Don’t forget to enter my giveaway for your change to win a recipe book, tortilla warmer, and some Rudi’s Products! You can enter to win here.

The National Foundation for Celiac Awareness Kicks off Celiac Awareness Month with Educational 
Initiatives
This press release outlines NFCA’s May activities, which offer many opportunities to enter giveaways (such as one for a pantry makeover), as well as educate yourself and others and advocate for gluten free rights through many new initiatives. You can visit their website directly for more information!

Speaking of Celiac Awareness Month: Visit The Suffolk County Celiacs Gluten Free Vendor Fair this weekend if you are local. You can find information here. 

Celiac Disease in Patients with Chronic Psychiatric Disorders
We’ve all heard that those with untreated Celiac Disease have higher rates of Psychiatric conditions, but this team sought to determine if the reverse is true and if rates of CD are higher in populations with Psychiatric conditions. The results proved no difference in positive results for CD in a control and test group.

Alba Therapeutics Recruiting for a Phase 2b Clinical Trial
Alba Therapeutics is moving forward with a Phase 2b study of their investigational medication larazotide acete, which is a tight junction regulator. As the article states: “Tight junctions, which are located in the bowel, should remain closed except to shed dead cells. However, in patients with CeD, the presence of gluten causes the tight junctions to remain open, thus starting an inflammatory cascade within the bowel that eventually destroys the intestinal villa. Early research suggests larazotide acetate may help keep the tight junctions closed when ingested prior to a meal, thus reducing the inflammatory process in response to gluten.” In addition to moving forward with their trial, Alba Therapeutics also gained  exclusive rights to the first and only Patient Reported Outcome Questionnaire for Patients with Celiac Disease. This is a hopeful more towards improving measurement in studies of Celiac Disease Populations!