You will understand, gluten sensitivity is not yet unanimous. Many also displayed their skepticism when it began to be described in the 80s.¹. After the work of Sapone in 2010² Focusing on the clinical figures of the disease, a growing number of studies were published very quickly, confirming that non-celiac gluten sensitivity should indeed be included in gluten-related disorders. Several aspects such as the epidemiology, the pathological mechanism and the treatment remain to be clarified, but the symptoms are starting to be well known.

A classic clinical picture for gluten sensitivity

Gluten sensitivity is characterized by symptoms that usually occur after eating foods containing gluten. They disappear when the consumption of these products is stopped, but come back when they are consumed again, within 6 hours of ingestion for half of them.². The clinical picture is a combination of typical symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, including abdominal pain, bloating, intestinal disorders (diarrhea or constipation) and systemic manifestations such as headache, fatigue, joint and muscle pain, numbness in the arms and legs, skin problems, depression and anemia^2,3.

No long term complications?

The diagnosis is difficult to establish: most of the time, the disease is often suspected by people themselves from the deprivation and reintroduction of foods containing gluten. While for a number of them, the improvement in symptoms after stopping gluten is a placebo effect, this is not the case for everyone, and research has proven it.⁵. In contrast, no complications of gluten sensitivity have been described.⁶.

Cooper B.T., Holmes G.K., Ferguson R., Thompson R.A., Allan R.N., Cooke W.T. Gluten-sensitive diarrhea without evidence of celiac disease. Gastroenterology. 1981;81:192–194. [PubMed] Umberto Volta, M.T. Bardella & al. An Italian prospective multicenter survey on patients suspected of having non-celiac gluten sensivity, BMC Med. 2014; 12:85. Sapone A., Lammers K.M., Mazzarella G., Mikhailenko I., Cartenì M., Casolaro V., Fasano A. Differential mucosal IL-17 expression in two gliadin-induced disorders: Gluten sensitivity and the autoimmune enteropathy celiac disease. Int. Arch. Allergy Immunol. 2010;152:75–80. [PMC free article] [PubMed] Volta U., Tovoli F., Cicola R., Parisi C., Fabbri A., Piscaglia M., Fiorini E., Caio G. Serological tests in gluten sensitivity (non celiac gluten intolerance) J. Clin. Gastroenterol. 2012;46:680–685. doi: 10.1097/MCG.0b013e3182372541. [PubMed] [Cross Ref] Biesiekierski J.R., Newnham E.D., Irving P.M., Barrett J.S., Haines M., Doecke J.D., Shepherd S.J., Muir J.G., Gibson P.R. Gluten causes gastrointestinal symptoms in subjects without celiac disease: A double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial. Am. J. Gastroenterol. 2011;106:508–514. doi: 10.1038/ajg.2010.487.[PubMed] [Cross Ref] C. Catassi, J.C. Bai & al. Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity: The New Frontier of Gluten Related Disorders, Nutrients. 2013 Oct; 5(10): 3839–3853.