Negative Test for Celiac? You May Still Develop the Disease

Negative Test for Celiac? You May Still Develop the Disease

I think most of us understand that just because we don’t have heart disease today, it doesn’t mean that we cannot develop it sometime later in life. Ditto for diabetes, cancer and most all degenerative diseases. Why then, once someone has been tested for celiac disease once, do they think they never have to test for it again? Why do I hear from individuals across the country and around the world who think that one negative test confers life-long immunity?

Is it because celiac disease is a genetic condition? Do we assume that it’s impossible to develop later in life?

In defense of how this inappropriate practice likely got started, I’m sure it stemmed from the erroneous idea that a genetic disease was something that you had or you didn’t have and the passage of time was not going to change that. The thought was that if testing was found to be negative, then it was never needed to be retested since genes don’t alter themselves.

While it is perfectly true that genes do not change, it turns out that the EXPRESSION of genes does. This means that you can have the genes for a specific disease but the gene can be either ‘turned off’ or ‘turned on’. If a gene is in the ‘off’ position, the individual will not be expressing the disease, despite having the genes for it. Once the gene is turned ‘on’, the disease is now fully expressed.

This data is not completely new because we know that 35 to 40% of our population carries the genes for celiac disease while only 1 to 5% actually develops the disease. So obviously there is more to having active celiac disease than simply having the genes and eating gluten.

If the aforementioned 5% incidence of celiac disease sounds surprising it is because the research is only about a week old! On May 15^th 2012 a study titled: “The Incidence and Risk of Celiac Disease in a Healthy US Adult Population” was published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology. The authors stated that as the population they studied aged (over 35 years old), their incidence of celiac disease increased from 1% to 5%. The group they studied were active American military.

What is that elusive third factor? What determines if your immune system will keep a bad gene turned off or allow it to be turned on?

It turns out that the health of your small intestine and the good bacteria housed therein has everything to do with the expression of your genes and, more specifically, whether you will have active celiac disease or not. The health of that very important small intestine is not static. It can change over time depending on the state of your diet, the quality of the food you eat, whether you take medications or are exposed to toxins. Many factors affect the health of the small intestine and most of them are lifestyle related – meaning that you have control over them.

Imagine if there was a meter of some sort that warned you when you were nearing critical mass for gene expression. What if you received a text message that said: “Your genes are under great stress and are about to allow disease ’X’ to express itself. If you don’t take drastic action to reverse this process you will develop disease ‘X’, a degenerative disorder (think heart disease, cancer, diabetes, celiac disease).

That would be very helpful, wouldn’t it? Unfortunately no such ‘message’ is going to be received. But what you can do is find out if you have a strong or weak small intestine – a leaky gut. You can evaluate the health of the probiotic population that is so critical in gene expression. You can find out if any infections of the small intestine are weakening its health and that of the immune system. You can find out if the immune system is so overwhelmed that it is moving towards autoimmune disease (celiac is one of over 100 autoimmune diseases), our third leading cause of death in the US.

You can do all of the above relatively easily and it may very well prevent a lifetime of chronic disease.

Please share this information with those you know and care about. If you are gluten intolerant you likely know others that you suspect have the problem. Let them know that a single negative test doesn’t mean that they can’t later develop the condition. Also, testing is not perfect. Backing up a negative test with a 30 day gluten elimination diet is a valid test in itself. If you feel better after eliminating gluten you have your answer. Ignoring a gluten intolerance is a bit like playing Russian roulette – it can end your life prematurely.

I am committed to increasing awareness of gluten intolerance and would love your assistance. Share this post and others like it to friends and family. Together we can raise the diagnosis rate of celiac disease from the paltry 3 to 5% that it is to the 95%+ range that it deserves to be. So many lives will be saved from this effort.

Have you experienced being told that a single test is all you would ever need? I’d love to hear back from you.

Our destination clinic treats patients from across the country and internationally. If you would like assistance to improve your health, please call us for a free health analysis. We are here to help!

Visit us at www.RootCauseMedicalClinic.com. If you have questions or need any help, I’m here for you! Call 408-733-0400.

I look forward to hearing from you.

