Quote Originally Posted by Purple Banana
Celiac sucks. I have it as well. I don't stay COMPLETELY gluten-free, as minimal damage to my villi is the case.

Some docs are recommending a certain type of protein or enzyme be taken with meals with gluten in them to help digest the proteins and minimize damage- I've taken it for a few months with meals that have a moderate amount of gluten in them, and I've had no marked damage to my villi. Kind of like with lactose-intolerant individuals who take particular enzymes before a dairy meal to help digest the lactose.
How can it put you at risk for over 200 illnesses? Celiac disease, although it's been around for some time, has hardly enough extensive studies that equate even light consumption of foods with gluten in them with lowered life expectancy... Which study claimed that?
I take an enzyme, DPP-IV, that is supposed to help digest gluten for some "gluten-sensitive" people, especially Autistic children, but it is not, I repeat NOT, a "cure" that will allow someone with full-blown Celiac Disease to consume gluten without sustaining damage. I take it in the hope that it will help protect me against small trace amounts of gluten that may be in foods, or mild accidental cross-contamination. It also helps digest casein, a protein found in milk products. There is nothing yet on the market that makes it safe for Celiacs to consume any products that contain gluten, and any doctor that says that there is does not know what he or she is talking about.

There is no one "study" that confirms that gluten leads to 200 life-threatening illnesses - there are many individual ones, though. The book Dangerous Grains has the details and references. I own it, but don't have it in front of me at the moment. Here's a link to it on Amazon:
Amazon.com: Reviews for Dangerous Grains: Books: James Braly,Ron Hoggan