Is Celiac Disease Really New? The Truth About Its 2,000-Year History Ep. 224

Is celiac disease really a new thing? Not at all - it’s been recognized for nearly 2,000 years. In this episode, I share the fascinating history of how doctors first described celiac disease, how World War II revealed the connection between wheat and symptoms, and why today it feels like 'everyone is gluten intolerant.'

We’ll talk about:

• The Greek doctor who first described celiac-like symptoms in the year 200
• The breakthrough discovery during WWII that linked wheat to celiac disease
• Why awareness and better testing mean more people are being diagnosed now
• How modern wheat and ultra-processed foods may play a role in today’s gluten struggles

If you’ve ever wondered why celiac disease seems so common, this episode will give you clarity. And please remember that celiac isn’t just a food intolerance, it’s a serious autoimmune disease.

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Music Credit bensound.com 

Chapters

• 0:48 Is Celiac Disease Really New?
• 1:39 The 2,000-Year History of Celiac
• 4:03 Dr. Deeker's World War II Discovery
• 5:13 Why Diagnoses Are Increasing
• 7:16 Modern Wheat and Processed Foods
• 8:44 Celiac vs. Gluten Intolerance

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:24

Is celiac disease really new? Well, it's not, and it's been recognized for almost 2,000 years, and on today's episode I'm going to talk all about why we know that this has been recognized for 2,000 years and cover off why celiac disease is not a new thing. So one of the questions that I hear a lot is why are so many people getting diagnosed with celiac disease or why are so many people intolerant to gluten? And I guess the idea for this episode came up recently because I ran into a lady at the shops that I knew well over 20 years ago and we got chatting and she saw that I was buying some gluten-free treats for my son and a conversation kind of got started about gluten-free and celiac disease and her first comment was that must be really tough. And I kind of explained to her how long I'd been living with celiac disease and how much easier it is these days and all that type of thing. And then her next comment was oh, it's so common now, isn't it? It must be to do with the glyphosate that they put on the wheat, and it's such a common comment. I've heard that time and time again. I've heard it in various chat groups online. I've heard it from many, many people in person and the thing is, many people in person and the thing is that's not always the case.

Speaker 1: 1:53

Celiac disease has in fact been recognized for a very, very long time. It is not just a new thing, so celiac disease has in fact been written about for about 2000 years. Back around the year 200, a Greek doctor named Eretios of Cappadocia described patients with chronic diarrhea and malnutrition and kind of like a failure to thrive, which is pretty much what we know of as celiac disease, isn't it? He also noted that people were passing through food that was undigested and without any benefit to these people's bodies, and he labeled this term coeliacose, which means suffering in the belly, and over time that word continued to evolve and it became what we now know as celiac. Now, this particular doctor was also the same doctor that originally recognized diabetes. So, yes, celiac has been recognized for almost 2,000 years.

Speaker 1: 2:55

Now we fast forward to the 1940s, and in World War II the Dutch pediatrician by the name of Dr Willem Karel Dika made an important discovery, and he noticed that people that had celiac disease were doing much better during this time of famine because they were no longer able to get a hold of wheat products. So they were no longer consuming things such as bread. And what happened was, because they cut out this from their diet not by choice, because they were unable to access it their body started recovering. They started healing because of the lack of gluten exposure. And then what happened? When things started to return a little bit more normal, they were able to get wheat again, and when these people started consuming wheat products, they went back to how they were feeling before and dealing with those symptoms that were happening prior to when they cut the wheat out. Now that was the light bulb moment, when Dr Deeker put the connection between wheat and celiac disease and the problems that these people were facing when they were consuming wheat containing products. Then, in 1952, dr Deeker and his team took this one step further and they discovered that it was actually the gluten that was causing the problem. So, in fact, the gliadin within the gluten within the wheat was actually what was causing the problem to these people that were suffering from the symptoms and, as we know, that is exactly what triggers the autoimmune response in celiac disease.

Speaker 1: 4:36

So why is it that people think that, you know, it's so common to either have celiac disease or it's so common to have a, you know, intolerance or non-celiac gluten sensitivity these days. Why is it? Why is it that people make this comment that it is so common? They know someone that's got, you know, a problem with gluten or they can't eat wheat. Why is that happening? Because there's more awareness. We know so much more now than what we used to, so obviously, more and more people are able to get a diagnosis. They're able to ask for the help that they need to find out that you know it is in fact the gluten that is causing their health issues. So firstly, of course, awareness is a huge one. Diagnosis is another one. So many more people have access to being able to get tested for a diagnosis. So that's a huge factor.

Speaker 1: 5:34

And you know something that was once upon a time called you know just that person's just sickly or that person's just not quite themselves. That was my mom. My mom suffered for so long and was just put in this category of that's just Bond. Her name's Bonnie. Her parents, my grandparents, they used to just say that about her that's just Bond, that's just the way she is. They just accepted that. That was her normal. And I recently found out as well from my mum and my auntie that my pop was always bedridden. He was always unwell, he was just a really sickly man, and now, putting two and two together, we do wonder whether he in fact had celiac disease himself and that that's where it was passed down from.

Speaker 1: 6:24

Now, aside from all of those things with the testing and the awareness, wheat is not what it used to be. It is completely different to what it used to be back a hundred years ago. It has been changed over the years and in many places the gluten amount in wheat is actually much higher than it used to be, so it only makes sense that more people would be struggling with that in the wheat and within gluten containing products. So, yes, it is true that you know it's not what it used to be and that that could be another reason that more people are struggling with gluten absolutely. But as well as that, people are eating way more, way, way more processed foods than they ever used to. If you look back, even 20 years ago, the amount of processed food that people eat now, compared to back then, is astronomical.

Speaker 1: 7:23

Some people's diets don't even consume they don't even consume any real food, and when I say real food, I'm talking about whole foods, things that are grown, that are not made by man, things such as fruits, vegetables, those types of things that haven't been messed with in a factory. So many people don't eat any of those things. So when you look at people's diets, obviously they're eating so much, copious amounts of gluten. It's only natural that the body is going to react to that. So when we say, you know, everyone's got gluten intolerance or everyone's you know struggling with gluten, it kind of makes sense that so many more people are suffering, because when we look at all these different factors, that's kind of where it all ties into. So it was recognized 2000 years ago almost 2000 years ago, like I said and it's just that now we understand it more than we ever did previously.

Speaker 1: 8:19

So when people say everyone is intolerant to gluten these days, no, that is not true. Many people do have celiac disease, and celiac disease needs to be taken very, very seriously because it is not just an intolerance, it is an autoimmune disease. So we need to be on top of our gluten-free diet. But for others it could simply be that our modern diets are just making it that little bit harder for them to tolerate so much wheat and so much gluten in their actual diets. So I hope that clears that up, and if you'd like to share this episode with someone who needs to know more about celiac disease, please do so. But otherwise, thanks so much for checking out this episode and I look forward to talking with you again on next week's show. So have a great week and I'll talk to you then. Take care, bye.