New research suggests Celiac disease can up one's risk of nerve damage 2.5 fold.
Celiac disease causes gluten sensitivity, and is believed to affect about 1 percent of the general population, the JAMA Network Journals reported.
"Earlier research on celiac disease (CD) and neuropathy has been hampered by the use of inpatient data, low study power, and lack of neuropathic characteristics," the researchers reported in their study abstract.
To make their findings, a team of researchers collected data on small intestine biopsies that were performed between June 1969 and February 2008. The data allowed them to compare the risk of neuropathy in 28,232 patients with celiac disease and 139,473 healthy patients.
Out of the samples, 198 individuals with celiac disease were diagnosed with neuropathy compared with 359 control patients. This translated to 0.7 percent of patients with celiac and 0.3 of patients without the disease. The absolute risk of developing neuropathy was determined to be 64 per 100,000 person-years in patients with celiac disease and 15 per 100,000 person-years in the control group. There did not appear to be any differences in neuropathy risk between men and women suffering from celiac disease.
"We found an increased risk of neuropathy in patients with CD [celiac disease] that persists after CD diagnosis. Although absolute risks for neuropathy are low, CD is a potentially treatable condition with a young age of onset. Our findings suggest that screening could be beneficial in patients with neuropathy," the study concluded.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Neurology.