To your good health,

Dr Vikki Petersen, DC, CCN, CFMP


IFM Certified Practitioner

Founder of Root Cause Medical Clinic
Co-author of “The Gluten Effect”

Author of the eBook: “Gluten Intolerance – What You Don’t Know May Be Killing You!”

Celiac Disease Risk: Why an Emergency C-section is Healthier than an Elective One

When it comes to celiac disease risk, an elective or planned C-section creates a much greater incidence of celiac disease than an emergency one.

A natural, vaginal birth is probably every mother’s plan, but C-sections, at an increased rate, have become a fact of life.

In a recent study (October 2011) published in Gastroenterology, titled “Pregnancy outcome and risk of celiac disease in offspring: A nation-wide case-control study”, Dr Ludvigsson, an avid researcher in the field discovered a rather unexpected result associated with children delivered by cesarean section.

The study of over 11,000 patients with biopsy-proven celiac disease and close to 54,000 controls, were examined based on the type of birth they experienced. The study showed an outstanding 15% increase risk in those born through elective or planned C-section over those born via an emergency cesarean.

In fact there was no increased risk found for those individuals born from an emergency C-section.

Why the vast difference? The reason for the disparity lies in the vital exposure to the health-promoting probiotic organisms present in the birth canal that occurs in vaginal births as well as those who experience emergency C-sections.

Babies born after an emergency C-section typically reside in the birth canal for some time prior to the decision being made to perform the surgery.

Elective or planned C-sections afford the baby no time in the birth canal, in fact they are designed to occur before any major progression of labor has occurred. Therefore these babies are given no exposure to the healthy probiotic population that has recently been appreciated to be capable of keeping the celiac disease gene from expressing itself.

It is as if there is a switch for a disease that one is genetically programmed to be susceptible to, and it has an on and off position. Healthy probiotics can keep that switch in the ‘off’ position, despite the genetic tendency. Conversely, a lack of healthy probiotics allow that switch to move to the ‘on’ position, thereby allowing the disease to be expressed.

Let’s compare two children who both:

1.       Possess the genes for celiac disease

2.       Are exposed to gluten in their diet

The child born with exposure to the good probiotics in the birth canal won’t necessarily develop celiac disease, despite their genetic predisposition. The probiotics, if healthy and abundant, will suppress the expression of the celiac disease genes.

On the contrary, the child born via elective C-section and having no exposure to the probiotics, will not have the defense against the genetic predisposition to develop celiac due and will, therefore, be 15% more likely to develop the disease.

While avoiding a planned C-section is perhaps not a viable alternative for every expectant mother, this knowledge does seem vitally important for any expectant mother, who has celiac disease or any other autoimmune diseases present in their family.

If there is absolutely no recourse to a planned C-section due to whatever circumstance, I would strongly suggest that the mother takes all steps to optimize the health of their digestive tract and probiotic population such that when they nurse their newborn they can at least share their good bacteria through breast milk. This is, I believe, an extremely important practice for all newborns, but most especially in this circumstance.

If you need assistance in determining the best course of action to take to improve the health of your own small intestine such that your probiotic population provides the optimal health benefits to your future unborn children, or if you already have a child and want to ensure that their probiotic level is optimized, please feel free to contact me for a complimentary health analysis – call 408-733-0400.

The benefits to be obtained from keeping the 100 trillion probiotics (also known as the microbiome) in your small intestine healthy are quite remarkable. This is an emerging science, but one we know quite a bit about already.

Ensuring a healthy microbiome in yourself and your children is not difficult and the program is a natural  one. But each individual is unique and therefore the program must be designed on a personalized basis in order to achieve the greatest success.

I hope this was informative. We are here to help you, your children and family. Our destination clinic treats patients from across the country and internationally.

To your good health,

Visit us at www.RootCauseMedicalClinic.com. If you have questions or need any help, I’m here for you! Call 408-733-0400.

I look forward to hearing from you.

To your good health,

Dr Vikki Petersen, DC, CCN, CFMP


IFM Certified Practitioner

Founder of Root Cause Medical Clinic
Co-author of “The Gluten Effect”

Author of the eBook: “Gluten Intolerance – What You Don’t Know May Be Killing You!”

