Jenny Lass of Toronto would spend 60 minutes on the city's public transit system for her daily commute to work. Then one day she had to brace herself for the unthinkable: Jenny worried that she would soil herself. She suffered from diarrhea, which had escalated from every other day, to once a day, to all morning, to all day. Fortunately, she arrived at work just in time to race to the washroom, but she was exhausted and embarrassed. That was in 2000, when Jenny was 27. She was eventually diagnosed with celiac disease (CD), a chronic autoimmune intestinal disorder in which ingestion of gluten – a protein present in wheat, rye, barley and triticale – causes damage to the small intestine in genetically susceptible individuals. She has since made changes to her lifestyle and no longer experiences debilitating attacks of diarrhea.
Though not everyone with CD has the problem that Jenny had, the disease can often be unpleasant for the estimated one in 133 Canadians who have it. But scientists such as Dr. Mohsin Rashid, the associate professor of pediatrics in the division of gastroenterology and nutrition at Dalhousie University in Halifax, have reason to believe there is hope for those with the disease – even if a cure is still years away.
Rashid points to human trials that are currently under way in which a medication taken before a meal (of a normal diet) may help block the damaging effect of gluten on the intestine. Another approach being tested is treating food with an enzyme that will degrade the gluten so it loses its allergic potential.
Increased awareness of CD has also spurred researchers to find better ways to diagnose the disease early. A new product approved by Health Canada is the Biocard Celiac Test, a do-it-yourself blood test that can detect the presence of gluten antibodies in the blood – an indication that the body is fighting gluten.
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