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Celiac disease was once considered to be a fairly rare disorder. But a new study suggests an increasing number of people are being stricken with the digestive ailment. And there is good reason to be concerned – it can lead to an early death.

The findings, published in the journal Gastroenterology, reveal that the disease is 4.5 times more common today than it was about 50 years ago.

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder that damages the small intestine, interfering with the absorption of nutrients. It is triggered by gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. Symptoms vary from barely noticeable to severe and may include diarrhea, abdominal discomfort, weight loss and anemia.

Although many doctors have suspected that celiac disease is on the rise, researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., documented the trend by studying blood samples from two time periods.

To get a measure of previous disease rates, the researchers analyzing blood samples collected in the late 1940s and early 1950s from U.S. military recruits. Those results were then compared with blood samples recently collected from people living in Olmsted County, Minn.

“It now affects about one in 100 people,” said Joseph Murray who led the research. By contrast, the study indicates that only one out of every 400 to 500 suffered from the condition half a century ago.

Dr. Murray says something must have changed it the environment to make the condition more common. He speculated that modern food production and processing could be to blame.

“We are eating a lot more processed foods, compared to 50 years ago.” But, he is quick to add, “it could be something entirely different.”

Over time, celiac disease damages parts of the small intestine known as villi. These tiny, finger-like projections aid in the absorption of nutrients by increasing the surface area of the intestine. Some celiac patients suffer from nutrient deficiencies that may explain why they are at higher risk of developing a host of ailments including, infertility, osteoporosis, certain cancers and other conditions that can shorten life span.

The study, which included a medical follow-up of those who gave blood decades ago, showed that people with celiac disease are nearly four times more likely to die prematurely than the general population.

Celiac disease often goes undiagnosed because the symptoms can resemble so many other ailments. There is no cure for the disorder, but adopting a gluten-free diet can minimize symptoms and hopefully stave off an early death, said Dr. Murray.

Heart burn drugs

Danish researchers seemed to have discovered why drugs used to treat heart-burn, or stomach-acid regurgitation, have become so popular in recent years. If patients try to stop taking the drugs, their symptoms can get substantially worse, forcing them back on the medication, new research indicates.

For the study, the researchers recruited 120 healthy people who had never been bothered by heartburn, acid regurgitation or dyspepsia (indigestion). Half were treated with a class of medication know as proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) which reduce stomach-acid production. The balance were treated with a placebo.

The volunteers were given the drugs for a period of eight weeks. After they stopped the medication, about 40 per cent of those in the treatment group started experienced symptoms of heart burn, gastric reflux and dyspepsia

Christina Reimer, who led the study at Copenhagen University, said halting the medication appears to trigger a rebound effect.

“Blocking the acid production in the stomach is unnatural” she explained in an e-mail. Once the medication is stopped, the body tries to compensate with an overproduction of stomach acid which can last for several months.

“If we had done this study in patients, it would have been very difficult to convince anyone that the symptoms were caused by this [rebound] phenomenon and not merely symptoms of underlying acid-related disease flaring up once the treatment was withdrawn,” she said.

So, should patients stop taking the drugs? Not necessarily says Dr. Reimer. “It is beyond any doubt that the large number of subjects in the population with reflux disease benefit from and need treatment with acid suppressive drugs. These patients should go on using these drugs without any concern.”

But she is worried that these drugs are often prescribed to people with a wide-variety of symptoms and they might not actually suffer from gastric reflux. “This liberal prescribing is likely to create the disease the drugs are designed to treat … thus developing a true need for continued therapy.”

Nipple piercing

In you're a young woman considering getting a nipple pieced, you might want to think again. Australian researchers have found that the popular practice could interfere with milk production for breast feeding.

In a letter published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, they report on three new moms with lactation problems. Each of the women had one of their breasts pierced prior to giving birth.

The nipple piercings were completely healed. Yet they still had trouble breast feeding from the formerly pierced breast. The infants were “extremely unsettled” and milk production was significantly reduced compared to the un-pierced breast.

“These cases indicate that nipple piercing may cause complications leading to duct obstruction so that only negligible amounts of milk can be removed from the breast during lactation,” according to the researchers led by Catherine Garbin at the University of Western Australia.

How common is the problem? “Many women have successfully breast fed with a nipple piercing,” they noted. “So, it is likely that only a small percentage of women may encounter difficulties.” Nonetheless, women should at least be aware of the potential risk.