(Press-News.org) SAN DIEGO, CA. (MAY 5, 2025) — People with celiac disease have reported anxiety about ingesting gluten through a kiss, but a new study concludes that they can indulge without worry — even if their partner just had a gluten-filled snack, according to a study to be presented today at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) 2025. To be extra safe, the study recommends drinking water before smooching.
“Everyone worries about whether gluten is getting into their food at a restaurant, but no one really looked at what happens when you kiss afterwards,” said Anne Lee, PhD, assistant professor of nutritional medicine at Columbia University. “The advice we gave about kissing and celiac disease was based on precaution and assumptions. We were using our best judgment. I felt it was important to do research to see if there was any actual risk.”
Researchers recruited 10 couples, each with one partner who has celiac disease, for a two-part study. In each session, the non-celiac partner ate 10 saltine crackers, and then the couple kissed for 10 seconds. In one session, the partners waited five minutes before the kiss, and in the other, they drank 4 ounces of water before kissing. In both situations, researchers found that the gluten transfer, which was measured in the saliva of the partner with celiac disease, was minimal in the majority of participants.
Although gluten was still found in saliva after kissing a partner who had consumed gluten and then had a glass of water, in all cases the amount was less than 20 parts per million, the level allowed in gluten-free products, which is considered safe.
Celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder, affects 1% of the population and is typically marked by digestive issues, including abdominal pain, indigestion, and diarrhea. For patients with celiac disease, gluten ingestion causes intestinal damage even if it does not cause immediate symptoms.
Understanding how gluten transfers through kissing could also be useful to people with non-celiac gluten sensitivity who experience symptoms like bloating, fatigue, or brain fog after exposure to gluten.
“For clinicians, we can now say to patients, ‘You don’t have to go to extreme measures,’” Dr. Lee said. “Patients with celiac disease can be more relaxed, knowing that the risk of gluten cross-contact through kissing a partner who has consumed gluten can be brought down to safe levels if food is followed by a small glass of water.”
DDW Presentation Details
Dr. Lee will present data from the study, “Assessing gluten transfer via kissing; a prospective study of celiac-discordant couples,” abstract Mo1242, at 12:30 p.m. PDT, Monday, May 5. For more information about featured studies, as well as a schedule of availability for featured researchers, please visit www.ddw.org/press.
###
Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) is the largest international gathering of physicians, researchers, and academics in the fields of gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy, and gastrointestinal surgery. Jointly sponsored by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) and the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract (SSAT), DDW is an in-person and online meeting from May 3-6, 2025. The meeting showcases nearly 6,000 abstracts and more than 1,000 lectures on the latest advances in GI research, medicine, and technology. More information can be found at www.ddw.org
END
SAN DIEGO, CA. (MAY 6, 2025) — Cancer related studies were among nearly 6,000 abstracts presented at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) 2025, including research on AI in patient communication, polyp detection, and colonoscopy prep.
Oncologists Prefer AI Responses to GI Cancer Questions Over Physicians’
SAN DIEGO — Artificial intelligence outperformed physicians in answering gastrointestinal cancer questions, with oncologists preferring ChatGPT’s responses nearly 80% of the time, according to a study presented at Digestive Disease Week (DDW) ® ...
Leuven, 05 May 2025 – A group of researchers in the lab of Prof. Lucía Chávez Gutiérrez (VIB-KU Leuven) have unraveled the genetic contributions to familial Alzheimer’s Disease development and revealed how specific mutations act as a clock to predict the disease age of onset. These insights, published in Molecular Neurodegeneration, could aid clinicians to improve early diagnosis and tailor treatment strategies.
Alzheimer's disease remains one of the most challenging and prevalent neurodegenerative ...
New York, NY and Anchorage, AK — On May 12, 2025, at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Aging Association (AGE) in Anchorage, Alaska, the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) will host an award ceremony to present the 2025 Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star Award in Aging Research to Daniel W. Belsky, PhD. The event will be held from 1-2pm AKDT in the Tikahtnu Ballroom of the Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center. The award will be presented by AFAR Scientific Director Steven N. Austad, PhD.
The Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star Award in Aging Research is ...
New research in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.241506 found an increase in asthma-related emergency department (ED) visits across Ontario following heavy smoke in early June 2023.
Canada experienced the most destructive wildfire season to date in 2023, with difficult-to-control fires across the country, including 29 mega-fires. One fire in Quebec, the province’s largest-ever wildfire, extended 1.2 million acres. Smoke from fires blanketed Canada and the United States, causing substantial damage, loss, and displacement.
“The ...
A team of researchers from the University of Waterloo have created a method that makes virtual reality (VR) more accessible to people with mobility limitations.
VR games like Beat Saber and Space Pirate Trainer usually require large and dramatic movements, such as raising one’s arms above the head or quickly side-stepping, which can be difficult or impossible for people who use wheelchairs or have limited mobility. To decrease these barriers, the researchers created MotionBlocks, a tool that lets users customize ...
AAAS CEO, Sudip S. Parikh, testified as a bipartisan witness before the Senate Appropriations Committee Wednesday, April 30, for a hearing discussing biomedical research in America. Dr. Parikh was joined by three other executives and one patient advocate to express the importance of American support and funding for biomedical research. In Dr. Parikh’s written testimony, he cites the biomedical research ecosystem developed in the United States as the “greatest engine for discovery in the service of health that the world has ever known,” while ...
Vienna, Austria – Endometrial cancer is the most common gynecological cancer in high-developed countries, most often affecting women after menopause. The majority of women are diagnosed at an early stage, when treatment outcomes are generally favorable.* For women with high-intermediate risk disease, adjuvant radiotherapy — particularly vaginal brachytherapy (a form of internal radiotherapy delivered directly to the vaginal area) — is commonly used after surgery to reduce the risk of recurrence. However, patients don’t need it equally, and some may receive more treatment than necessary, exposing ...
Learning from Every Patient: New Radiotherapy Technique Aims to Protect the Heart During Lung Cancer Treatment
Vienna, Austria – A new study presented at ESTRO 2025 introduces the RAPID-RT study, which uses an innovative rapid-learning approach to evaluate the impact of treatment modifications in radiotherapy. Traditional clinical trials are often lengthy and are not representative of real-world patient populations due to complex consent processes and strict eligibility criteria. In contrast, RAPID-RT offers a more inclusive, real-world alternative. Researchers at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester, UK, have applied this method in lung cancer patients to assess ...
Vienna, Austria – Rectal cancer is a type of bowel cancer that develops in the last several centimetres of the large intestine, just before the anus. It’s one of the most common cancers in Europe, with over 125,000 people diagnosed annually*. Treatment traditionally involves surgery to remove the tumour—a major operation that can permanently affect sexual function, continence, and quality of life.
While radiotherapy and chemotherapy are already used to shrink tumours before surgery, there is growing momentum behind treatment strategies that avoid surgery ...
WASHINGTON— The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions (SCAI) has announced its new leadership for 2025–26, with Srihari S. Naidu, MD, MSCAI, assuming the role of President during SCAI Scientific Sessions 2025, held May 1–3 in Washington, DC.
Dr. Naidu is Professor of Medicine at New York Medical College and System Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories and Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) National Center of Excellence at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, NY. A leading interventional cardiologist, he is internationally recognized for his work in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and ...
