Your Celiac Disease Risk Is Tied To Where And When You Were Born

In the U.S. and most of the Western world, about one percent of the population will be diagnosed with celiac disease, an immune disorder in which the body can’t properly digest the wheat protein gluten. It leads to intestinal damage that can jeopardize nutrient absorption. But in Sweden, the rate of celiac disease is almost double that, at 1.8 percent.  Sweden’s “epidemic” of celiac disease started in the late 80s and early 90s. While diagnosis rates in Sweden began to subside in the early 2000s, the country still has a higher rate of celiac disease than most of Europe.  The medical community doesn’t know for sure what causes celiac disease, but genetics play a role, as you’re more likely to have it if a relative has it, too. In Sweden specifically, things like the timing of gluten introduction before or after weaning, serial infections in infancy and Swedes’ genetic predisposition to the disease have all been proposed as possible reasons for the explosion in diagnoses.  Now, researchers from Umea University in Umea, Sweden, are adding to the conversation by examining the potential role that season and region of birth may play together in affecting a child’s celiac disease risk.  Using data that includes nearly two million Swedish children born between 1991 and 2009, the researchers found that kids born in the summer, autumn and spring had about an eight to 10 percent increased risk f...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news