Can Celiac Disease Cause Male Osteoporosis?

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Written by Kyle Eslick / Published in Symptoms

Are a male with osteoporosis? According to a recent report over at US News & World Report, it looks like all males with osteoporosis over the age of 50 are now being told to get tested for Celiac Disease. This is the result of a recent study which showed that Celiac Disease appears to progress faster in men, deprive men’s bodies of more needed nutrients, and cause particularly acute damage to bones. In fact, it is believed to be the leading cause of Osteoporosis in men!

Here is an excerpt from their post:

Increasingly, American doctors have begun to recognize that celiac disease, which causes damage to the surface of the small intestine and hampers its ability to absorb needed nutrients, is a fairly common affliction. It’s present in about 1 percent of the population, possibly more. Nevertheless, there’s a long way to go in terms of improving awareness of the disease among the American public and physicians. According to Shelley Case, the author of Gluten – Free Diet: A Comprehensive Resource Guide, experts estimate that only about 5 percent of Americans with the condition ever receive a diagnosis, and it typically takes doctors about 11 years to correctly identify a person who has celiac disease, since the problem is often misdiagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome or anemia.

That’s troubling because untreated celiac disease significantly increases the risk of severe medical problems, including gastrointestinal cancers and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, in addition to osteoporosis. And while osteoporosis is most common among postmenopausal women, the disease also poses a significant threat to more than 2 million men, according to the National Institutes of Health. More than 6 percent of men over the age of 50 will experience an osteoporosis-related hip fracture, NIH says.

The connection between the osteoporosis and celiac disease has important practical implications. Experts say that any man with osteoporosis should have himself screened for celiac disease—just as anyone, male or female, who has celiac disease should get screened for osteoporosis. For people who do have both diseases, research has shown that adopting a gluten-free diet halts the progression of osteoporosis and even improves bone density by 10 percent, Green says.

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