Going Gluten-Free At Age 13
Jacob used to have excruciating stomach pains. During seventh grade, he remembers dashing off to the bathroom during tests. “Then I had less time to take the test.” And after sports practices, he’d come home doubled over in pain.
At the time, his family had no idea the pain was triggered by eating gluten — a protein found in wheat, barley and rye grains.
“It got to the point where I had to miss sports practices and games because I was so sick,” Jacob recalls. “It was really painful.”
Celiac Disease Vaccine?
Last month, researchers at Melbourne’s Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) began the first human trials of a possible coeliac vaccine.
The vaccine is designed to persuade the immune system to tolerate the gluten peptides, says Dr Bob Anderson, WEHI researcher and head of Nexpep, the company that holds the patent for the vaccine.
