Coeliac Disease — A Problem with Probiotics? Chromatography Investigates

Our body’s immune system is meant to protect us against disease and infection, but sometimes conditions develop that cause the immune system to attack healthy cells — autoimmune diseases. There are many ideas about the causes of autoimmune diseases — there are genetic links and women seem more susceptible — but no definite answers. Treatment usually involves reducing the immune system’s response using medication and avoiding the triggers that cause the disease to flare up.

One of the most common autoimmune diseases is coeliac disease.

Coeliac Disease — An Intolerance?

Coeliac disease affects the digestive system of sufferers — it is not an allergic reaction or intolerance to gluten — and is caused by an abnormal reaction to a protein found in cereals such as wheat, barley and rye.

When we eat food, it gets absorbed into the bloodstream when it reaches our intestines which are covered with villi — tiny structures similar in appearance to hairs — which significantly increase the intestine’s surface area, aiding the absorption of food.

When a person with coeliac disease eats something containing gluten the immune system thinks that gliadin — a protein component of gluten — is a threat to the body, so the immune system reacts and produces antibodies as discussed in the article High levels of antibodies directed at gliadin increases psychoses in offspring.

Unfortunately, the antibodies produced have an adverse reaction on the intestinal wall causing inflammation and resulting in a flattening of the villi. This reduces their ability to digest food and leads to many of the unpleasant symptoms of coeliac disease.

Diet and Supplements

Once a person has been diagnosed with the disease — which can be a long and difficult process as with many autoimmune diseases — the primary treatment is adjustment of the diet to exclude the foods which cause a reaction; generally all gluten containing products have to be eliminated from the diet. Once this has been carried out, and maintained, evidence suggests that people with coeliac disease should not suffer any nutritional deficiencies.

But there are supplements that people take for many different reasons — Dr Green a director at the Coeliac Disease Centre (CDC) said recently that “We found previously that about 25% of celiac patients use supplements or non-traditional medical products, and probiotics were the largest and most frequently consumed”

But Dr Green also reported that some of those patients taking probiotics had worse symptoms than the patients not taking them. So, why do some probiotics cause bad reactions in some coeliac patients? Chromatography helped with the answer.

Probiotics — Gluten-free?

Work carried out by the CDC — using a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry set-up — identified gluten traces in over half of the 22 most popular probiotics they tested. It is unclear whether the levels of gluten found could be responsible for patient’s symptoms — but where does the gluten come from?

It’s unlikely that probiotic manufacturers add gluten to their products, so most likely the cause is raw materials containing gluten — always check the ingredients of any supplements you take.