People who have celiac disease can't tolerate gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. If they do eat gluten, damage to the small intestine results and interferes with the absorption of nutrients from food.

In fact, a long-term Mayo Clinic study just published in the journal Gastroenterology has found that celiac disease is inexplicably more than four times more common today than it was 50 years ago. Another disturbing finding: the researchers discovered that people who didn't know they had celiac disease were about four times more likely than celiac-free subjects to have died during the 45 years of the study follow-up. Unfortunately, the scientists have no explanation.

NaturalNews by S.L.Baker, 8/7/2009

Tags: celiac, gastroenterology, GI, Research