I have never come across anything in any medical reference or journal which indicates a CLEAR cause and effect relationship with celiac disease like, for example smoking would cause lung cancer.

In this article, you will learn about the two less obvious ones which are genetics, and triggers.

Genetics

Celiac disease is a genetic condition; however as with all genetic conditions they are predispositions that we are born with. In other words celiac’s may carry a gene or sequence of genes which may result in the presence of celiac disease but not guaranteed that they will wind up with the condition.

Recent research has suggested that a gene called HLA — DQ2 is the gene responsible for people who may develop celiac disease. If you are interested in learning more about tests for this gene and other tests for Celiac disease and gluten or wheat intolerance, you may wish to watch my video about testing options and their pros and cons.

People sometimes ask whether celiac disease comes from a dominant or recessive gene. The research indicates that it is neither, but rather that it’s a multi-genetic. Which means that several genes are involved, with HLA-DQ2 being the key gene consistently showing up in the literature.

What’s more important here however is not remembering the name of specific genes, but rather that Celiac disease DOES run in families, and even if some family members don’t display symptoms, they should be tested. The research indicates that somewhere around 5% to 10% of first-degree relatives of someone with celiac disease also, have celiac disease themselves, with or without symptoms and somewhere around one in 40 second-degree relatives have celiac disease whether they know it or not.

For the purpose of clarification – a first degree relative would be someone with whom 50% of genes are shared with a parent – so for example brothers and sisters are first degree relatives. Second degree relatives would be where 25% of genes are shared with parents – for example first cousins are considered to be second degree relatives.

Triggers

Some people will go 40 or 50 years without displaying any symptoms and all of a sudden they are sicker than they have ever been in their entire lives and can’t figure out why and another reason this condition is so hard to diagnose. Celiac disease is like many other autoimmune conditions which require a trigger to activate the condition. Usually gluten is the key trigger for the autoimmune response in the celiac. Exactly what triggers celiac disease into action later in life is not yet known for sure, although my experience, those of people I help with this subject and the research I have read on the subject indicates a three likely conditions:

For children, Gluten exposure during infancy indicates that this early exposure may act as a trigger. For adults these triggers include any major trauma to the body or spirit, such as radiation or chemotherapy, major surgery, a major life stressors such as death, divorce, job loss, or a serious infection or virus such as pneumonia.

I have never been tested for Celiac disease – however, I did learn in my own case while going through a very stressful employment situation that I was intolerant to wheat, gluten and casein – which is the protein in milk.

This was during a time of extreme stress where I was travelling globally two to three weeks out of every month for over a year, for work. It was right about this same time, that I started to have extreme fatigue, skin issues and digestive problems to name a few.

Not long after this stressor entered my life, I began the journey to restore my health through my diet, which led me conclude that wheat and dairy where sucking the life out of me…and after eliminating them from my diet, things began to improve – further analysis and understanding of the situation helped me fully restore my health and formed the basis of this project nearly 10 years later. So in my case and the case of many people I have spoken with, major stress was the trigger.

In conclusion, active Celiac disease requires three key elements – the first is the presence of a gene, which may lie dormant in some people their entire lives, whereas for others, it may activate through the second element – the presence of gluten, combined with the third and final element, which is a stressor that activates the immunological response mechanism in the body.