Are You a Celiac Waiting to Happen?

Over the years patients have told me stories of “developing” a gluten intolerance later in life.  They stated that they tolerated gluten “just fine” until… X happened.  The life-changing moment included such things as a major stress, an infection or an illness of some sort. But what these patients all had in common was that they were adamant about one thing:  before X happened they were fine and after X happened they could no longer tolerate gluten.

The stories were interesting of course but as a clinician my major goal and focus was to restore their health.  Whether they were subtly intolerant to gluten before the life-changing event or they were completely normal, as they insisted, was impossible to prove, but it did cause me to wonder which was the case.

That was until yesterday!  A fabulous research article emerged (or I should say it WILL emerge as it won’t be published in the journal until December 2010) from the Annals of Medicine entitled “Natural history of celiac disease autoimmunity in a USA cohort followed since 1974”.  It could be more aptly named: “Celiac Disease Found to Develop Later in Life”.

In the study over 3,500 subjects were followed who had given blood samples in 1974, 1989 and again every two to three years up to 2007. During that 33 year span of time their blood was tested for celiac disease. Astoundingly the incidence of the disease rose from one in 501 subjects in 1974, to one in 219 in 1989 – it literally doubled over the course of 15 years.

While seven of the participants were found to have celiac based on their 1974 blood samples, none of them were ever diagnosed. By 1989, the number of cases rose to 16, though only one had been officially diagnosed. (That’s a pitiful 6% diagnosis rate.) At least two people developed celiac after they turned 50.

While we know that individuals must have a genetic predisposition to develop celiac, scientists aren't sure why gluten intolerance would develop after so many seemingly gluten-tolerant years.

Dr. Fasano, one of the researchers, commented that environmental factors may trigger changes in the immune system that could activate anti-gluten genes. Specifically he stated that the significant changes in our environment include such things as more antibiotics, more vaccinations, bioengineered foods, chemicals we haven't been [previously] exposed to, and pollutants at record high concentrations.

I couldn’t agree more.  This study supports what we see in our clinic on a daily basis, we just never had the research before to support the clinical findings.  Science used to think that our genes were hard-wired and there was nothing we could do to influence them. Research now shows us that genes are more plastic or flexible and influencing their “on” and “off” switches is something we have control over.

It’s exciting to think that we can selectively turn off a gene predisposing us to a disease, isn’t it?  I’ve always explained to my patients that genes dictate a tendency or a “leaning towards” a certain health disposition.  But that tendency is not engraved in concrete and if you want to counteract that tendency, in most cases you can.

This study shows us that despite having a genetic predisposition, many of the individuals followed over 33 years took half a lifetime to develop celiac disease. The gene was there but it wasn’t turned “on” in childhood as we always assumed it was in celiacs. It took decades for the anti-gluten gene (as Dr Fasano termed it) to turn on.  But the 64 million dollar question is WHY did it get turned on at all and WHAT could have been done to prevent it?

I know the researchers claimed that a definitive reason was unknown butI would like to make some suggestions based on clinical experience.

I believe that a healthy, optimally functioning body would be less likely to turn on negative genes. Yes, I know that achieving optimal functioning is easier said than done, but one will never accomplish true health if one doesn’t believe that it is attainable first. 

If we were to go down a checklist of items that need to be done it would look something like this: 

1.       Discover and eliminate from the diet any food sensitivities.  This would include gluten and dairy as the most common but soy, corn and eggs (to name a few) are also found. If you follow this blog at all you’ll know the importance behind isolating foods that your body reacts negatively to.  But suffice to say that consuming a food that puts stress on the GI tract is not at all compatible with good health.

2.       Discover and eradicate any infectious organisms.  Such things as bacteria, parasites, amoebas, yeast and worms can all be found in the intestine much to the detriment of not only the individual’s immune system but they also cause intestinal inflammation and a leaky gut. Such inflammation and increased permeability is a known underlying cause of poor health and autoimmune disease.

3.       Normalize the health and strength of the body’s immune system.  It is estimated that about 80% of the body’s immune system resides in the gut. Chronic inflammation from gluten, other foods, toxins and/or pathogens all results in a weakening of the trillions of immune promoting organisms known as probiotics or the microbiome of the gut. Laboratory tests can help to estimate how robust or weakened these species are.

