

Can Celiac Disease Affect the Brain? - molecule
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/12/opinion/sunday/can-celiac-disease-affect-the-brain.html

======
tokenadult
We discussed an earlier article by this author once before on Hacker News,
which I recall submitting. I was actually embarrassed after submitting the
article to find out that the author pushes his guesses beyond what current
research shows and that scientists who work on the same problems mostly don't
endorse his conclusions. You'll note, as I should have noted last time, that
this New York Times column is an OPINION column, not a reporter's article
about established facts. If you read this opinion piece the same way that
Malcolm Gladwell encourages his readers to read his essays (as a prompt for
further thinking, not claiming that he has the last word), then maybe no harm,
no foul, but please be wary of making important health decisions for yourself
without gathering second opinions on ideas like this.

~~~
jbinto
That this is an opinion piece is made obvious by Betteridge's Law:

> "Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no."

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_law_of_headlines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_law_of_headlines)

~~~
tokenadult
I recall that "Betteridge's Law," which I see from the Wikipedia citations is
a new and not particularly widespread idea, was promoted here in the Hacker
News community by the site founder and former chief site curator, pg (Paul
Graham). While I will agree with the proposition that many articles titled
with a yes/no question invite the easy answer no, I don't think that is an
invariant property of all such articles. I think it's too cheap and easy on
the part of the learned readers here to simply invoke "Betteridge's Law"
without reading an article deeply and grappling with more of the article's
argument than the article's headline. (That's especially true because
sometimes headlines are chosen by editors of a publication, while the text of
the article is chosen by the article's author.) I've already indicated that I
am not sure I should accept the argument of this article (which brings up
issues that are already familiar to me from other reading), but I also am very
sure that we shouldn't dismiss every article submitted here with a yes/no
question in its title before we read the fine article.

~~~
RankingMember
I think it's more of a joke "law" meant to discourage lazy click-bait
headline-writing.

------
ihnorton
One of the quoted scientists, Dr. Fasano, discovered a protein called zonulin
[1] responsible for mediating the permeability of cells in the gut, with
possible implications for gut-involved autoimmune diseases. He authored a
fascinating (so far, it's long!) review article on the subject, freely
accessible [2].

The original article hints at one potential etiology for gluten's neurological
effects:

 _antibodies directed at gliadin, a gluten protein, could cross-react with
proteins in the brain. The finding suggests that, by some coincidence, certain
proteins on neurons structurally resemble proteins in wheat. Meaning that, if
your immune system attacks gluten, it might also inadvertently pursue brain
tissue._

Interestingly, gliadin also activates the zonulin pathway. There is drug trial
underway to target that pathway, now reportedly past the phase 2 (efficacy and
safety) stage in 300 patients [3].

Another possible neurological tie-in is myelin. Myelin is a lipid sheath
surrounding axons, very roughly analogous to cable insulation. De-myelination
is involved in several autoimmune neurological diseases, including multiple-
sclerosis. There are several proposed mechanisms referenced in [2], and recent
work has suggested at least a weak association between celiac disease and
multiple-sclerosis [4]. Since the original article also mentions
schizophrenia, it is worth pointing out that de-myelination has also been
suggested as a factor in some schizophrenic pathologies.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zonulin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zonulin)
[2]
[http://physrev.physiology.org/content/91/1/151.long](http://physrev.physiology.org/content/91/1/151.long)
[3] [http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alba-therapeutics-
an...](http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alba-therapeutics-announces-
positive-results-of-phase-iib-trial-in-celiac-disease-244877451.html) [4]
[http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2377/11/31](http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2377/11/31)

------
drpre
My girlfriend has Celiac's disease, and she was diagnosed about 3 months after
we started dating. Before her diagnosis I often wondered if she had some sort
of mental illness because she would always describe having out-of-body
experiences where she subjectively witnessed herself doing things in third
person.

After she was diagnosed and went gluten free, there was an acute "rebound"
phase where she had very painful rashes like the article mentions. But she
also had a lot more energy and no longer slept 12 hours a day. The symptoms
that made me worry about mental illness completely went away within a few
weeks of her going gluten free.

This is all anecdotal but it seems very plausible that gluten can cause brain
lesions in those with Celiac's.

~~~
sitharus
As a fellow coeliac I have also had those experiences, no idea what caused
them but they went away with the gluten free diet.

After being gluten free for 10 years now it's so easy to tell when I've eaten
something that contains gluten.

------
joemaller1
The idea's unfortunately been picked up by the fringier side of the
discussion, but there's evidence that some proteins in wheat (not just gluten)
trigger opiate receptors in the brain.

\-
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1309704](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1309704)

\-
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6099562](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6099562)

------
kzrdude
Some suggest that avoiding gluten is a good idea with other autoimmune
diseases too.

~~~
adamfeldman
Could you point me to some sources? I'm very interested in this.

~~~
kzrdude
Sorry I am answering late.

One is this author suggesting removal of Gluten for MS:
[http://www.jandevrieshealth.co.uk/health_matters.asp?int_ser...](http://www.jandevrieshealth.co.uk/health_matters.asp?int_service_id=58)

There is
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20170845](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20170845)
but it is apparently controversial(?)

~~~
adamfeldman
No apology needed! Thanks so much for digging up some info. I have a family
member struggling with an autoimmune disease and any bit of info I can work
with is helpful.

