Gluten-intolerant coeliacs at higher risk of heart disease, Oxford University ... trends now

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Suffering a common bowel condition could make you more likely to develop heart disease, research suggests.

Coeliac disease, which affects about one in 100 Britons, causes damage to the gut when the body overreacts to gluten – a protein in bread – triggering diarrhoea, abdominal pain and bloating.

But scientists at the University of Oxford have now found that coeliacs have a higher risk of heart trouble that increases the longer they have had the condition.

While previous studies had also identified a link between coeliac disease and an increased risk of suffering heart conditions, researchers believed this was due to patients having other risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and obesity.

The authors of the new research say that their findings suggest otherwise.