Setting the Boundary: Celiac Disease and Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity

Celiac disease has been defined thoroughly by different studies conducted while non-celiac gluten sensitivity still shows some grey area and several research studies yields different results. Because of this ambiguity and although the concrete difference between the two has been established, even though limited, there is still no precise biological traits that can describe non-celiac gluten sensitivity. This uncertainty provides difficulty to the medical professionals in accurately measuring the occurrence of non-celiac gluten sensitivity to a person, and whether this diagnosis can develop a severe long-term complication.

Dr. Daniel Leffler, Director of Research at the Celiac Centre in Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center confirmed in a webinar that non-celiac gluten sensitivity has only been diagnosed to people recently and no blood tests were taken for this condition and “…This means that it will take more years before we can have a good data on long-term complications of non-celiac gluten sensitivity”

Another research conducted by the Columbia University Medical Centre researchers, published in 2016, have shed some light to previous research and found that wheat (a gluten-food) can trigger an immune reaction and identified to have also caused intestinal cell damage for people who are neither diagnosed of celiac disease nor non-celiac gluten sensitivity. However, this result is not conclusive and still needs further study.