Celiac Disease in Men (and Women)

Did JFK have celiac disease? Adam Voiland of U.S. News and World Report uses that question as the hook in "Celiac Disease in Men Threatens Bone Health," a September 19, 2008 overview of celiac disease that emphasizes its effects on men and draws upon the research of Dr. Peter Green. "One of Green's articles, published in the Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology (SJG), shows that celiac disease appears to progress faster in men, deprive men's bodies of more needed nutrients, and cause particularly acute damage to bones," writes Voiland.

Regular readers of this blog should already know that adults diagnosed with celiac disease should be tested for osteoporosis, and that people with low bone density (especially when the cause is a "mystery") should seriously consider being tested for celiac disease. People diagnosed with coexisting celiac disease and osteoporosis have a good chance of improvement after going on a gluten-free diet that includes calcium. As Voiland puts it in his article, "For people who do have both diseases, research has shown that adopting a gluten-free diet halts the progression of osteoporosis and even improves bone density by 10 percent, Green says."