Samuel Gee, Aretaeus, and the coeliac affection.

Dowd, Brianna; Walker-Smith, J A

doi:10.1136/bmj.2.5909.45

Cited by 50 publications

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“…Many subsequent editions and commentaries in Latin and original Greek, as well as translations into several European languages, appeared later, even until the 21 st century (27). Among them, the original Greek version and its English translation by Francis Adams (1796-1861), published by the Sydenham Society in 1856, has been one of the most cited primary references on Aretaeus' writings (5,19).…”

Section: His Famous Work: On the Causes Symptoms And Cure Of Diseasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aretaeus of cappadocia and his treatises on diseases

Tekiner

2014

Turkish Neurosurgery

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Aretaeus of Cappadocia is considered as one of the greatest medical scholars of Greco-Roman antiquity after Hippocrates. He presumably was a native or at least a citizen of Cappadocia, a Roman province in Asia Minor (Turkey), and most likely lived around the middle of the second century (AD) His eight volume treatise, written in Ionic Greek, entitled On the Causes, Symptoms and Cure of Acute and Chronic Diseases remained unknown until the middle of the 16 th century when, in 1552, the first Latin edition was published. In this work, Aretaeus offered clinical descriptions of a number of diseases among which he gave classic accounts of asthma, epilepsy, pneumonia, tetanus, uterus cancer and different kinds of insanity. He differentiated nervous diseases and mental disorders and described hysteria, headaches, mania and melancholia. He also rendered the earliest clear accounts on coeliac disease, diphtheria and heart murmur, and gave diabetes its name.

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Section: His Famous Work: On the Causes Symptoms And Cure Of Diseasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aretaeus of cappadocia and his treatises on diseases

Tekiner

2014

Turkish Neurosurgery

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“…In 1888 (Dowd and Walker-Smith 1974;Simoons 1981;Losowsky 2008) Gee described the 'coeliac affection' as a condition of chronic indigestion associated with diarrhea, wasting, and weakness and common in people of all ages. Gee's report was the first to hypothesize dietary factors as a primary cause of the condition (Dowd and Walker-Smith 1974), and during the early twentieth century some workers noted the value of a starch free diet for prevention of CD (Haas 1924). Dicke and colleagues (1950, 1953) observed the detrimental effect of wheat flour (but not wheat starch) on CD patients experimentally confirming a role for diet as a driver of CD.…”

Section: Celiac Disease (Cd) Is a Multifactorial Chronic Inflammatorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Celiac Disease as a Model for the Evolution of Multifactorial Disease in Humans

Sams

Hawks

2014

Human Biology

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Abstract. Celiac disease (CD) is a multifactorial chronic inflammatory conditionthat results in injury of the mucosal lining of the small intestine upon ingestion of wheat gluten and related proteins from barley and rye. Although the exact mechanisms leading to CD are not fully understood, the genetic basis of CD has been relatively well characterized. In this review we briefly review the history of discovery, clinical presentation, pathophysiology, and current understanding of the genetics underlying CD risk. Then, we discuss what is known about the current distribution and evolutionary history of genes underlying CD risk in light of other evolutionary models of disease. Specifically, we conclude that the set of loci underlying CD risk did not cohesively evolve as a response to a single past selection event such as the development of agriculture. Rather, deterministic and stochastic evolutionary processes have both contributed to the present distribution of variation in CD risk loci. Selection has shaped some components of this network, but this selection appears to have occurred at different points in the past.Other parts of the CD risk network have likely arisen due to stochastic processes such as genetic drift. Celiac disease (CD) is a multifactorial chronic inflammatory condition that resultsin injury of the mucosal lining of the small intestine. The earliest descriptions of a condition with symptoms like CD date back to the first and second century writings of the Greek physician Arataeus (Simoons 1981;Losowsky 2008). The first modern description of CD is attributed to English physician Samuel Jones Gee, who was familiar with the writings of Arataeus. In 1888 (Dowd and Walker-Smith 1974;Simoons 1981;Losowsky 2008) Gee described the 'coeliac affection' as a condition of chronic indigestion associated with diarrhea, wasting, and weakness and common in people of all ages. Gee's report was the first to hypothesize dietary factors as a primary cause of the condition (Dowd and Walker-Smith 1974), and during the early twentieth century some workers noted the value of a starch free diet for prevention of CD (Haas 1924). Dicke and colleagues (1950, 1953) observed the detrimental effect of wheat flour (but not wheat starch) on CD patients experimentally confirming a role for diet as a driver of CD. Shortly thereafter, Anderson and colleagues (Anderson et al. 1952;Alvey et al. 1957) confirmed the effect of wheat on CD and identified wheat gluten as the primary culprit.CD appears to be an evolutionary paradox. Only since the 1950s have clinicians recognized that a gluten-free diet is an effective treatment (Barker and Liu 2008). Before that time, diagnosed and undiagnosed CD reduced the health and fitness of sufferers, with juvenile cases leading to malnutrition or death, and adult cases causing wasting, lack of adequate nutrition, greater susceptibility to infection, and direct reductions in fertility (Corrao et al. 2001;Soni and Badawy 2010). Despite these apparent costs, CD is common today (>1%) in several popul...

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“…Several authors [19,20,21], but not all [22] popularly described Samuel Gee as providing one of the earliest descriptions of celiac disease in 1888 [23]. Gee (1839-1911) was a pediatric physician at the Children's Hospital on Great Ormond Street in London.…”

Section: The Post-aretaeus Periodmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Neolithic Revolution and Subsequent Emergence of the Celiac Affection

Freeman¹

2016

IJCD

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Evidence suggests that celiac disease initially emerged as a distinct intestinal disorder sometime after organization of hunter-gatherers into human workforces capable of agriculture, especially wheat cultivation. This Neolithic revolution possibly developed to permit competitive survival over other hunter-gatherer groups. Recent archeological data suggests that wheat cultivation may have occurred in eastern Turkey, near the Gobleki Tepe, a recently discovered archeological site in the Fertile Crescent, about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. DNA fingerprinting data suggests that diploid Einkorn wheat from this region was domesticated through hybridization into other more modern hexaploid grains with a higher more immunogenic gliadin content. Clinical features suggestive of celiac disease and recommendations for treatment are believed to have been first described by Aretaeus from Cappadocia about 250 AD, and later, by other clinicians from Europe and North America. In recent decades, celiac disease has become further defined as a clinical and pathological disorder developing in genetically predisposed individuals as a result of an immune-mediated reaction to specific peptides in wheat and other grains. Data largely from screening studies also suggests that the disorder is not uncommon, occurring in up to 2% of most populations studied. Detection is also increasing, possibly due to better clinical recognition, wider use of screening methods and, possibly, a true increase in celiac disease occurrence.

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Samuel Gee, Aretaeus, and the coeliac affection.

Cited by 50 publications

References 0 publications

Aretaeus of cappadocia and his treatises on diseases

Aretaeus of cappadocia and his treatises on diseases

Celiac Disease as a Model for the Evolution of Multifactorial Disease in Humans

The Neolithic Revolution and Subsequent Emergence of the Celiac Affection

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