Nutrition News

IBS & Diet News

A study conducted by Wahnschaffe and others investigating clinical response to gluten-free diet in patients diagnosed with diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) was published in Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2007;5:844-850. It indicates that in a high proportion of patients with diarrhea-predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), gluten intolerance is the main etiological factor.

There were of 145 patients with diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and normal small-bowel architecture which indicates that absence of celiac disease. 37% had elevated IgG antigliadin and/or tissue-transglutaminase antibodies, 39% were positive for HLA-DQ2 (which is strongly associated with celiac disease). Forty-one of the 145 patients followed a gluten-free diet for six months.

Diarrhea and other gastrointestinal symptoms resolved in 60% of the patients for HLA-DQ2 and celiac disease-associated serum antibodies.

The study also showed that certain laboratory tests that are used to diagnose celiac disease can also predict which patients with diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are most likely to respond to a gluten-free diet.