Celiac Disease in Men Threatens Bone Health

Peter Green, the director of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University, published an article in the Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology, showing that celiac disease appears to progress faster in men, deprive men's bodies of more needed nutrients, and cause particularly acute damage to bones. In fact, says Alessio Fasano, the medical director at the University of Maryland's Center for Celiac Research, celiac disease is one of the leading causes of male osteoporosis, a condition that many men don't realize they can get. Experts estimate that only about 5 percent of Americans with the condition ever receive a diagnosis, and it typically takes doctors about 11 years to correctly identify a person who has celiac disease, since the problem is often misdiagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome or anemia. That's troubling because untreated celiac disease significantly increases the risk of severe medical problems, including gastrointestinal cancers and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, in addition to osteoporosis. And while osteoporosis is most common among postmenopausal women, the disease also poses a significant threat to more than 2 million men, according to the National Institutes of Health. Experts suggest that any man with osteoporosis should have himself screened for celiac disease—just as anyone, male or female, who has celiac disease should get screened for osteoporosis. 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.