How can eating gluten impact your health?
Around one per cent of the UK population suffer from coeliac disease, a serious auto immune condition which primarily affects the small intestine. For coeliacs even the tiniest amount of gluten can cause the immune system to attack the delicate lining of the gut, leading to serious health issues, including malnutrition and severe stomach pain.
While this number seems fairly small, it is worth noting that NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) considers it an under-diagnosed disease. They estimate that for every person diagnosed, seven to eight people remain undiagnosed.
In addition to coeliac disease, medical professionals are increasingly acknowledging a condition called non coeliac gluten sensitivity. According to Coeliac UK, this is a relatively new field that requires a lot more research to fully understand, as it is not clear how the immune system is involved in such cases. No antibodies are produced and there does not appear to be damage to the gut lining. As such, there are no specific diagnostic tests for non coeliac gluten sensitivity.
However, despite challenges around clinical diagnosis, large swathes of the UK population, an estimated 8.5 million, currently follow a strict gluten free diet – convinced that avoiding gluten brings about better health for them.
The evidence may be more anecdotal, than scientific, but the sheer numbers highlight it could be something that modern medicine simply can’t explain yet. Check out this experiment by the BBC’s Trust Me I’m A Doctor team, led by Dr Chris Van Tulleken.
