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Study links osteoporosis, gluten intolerance
Last Updated: 2005-03-01 9:55:07 -0400 (Reuters Health)
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Some people develop osteoporosis, the mineral loss
disease that leads to brittle bones, because their bodies cannot tolerate
wheat flour, a study said on Monday.
Gluten intolerance, called celiac disease, can be treated, so the damage
done by osteoporosis can be reversed in such patients, added the report
published in the current issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
"Our results suggest that as many as three to four percent of patients who
have osteoporosis have the bone disease as a consequence of having celiac
disease, which makes them unable to absorb normal amounts of calcium and
vitamin D," said William Stenson, a Washington University physician at
Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.
He and colleagues recommended blood tests be used to screen osteoporosis
patients for celiac disease.
The report was based on a look at 840 patients, some of whom had
osteoporosis. It found a much higher prevalence of celiac disease among
those with osteoporosis than in those without it.
Celiac disease triggers an immune reaction to the gluten portion of wheat,
interfering with the intestine's absorption of various foods. Some patients
do not know they have the disease because their symptoms are minor.
In the study, patients with celiac disease and osteoporosis who went on a
gluten-free diet for one year were able to improve both gastrointestinal
symptoms and bone density, the report said.
"Bone density ... improved dramatically on a gluten-free diet," Stenson
said. "We believe the diet allowed their intestines to heal, and that
allowed them to absorb normal amounts of calcium and vitamin D to reverse
bone loss."
While there is a genetic predisposition for celiac disease, many people
don't develop symptoms until later in life, Stenson said.
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