The study was done on over 2 million teens who were subjected to medical examination for more than two decades. It found out that celiac has become a common diagnostic disease now more than in the past.

What is Celiac Disease?

Abbreviated as CD, celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder that leads to damages of the small intestines and thus interfering with the absorption of food nutrients. Individuals suffering from CD have to keep off from gluten, rye and barley. If the correct diet is not followed, CD can turn out to be complicated causing malnutrition, infertility, low bone density and lactose intolerance.

The lead study author, Dr. Amit Assa of Tel-Aviv University clarified that this study shows as much as there is gluten-free diet adherence, the individual’s body measurements are affected when they get to the adolescent stage.

She said that “These findings are somewhat surprising as clinicians are under the notion that children with celiac are significantly thinner and shorter.”

Scope the study was done

For researchers to carry out this study, they analyzed medical records of 2,001,353 Israeli-based teens that had undergone a medical board examination at around the age of 17 to figure out if they are qualified to join the military in 1988 to 2015. From the group analyzed, 10,566 cases of celiac diseases were discovered.

The teens being studied were compared in terms of height, weight and BMI (body mass index). Their relative weight and height were measured. For the girls with celiac condition, they were found to be shorter than their peers at 161.5 cm compared to 162.1 cm. On the other hand, the boys with CD were same in height with their peers, but their average BMI was 21.2 against the 21.7 for those with no disorder.

After including all the factors such as socioeconomic status and ethnicity, the differences in the girls were not apparent while in the boys with CD, they were found to be shorter than those without. That is according to Archives of Disease in Childhood report.

The study also found out that teens with a western origin had higher chances of suffering from the celiac disease than any other group. In 2015, the prevalence of CD diagnosis among the teens was recorded to have risen to 1.1 percent, up from 0.5percent in 1988. They explained this growth to have been as a result of increase in awareness of the disease. The Healthcare providers CPR have a fair share of positive support here as well.

Assa said that “Traditionally, poor growth has been attributed to severe damage to the small intestine absorptive surface leading to malabsorption of essential nutrients.” It is relatively easy to treat celiac disease because nowadays there are so many gluten free products. Therefore, a child who is on a strict gluten free diet is healthy and will live a normal life.