It is estimated that as many as 1% of the US population has celiac disease but much of it remains undiagnosed. Celiac disease can lay dormant with little or no symptoms for years before an episode of stress brings it into full form. Many people have symptoms of the disease but have simply never had any one link those symptoms to the actual cause. Many symptoms can mimic problems that are stand alone problems that are treated and never suspected to be part of celiac disease simply because there are no other symptoms.

Dermatitis Herpetiformis is one such symptom. An extremely itchy skin condition, this condition most often affects the elbows, knees, buttocks, scalp and back. Tiny little bumps that itch terribly they will then turn into blisters that often erupt. Caused by IgA deposits under the skin, these little bumps usually occur as a response to gluten. These rashes can get infected when scratched and there are even rare cases of malignancy if the patient does not adhere to a gluten free diet.

Many people that have this condition display no other symptoms of celiac disease, but if a biopsy were to be done almost all of them would come up positive for damage to the intestinal wall. This symptom while not always connected with celiac disease during diagnosis very often does have a connection to this condition.  Dermatitis herpetiformis is also very slow to clear up even after starting a gluten free diet, part of the reason why the connection between the two has been slow to catch on.

Diagnosing dermatitis herpetiformis involves a skin biopsy and performing an immunoflorescence study on it. Treatment consists of removing the gluten from the diet, which is the cause of the condition and in the interim the immune response can be suppressed by certain drugs such as Dapsone, or some sort of other sulphone. These drugs do have side effects though so they should only be used as short term relief while waiting for the gluten free diet to heal the damage permanently.