Coeliac disease may be partly caused by common pollutants – pesticides in foods, chemicals in non-stick cookware and fire retardants.

A US study show children and young adults with high levels of them are twice as likely to be coeliac. The test was led by medical researchers at the Grossman School of Medicine at New York University (NYU).

Coeliac disease is an immune system problem that means sufferers have bad reactions in their gut to gluten in wheat, leading to bloating and diarrhoea. It is genetically inherited, but this tests shows that our environment makes it worse.

The study also showed that there is a gender component too. Women and girls make up the majority of coeliacs, and they also have a much more severe reaction to the pollutants, making them EIGHT TIMES more likely to be coeliac than females who are not exposed.

The risky pollutants are:

PFAs or Perfluoroalkyls, used in making non-stick pans and Teflon

DDEs – Dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylenes

PBDEs – fire retardants, Polybrominated diphenyl ethers

Test result published in Environmental Research online May 12 2020

Abigail Gaylord, Leonardo Trasande, Kurunthachalam Kannan, Kristen M. Thomas, Sunmi Lee, Mengling Liu, Jeremiah Levine. Persistent organic pollutant exposure and celiac disease: A pilot study. Environmental Research, 2020; 109439 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.109439