IBS Subjects Have an Increased Risk of Celiac Disease

Early last month I posted a note about irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and celiac disease. Now a review and meta-analysis has helped clarify the relationship between the two conditions. It’s published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The meta-analysis was based on 14 studies comprising 4,204 subjects, of whom 2278 (54%) met the diagnostic criteria for IBS and had undergone a blood test for celiac disease. Positive celiac blood tests results and biopsies for celiac disease were as high as 4%. The odds of having a positive blood test or biopsy-proven celiac disease was 3-fold to 4-fold higher in the subjects with symptoms suggestive of IBS than in controls without IBS symptoms.

The headline I’ve used above is really incorrect. If you have confirmed IBS, there’s no reason to believe it will develop into celiac disease, or that you can have celiac disease as well as IBS. What the evidence shows is that some people with symptoms meeting the diagnostic criteria for IBS may, in fact, have celiac disease instead.