Gluten sensitive

When I was seeing Dr. Corry trying to figure out why I was having headaches, dizzy spells, chronic fatigue, and anxiety, I suggested maybe I had celiac disorder and shouldn't eat gluten.  He stated that he didn't even need to test me for that, because if I had celiac I would have diarrhea, which I did not, and dietary restrictions would test it well enough--all my symptoms would go away if I stopped eating gluten.  So I tried to go for a month off any wheat or gluten. After a month trying to change my diet to eat rice instead of wheat, (but not changing other sugar/refined food eating habits) I felt the same adverse symptoms, so I figured I was not gluten sensitive.  

Oh how little my doctor and I knew about gluten. Let us have Dr. Perlmutter, a board certified neurologist from Florida, enlighten us.

"Gluten--which is Latin for "glue"--is a protein composite that acts as an adhesive material, holding flour together to make bread products.  Most of the soft, chewing bread products available today own their gumminess to gluten. Most Americans consume gluten through wheat, but gluten is found in a variety of grains including rye, barley, spelt, kamut, and bulgur. Its one of the most common food additives on the planet and is used not only in processed foods, but also in personal care products. 

"Gluten is not a single molectule; its acutally made up of two main groups of proteins, the glutenins and the gliadins.  A person may be sensitive to either of these proteins or to one of the twelve different smaller units that make up gliadin. Any of these could cause a sensitivity reaction leading to inflammation. 

"When I speak to patients about gluten sensitivty, one of the first things they say is something like, 'Well, I don't have celiac disease. I've been tested!' I do my best to explain that there's a huge difference between celiac disease and gluten sensitivity. Celiac disease, also know as sprue, is an extreme manifestation of gluten sensitivity, that happens when an allergic reaction to gluten causes damage specifically to the small intestine.  Extreme reactions that trigger an autoimmune condition such as celiac aside, the key to understanding gluten sensitivity is that it can involve any organ in the body, even if the small intestine is completely spared. Food sensitivities can occur if the body lacks the right enzymes to digest ingredients in foods. In the case of gluten, its "sticky" attribute interferes with the breakdown and absorption of nutrients. As you can imagine, poorly digested food leads to a pasty residue in your gut, which alerts the immune system to leap into action, eventually resulting in an assault on the lining of the small intestine. Remember that when a body negatively reacts to food, it attempts to control the damage by sending out inflammatory messenger molecules to label the food particles as enemies. This leads the immune system to keep sending out inflammatory chemicals, killer cells among them, in a bid to wipe out the enemies. 99 percent of people whose immune systems react negatively to gluten don't even know it. Moreover, people with gluten sensitivity can have issues with brain function without having any gastrointestinal problems whatsoever."

 

I didn't have any notable improvements in health in 2012 when I tried to go off gluten, one because I didn't realize how many foods contained gluten I was still eating, and two because I was still eating many covert-sugar filled foods.  However, after I completed my 21 day sugar/grain detox, and tried again to start eating wheat again, I did have a negative reaction! Time after time in my food diary I would write "bloated" "sick" and "depressed" after eating wheat bread I made myself. And interestingly instead of craving sugar now I was craving bread with a vengeance.  How could I suddenly be gluten sensitive? I wondered. I always was, but like so many out there, I didn't realize the havoc it was wreaking on my body until I completely eliminated it and my body had a chance to recover. Gluten, like sugar, is a blood brain barrier crossing food that wreaks havoc on our cells without our knowing it, and there is 44% more of it in the food we eat today than 100 years ago.

  

"Gluten is our generations tobacco. Gluten sensitivity is far more prevalent than we realize potentially harming all of us to some degree without our knowing it, and gluten is hiding where you least suspect it. It's in our seasonings, condiments, cereals, cocktails, cosmetics, hand cream, and ice cream. Its disguised in soups, sweeteners, and soy products. Its tucked into our nutritional supplements and brand name pharmaceuticals. But even casing the gluten factor aside, I should point out that one of the main reasons why consuming so many grains and carbs can be so harmful is that they raise blood sugar in ways other foods such as meat and vegetables do not.
"Its important to note that the rise in gluten sensitivity is not only the outcome of hyper-exposure to gluten in today's engineered foods. It's also the result of too much sugar and too many pro-inflammatory foods. We can also make a case for the impact of environmental toxins, which can change how our genes express themselves and whether or not autoimmune signals start to fire. Each of these ingredients--gluten, sugar, pro-inflammatory foods, and environmental toxins--combines to create a perfect storm in the body, and especially the brain.

Its time we created new standards for what it means to be "gluten sensitive." The problem with gluten is far more serious than anyone ever imagined, and its impact on society is far greater than we've ever estimated."
--David Perlmutter, Grain Brain