Health Technologies: Celiac Disease and Gluten Intolerance

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Celiac Disease and Gluten Intolerance

The history of Celiac sprue disease started with the description of Arataeus the Cappadocian, 250 A.D. He referred to his patients as "koiliakos," aka "suffering in the bowels." Francis Adams translated these observations from Greek to Englishin 1856, calling the patients "celiacs."

In 1888, Dr. Samuel Gee first presented a set of clinical accounts of both children and adults with Celiac Disease. September 13th is designated National Celiac Disease Awareness Day in honor of Gee’s birthday.

Dr. Willem Karel Dicke, a Dutch pediatrician, recognized in 1952 that the disease is caused by the ingestion of wheat proteins.

Heubner described celiac disease in Germany. At the beginning of the 20th century the disease was called Gee-Heubner-Herter's

Celiac disease is also called Gee-Herter disease; Gee-Thaysen disease; gluten enteropathy; gluten intolerance; Gluten-sensitive enteropathy; Huebner-Herter disease; idiopathic steatorrhea; nontropical sprue.

Dr. Samuel Gee

See the official 2009 definition

Celiac disease has become much more common in the last 50 years. Researchers found that young people today are 4.5 times more likely to have celiac disease than young people were in the 1950s, while those whose birth years matched the Warren AFB participants were four times more likely to have celiac disease.