History of celiac disease

In celiac disease a gluten-induced small bowel mucosal lesion develops gradually in genetically susceptible persons.

Celiac disease had its roots both literally and metaphorically, when primitive humans switched from the hunter-gatherer mode to a more settled agricultural experience.

Doctors have known about celiac disease for a long time. Articles describing individuals suffering from diarrhea first appeared over two thousand years ago.

An illness resembling celiac disease was described as early as the first century AD by Aretacus of Cappadocia.

In the early 19th century, a Dr. Mathew Baillie, published his observations on a chronic diarrheal disorder of adults causing malnutrition and characterized by a gas-distended abdomen.

It was Dr. Samuel Gee who, in London, England in 1887, in his seminal study ‘On the Coeliac Affection’ first described the condition in detail, and even presciently observed that successful therapy was to be found in changing a patient’s diet.

In 1941, the link between celiac disease and wheat was finally established. At a conference in 1932, Dr. Willem-Karel Dicke, a Dutch pediatrician heard a report about a patient relapsing into diarrhea after resuming the consumption of bread.

He then began experimenting with a wheat free diet shortly thereafter, between 1934 and 1936. In 1941, he published a report that children with symptoms of celiac disease got better when the bread made from wheat was removed from their diet.
History of celiac disease

History of Celiac Disease

Celiac disease is a gluten sensitive enteropathy of autoimmune origin, characterized by inflammation and villous atrophy of the small bowel mucosa, that impairs nutrient absorption.

From early history that various digestive complaints were common place. There was one record from second century AD sounds much like what today known as celiac disease.

Historically, the term celiac disease evolved within pediatric practice during the nineteenth century, defining children with severe wasting and putrid stools.

The first description of the disease clinical feature was provided by Samuel Gee in 1888.

In the earlier twentieth century, similar complaints in adults were categorized as intestinal insufficiency or idiopathic steatorrhea.

It was also realized at that time that for many of these adult patients celiac features had been present since early childhood.

It was not until the 1940s that the link between celiac disease symptoms and eating gluten was first noted.

In 1953, a Dutch pediatrician, observed that the ingestion of certain cereal grains were harmful to children with this disease.

In the same year, Lauretta Bender called attention to the high incidence of celiac diseases among patients diagnosed as ‘schizophrenic’.

Celiac disease is one of the the most common chronic disorders in Europe and the US affecting about 1% of the population.
History of Celiac Disease