Celiac can occur at any stage of life

Celiac disease is showing an increasing presence among the elderly, says a study in the Annals of Medicine. The study followed 3,511 volunteers who submitted blood samples in 1974 and 1989, and updates every two to three years until 2007. This study adds weight to the concept that celiac disease can emerge at any age, because researchers surveyed the same people over time. Researchers found that the incidence of celiac disease doubled every 15 years since 1974 and that the incidence increased as subjects aged, with some developing the disease in their 50s or 60s. If someone can be gluten-tolerant for 40 or 50 years before developing celiac disease, then environmental factors may outweigh genetic causes for the disease, says Alessio Fasano, director of the Center for Celiac Research, which led the study. Fasano says that other unknown environmental changes and changes in "the composition of bacteria in our guts" may be causing gluten autoimmunity to present itself later in life.

Bonnie - for those of you who are of the belief that one can just "grow out" of an intolerance to gluten, this study begs to differ. If wheat continues to be a daily staple of the human diet, we will continue to see more cases of gluten intolerance and celiac.