We all know what celiac disease is: a disease that consists of an allergic reaction to gliadin, a gluten protein. The causes of celiac disease can be both environmental and genetic in nature, but in spite of the one percent of the population who suffer from it symptomatically, there is a large slice of the population that avoids products that contain gluten for various reasons.

Some of these reasons simply concern dietary fads, other times people manifest what is now known as gluten sensitivity, a syndrome that has some symptoms in common with celiac disease, although not celiac disease, given that those who suffer from gluten sensitivity does not develop the same antibodies as celiacs. So how to diagnose it? So far a series of exclusionary exams leads to determine whether it is present or not (usually just one exam is not enough), but there may be something new.

According to a study presented in Vienna during the United European Gastroenterology Week (Ueg), it is not gluten itself that causes gluten sensitivity, but the   amylase-trypsin inhibitors (Ati), present mainly in wheat and in that kind of wheat or wheat more suitable for wide distribution and marketing: these Ati would trigger inflammation in sensitive subjects that would lead to a vast symptomatology, ranging from intestinal problems to rheumatoid arthritis up to asthma, multiple sclerosis and lupus. In short, it would trigger inflammatory reactions that could also lead to autoimmune diseases and a series of symptoms not only intestinal, such as erythema.