Italian version

Sampson's definition of food allergies proposed in 2003 is leading to the identification of new roads for curing this disease. Instead of imposing the elimination of food for the rest of one's life, they help the body to reconstruct tolerance bite after bite. It's possible for one to return to a normal and varied diet, even when it comes to gluten.

In his definition, Sampson classified celiac disease as a food allergy of a mixed nature, in which there are aspects of an immediate allergy and others of a delayed allergy (solely linked to a stimulus that is repeated for consecutive days). Considering the various individual predominance of these two aspects, celiac disease can be approached with an elimination diet or instead with the re-education of tolerance by way of low doses of gluten . In this way, the diet allows for the use of wheat and related foods.

For many years, celiac disease was defined as a disease for which it was necessary to eliminate gluten from one's diet for life. However, there has been recent scientific work that points to the contrary. In particular, we refer to the fact that the gliadinic antigen is a cellular type of reaction that doesn't depend on an immediate allergy, but is connected to a gradual response.

What's more, despite what celiac sufferers believe and what the associations for celiac disease declare, even special food for celiac patients that is labeled and distributed in the pharmacy contains a percentage of gluten with a tolerance of at least 5 parts to a million .This is equivalent to 5 mg. per kg. of food. This is a considerable amount and people should know that they are eating some gluten in their elimination diets, anyway, without having any particular problems because of it.

Yet another study, the one performed by Patriarca and Gasbarrini in Rome, should make everyone reflect. In this work , published in the 'International Journal of Immunopathology and Pharmacology (Patriarca G, et al. Int J Immunopathol Pharmacol 2005 Oct-Dec;18(4):709-14), the scientists documented the recovery of a celiac sufferer by way of the use of low doses of gluten that were introduced into her diet. The research was based on the progressive and gradual re-introduction of gluten over a period of 6 months into the diet of a celiac woman who had been following an elimination diet for 10 years. The gradual and systematically monitored re-introduction led to her return to an entirely normal diet without any detectable damage of any sort.

Italian version