Celiac.com 04/10/2017 - Fibromyalgia syndrome is a debilitating condition of unknown cause, and only treatment approaches at present offer only limited relief from symptoms. Some fibromyalgia sufferers seem to benefit from a gluten-free diet, but there's not a great amount of data on the benefits of a gluten-free diet in fibromyalgia sufferers who do not have celiac disease.
A team of researchers recently set out to describe 20 selected patients with fibromyalgia, but without celiac disease, whose symptoms improved when they followed a gluten-free diet. The research team included Carlos Isasi, Isabel Colmenero, Fernando Casco, Eva Tejerina, Natalia Fernandez, José I. Serrano-Vela, Maria J. Castro, and Luis F. Villa.
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They are variously associated with the Department of Rheumatology, Hospital Puerta de Hierro, Majadahonda Madrid, Spain; the Department of Pathology, Hospital Infantil Niño Jesús, Madrid, Spain; the Department of Pathology, Hospital Puerta de Hierro, Majadahonda Madrid, Spain; the Department of Gastroenterology, Hospital Puerta de Hierro, Majadahonda Madrid, Spain; the Celiac and Gluten Sensitive patients Association of Madrid, Madrid, Spain; and with the Department of Immunology, Hospital Doce de Octubre, Madrid, Spain.
What researchers now call non-celiac gluten-sensitivity is a daily common, yet treatable condition, with a range of symptoms that dovetail with many symptoms of fibromyalgia, including chronic musculoskeletal pain, asthenia, and irritable bowel syndrome.
All patients underwent anti-transglutaminase assay, duodenal biopsy, and HLA typing. To rule out celiac disease in their test subjects, the research team used negative anti-transglutaminase assay results, together with the absence of villous atrophy in the duodenal biopsy.
All patients showed signs of intraepithelial lymphocytosis with no villous atrophy. The doctors defined a positive clinical response as the achievement of at least one of the following: remission of fibromyalgia-associated pain, return to work, return to normal life, or the discontinuation of opioids. Doctors followed on the patients from 5 to 31 months, with a follow-up period of 16 months, on average.
These results strengthen the idea that non-celiac gluten sensitivity may play a key role in the development of fibromyalgia syndrome.
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