Gluten-free diet 'may alleviate ME'

LIZ HUNT

Mysterious symptoms, including muscle weakness, wasting, and poor co- ordination and balance, may be caused by an undiagnosed allergy to wheat, barley, oats or rye, according to new research which may have implications for some people with myalgic encephalomyelitis.

A study of 53 patients with these and other unexplained neurological symptoms, found that nearly three-fifths of them had antibodies to gluten, a protein found in cereal grains, in their blood.

The findings by doctors at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield suggest that some of the symptoms at least, could be alleviated by sufferers eating a gluten-free diet.

Gluten sensitivity is a well-known, hereditary gut disorder. Symptoms include diarrhoea, bulky stools, and flatulence which are due to inflammation of the small bowel lining. However, some patients also have neurological symptoms due to degeneration of peripheral nerves and the spinal cord.

Writing in tomorrow's issue of the Lancet, doctors say that none of the patients in the Sheffield group had been diagnosed with coeliac disease but when samples of tissue were removed from their gut, more than one- third showed evidence of the disease or inflammation of the middle and lower gut.