4.       Improving the body’s health should facilitate the removal of most if not all medications from the individual’s life.  So many drugs have the side effect of increasing intestinal permeability and weakening the immune system that their removal is vital to restoring health.

5.       Detoxification of the body and the patient’s lifestyle is also critical when you desire to turn good genes “on” and bad genes “off”. Diet cannot be overestimated in its importance.  Seven to nine servings of organic fruits and vegetables, beans, legumes and purified water all have detoxification attributes.

6.       Regular exercise of the aerobic, stretching and strengthening variety should be done minimally 4 to 6 times per week  for at least 45 minutes.

7.       Laboratory tests to assess the liver’s ability to successfully detoxify as well as evaluating the presence of any heavy metal toxicity is also necessary to reduce any undue stress.

8.       Utilizing more natural cleaning products, soaps and other hygiene products will also reduce the toxic load on the body.

This research study shows us that celiac disease is not a disease of childhood and the fact that it “seems” to be more prevalent is not because it has become a fad to eat gluten-free but because there is an increased incidence of gluten intolerance in our population as it gets older.  Everyone, regardless of their age, should be screened for celiac disease and gluten sensitivity.  We can truly save lives if we institute broader screening. And, perhaps if we strive to institute the 8 steps mentioned above we could in fact turn “off” some of the celiac and other autoimmune genes. Now wouldn’t THAT be a happy day!

I hope you find this information helpful.  Please let me know if I can be of any assistance to you or your family.

Visit us at www.RootCauseMedicalClinic.com. If you have questions or need any help, I’m here for you! Call 408-733-0400.

I look forward to hearing from you.

To your good health,

Dr Vikki Petersen, DC, CCN, CFMP


IFM Certified Practitioner

Founder of Root Cause Medical Clinic
Co-author of “The Gluten Effect”

Author of the eBook: “Gluten Intolerance – What You Don’t Know May Be Killing You!”

Gluten Sensitivity and Genes

If you’ve been reading much about celiac you’ve probably already heard of the genes HLA DQ2 and DQ8. I thought it would be helpful to give a simplified primer on the genes in order to understand why we see some of the disease relationships we do, such as an increased incidence of diabetes in celiacs.

HLA stands for human leukocyte antigen and these specific genes tells our immune system what is considered normal and what is considered a foreign invader, worthy of attacking.

Antibodies are what our immune system makes to attack foreign invaders, be it a bacterium, virus or parasite. And of course one thing we take for granted is that our immune system CAN tell friend (or self) from foe.

For those with HLA DQ2 or DQ8 genes, a confusion occurs where the antibodies produced are unable to discern normal parts of the body from invaders and an attack on self ensues.

In celiac disease the small intestine is attacked and in diabetes the cells of the pancreas that produce insulin are the site of attack.

HLA DQ2 and DQ8 genes not only involved in celiac disease and type 1 diabetes, but also other autoimmune diseases.

While this may sound very fatalistic – meaning that if you have these genes you’re “doomed to suffer”, that is not the case. Many people who have these genes never go on to develop these diseases.

And that opens the door to an area that I am currently fascinated by: gene expression and epigenetics (epi- means above and this field delves into how and why genes get turned on and off). Simply because you have a gene is no guarantee that gene will “turn on” and express its negative tendencies.

While it’s a work in progress, many researchers believe that the integrity or health of the small intestine and a healthy population of probiotics therein could very well be at the root of genetic expression, especially as it relates to celiac and gluten sensitivity.

Stay tuned on that point. I am busily researching and doing some testing of my own, but I can tell you that the research that has been done is quite exciting.

Please let me know if I can be of any assistance.

Visit us at www.RootCauseMedicalClinic.com. If you have questions or need any help, I’m here for you! Call 408-733-0400.

I look forward to hearing from you.

To your good health,

Dr Vikki Petersen, DC, CCN, CFMP


IFM Certified Practitioner

Founder of Root Cause Medical Clinic
Co-author of “The Gluten Effect”

Author of the eBook: “Gluten Intolerance – What You Don’t Know May Be Killing You!”