Response to ‘Remarkable prevalence of celiac disease in patients with irritable bowel syndrome plus fibromyalgia in comparison with those with isolated irritable bowel syndrome: a case-finding study’

In a recent issue of Arthritis Research & Therapy, I read with interest the report by Rodrigo and colleagues [1] documenting a fairly high rate of celiac disease in patients with irritable bowel syndrome and fibromyalgia. It is noteworthy that their patients improved on a gluten-free diet. However, that article references the report by Taubman and colleagues [2] and implies that our patient improved on a gluten-free diet whereas she actually, as reported, had an exacerbation of her symptoms on a gluten-free diet. Although the majority of such patients may improve when their celiac disease is treated, I do not want your readers to have the impression that such improvement is a uniform phenomenon. Both conditions are relatively common and therefore it is to be expected that some individuals will be unfortunate enough to have both conditions, unrelated to each other.