Do C-Sections Increase the Risk of Celiac Disease?

Children who develop celiac disease appear to be more likely to be born by cesarean section, German researchers say.

According to Dr. Mathias Hornef, from Hannover Medical School in Germany, and his colleagues, how a child is born can affect the bacterial mixes in their intestines, so they wondered if this could relate to people who have inflammatory bowel diseases – such as celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, and ulcerative colitis who have this same mix.

“The team studied children and adolescents with Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, or celiac disease. They also studied some children with other gastrointestinal problems, as well as a “control” group of children who were visiting local eye doctors and dentists for unrelated conditions.

“The celiac children clearly had a higher rate of cesarean births compared to the other four groups. Twenty-eight percent of the celiac children were born by cesarean section, compared to no more than 19 percent of all the other groups. The celiac children were also diagnosed at a younger age, on average, than the other patients.”

Hornef and his group note in their report that this is the first time anyone has found a link between cesarean delivery and children with celiac disease.

What does that mean, though? There may be other explanations as to why there may be a link between c-section deliveries and celiac disease, other researchers say.

“For example, Dr. Daniel Leffler, director of clinical research at the Celiac Disease Center at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said many of the children’s mothers may have had undiagnosed celiac disease. Given that celiac disease can be inherited, and that undiagnosed celiac disease increases the risk of cesarean section, undiagnosed disease “would be more than enough to explain the increased number of cesareans,” he told Reuters Health.”

“It may well be that celiac disease is showing up in the children, rather than in the mothers, because people are more alert to the possibility in kids,” he added.

Leffler suggested that maybe we should be looking for undiagnosed celiac in young women.

Read the entire article from Reuters Health here.