Willem Karel Dicke

Willem Karel Dicke (15 February 1905, Dordrecht - 1962, De Bilt) was a Dutch paediatrician who was the first to develop the gluten-free diet and to show that in coeliac disease some types of flour cause relapse.

From 1922 until 1929 Willem Dicke studied medicine in Leiden, then specialized in paediatry in Juliana Children's Hospital in Hague from 1929 until 1933. In 1936, being just 31 years old, he became the medical director of the hospital. In the 1940s and 1950s he went on to develop the gluten-free diet, changing the way of treatment and destinies of children sick with coeliac disease. In 1957 he was appointed a professor of Utrecht University and became a medical director of Wilhelmina Children's Hospital.

How Dicke linked coeliac disease to wheat consumption has been widely discussed. One theory is that it was connected to the limited supply of wheat products in the Netherlands during World War II. Dicke noticed during this time that coeliac children fed other foods improved. As wheat consumption resumed after the War, these children deteriorated and symptoms returned. While this is an interesting story, it is not the whole truth because it is known that Dicke suspected that wheat was the damaging agent long before the War. His suspicions were aroused as early as 1932 when he attended a medical meeting and heard the story of a child with the disorder who always developed diarrhoea when he ate bread and rusks. This observation stimulated years of careful study that were to prove his theory.

Netherland's Society of Gastroenterology had instituted in his honor a decoration to reward the pioneering research in the field, and Willem was the first to receive the gold Dicke Medal.