body, which starts to suffer from nutrient deprivation. Fortunately, the damage is reversible; the small intestine can repair itself in the absence of gluten.
Currently the only remedy to this problem is for the celiac sufferer to remove gluten entirely from her diet. This can be challenging, however. Gluten shows up in a huge variety of places like soy sauce, white pepper, vitamins, toothpaste, curry powders and some cosmetics. Going out for dinner can turn into an exercise in giving the third degree to the serving staff about ingredients.
Research conducted over nine years, two continents and with more than 200 patients pinpoints three tiny gluten fragments that trigger the celiac’s body to destroy the intestine’s villi. Identifying this “toxic trio” helps the medical community develop a true cure. A company in Australia is already working on a desensitization protocol, and three drugs are under development.
It will take time for any remedy to pass rigorous testing, but researchers can now envision ways to safely dampen the body’s immune response, or even create a pill to eat with a meal that will trap or destroy the dangerous gluten segments, while leaving the rest of the gluten proteins available for the body to use.
in the meantime, the gluten-free options continue to grow for the approximately 300 Binghamton residents with celiac diesase. Wegmans offers a a gluten-free shopping guide, Weis Markets offers an “Ask the Dietician” resource, Despina’s Mediterranean Taste, Nirchi’s Pizza and Crepe Heaven are listed as gluten-friendly, and Binghamton has several doctors who specialize in intestinal maladies. You can also join a local Celiac Self Help Group (contact Nancy Dorfman at 607-722-3848 or ndorfman@stny.rr.com).
- Symptoms of celiac disease (the Mayo Clinic)
- Celiac Disease Foundation
- Celiac Disease Awareness Campaign (the National Institute of Health)
- Participate in a clinical trial
Originally published at Examiner.com
Photo by Wikimedia user Böhringer