'If you don’t feel like a million bucks in life, please consider Gluten as a potential candidate that’s holding you back from living the life that you deserve.’
Dr. Tom O’Bryan
Gluten and it's gliadin protein, breaks down the intestinal barrier in every single human being. This research was conducted at Harvard by Dr Alessio Fasano. The intestinal barrier tight junctions (toll gates between the cells) are only one cell thick and are regulated by a protein called Zonulin. Dr Fasano's research showed that gluten increases intestinal permeability or leaky gut. According to Fasano a leaky gut opens 'the biological door to inflammation, autoimmunity and cancer.'
'What is so profound is that this is a mechanism that happens in all humans, not just the 30% of us or more that may have blood tests that show we are sensitive to gluten. It's all of us who mount an increased permeability of the gut when exposed to this perverse protein called gluten.'
Dr David Perlmutter - The gluten Summit 2015
Dr Fasano's research on Non Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS) has helped prove that your don't have to be diagnosed as a celiac, to be intolerant to gluten. To be diagnosed with Celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder, you need to suffer from total villous atrophy. That means that the folds in your intestinal lining are completely worn down and damaged, because your immune system is mistakenly attacking it's own tissue. The intestinal folds on a celiac patient can be likened to shag carpeting with no shags. The shags are how we digest and absorb nutrients, so you can see malabsorption issues result without them. If you do not have total villous atrophy, in other words if only 40% of your shags are left on the intestinal wall, you can’t be diagnosed as celiac. According to Tom O'Bryan 1 out of 8 people go undiagnosed as Celiac because they don’t have symptoms in the gut. Ie they have symptoms outside of the gut like rheumatoid arthritis, depression, liver problems, anemia, miscarriages, joint pain, ADHD etc. Non Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS) is the primary cause in these instances with the actual symptom, being the secondary problem. The tests for picking up Gluten sensitivity usually only test for one Gluten peptide, and often spring false negatives because there are 60 different peptides in Gluten that the immune system will react to. You can see that the testing system is often the limiting factor is a proper diagnoses. It’s widely accepted that the best test for determining whether you are gluten sensitive, is to omit Gluten and Dairy from your diet for two weeks and see if you feel better. You need to stop dairy ideally because 50% of celiacs have a cross reaction from dairy. If you have been damaging your gut for a long time with Gluten, your epithelial cells in the intestines will be damaged and will stop producing Lactase, the enzyme required to break down dairy. If we are really honest with ourselves, most of us will be reacting to Gluten. It could be giving you that foggy brain, joint pain, depression or headache. If we have gut pain or a headache, we take aspirin and don’t think about why. Our body is giving us a warning signal, and it needs to be noticed. The best test in the world is to not eat ANY gluten for 2-3 weeks and see if you feel better and lose weight. In chronic illness gluten is ‘guilty until proven otherwise’ Dr Mark Hyman So what is gluten? Gluten is the protein in moist grains. Rice and Grain have gluten. Wheat, Rye and Barley have a toxic form of gluten. Each time you eat them, your body thinks it’s poison, and your immune system begins to attack them. It’s not a problem unless you are eating meal, after meal of gluten. The more gluten that is eaten, there is collateral damage and the immune reaction begins to take on a life of its own, and create body wide inflammation. This is how your body can develop an autoimmune disease, stemming from Gluten and a leaky gut. Symptoms of NCGS
Most people think that Gluten will only affect their gut health, but NCGS can result in symptoms occurring outside of the gut itself. In fact, the most common system affected by gluten is the brain.
Of patients who are having abdominal symptoms., 50% have diarrhea, 25% have constipation, 25% have both
Fatigue present in 75% of patients
Headache present in about 50% of patients
Foggy mind (loss of concentration)
Depression
Skin rashes or dermatitis
Nutritional deficiency. Malabsorption Particuarly Vit D, Vit B12, folic acid.
Mouth ulcers
Osteopenia or osteoporosis
On a gluten free diet celiac patients GAIN weight as they can finally start absorbing again, and NCGS patients tend to LOSE weight, as inflammation levels are reduced. The inflammation response to Gluten occurs anywhere from 6-26 hours after eating Gluten. The reason why you can’t just eat a little bit of Gluten, is that the antibodies to Gluten that cause the inflammation will stay in the blood stream up to 8 weeks. With one exposure to gluten, the antibodies assembly line is switched on full, and starts creating inflammation in the process of trying to kill the toxic gluten. Less than 1 gram of gluten is enough to trigger this response. The key line used by Dr Tom O’Bryan is that ‘you can’t be a little bit pregnant. And you can’t have a little bit of Gluten.’
Ancient Grains
Many will argue that humans have eaten wheat products since the beginning of time which is not true. In fact 99.9% of humankind's evolution has actually been grain free. The amount of gluten per dry weight of grain has been increasing each year as grains are modified for maximum yield. Recent grains are more difficult to digest than ancient grains.
Going Gluten Free
People PANIC when they first think f going gluten free. Gluten is in everything that is processed or packaged. The reality of the gluten free situation is that you just end up eating real food, which is how we should all eat anyway! Vegetables, fruit, meat, fats. it's simple if you can ditch processed junk 'foods'
For those of you interested in taking up a gluten free challenge we recommend the following:
Look for food options that would be naturally occurring without gluten.
If you are currently eating a high amount of carbs and grains you will find your cravings are very intense at first, as grains have a very high glycemic load. We suggest supplementing with basic nutrients and eating more proteins and fats at this time.
Don't fall into the gluten free junk food trap. Just because it says gluten free doesn't mean it's a healthy food,
All sauces, spices, anything processed probably contains gluten...
Check your skin and body care as it often contains gluten too
We guarantee you WILL feel a difference!
Great Gluten resources
To learn more check out the Gluten Summit, Dr PerlMutters book Grain Brain, Dr Wiliam davis's book Wheat Belly and any questions let us know!