Today I am going to talk about the symptoms of gluten intolerance, as a prep for getting into how to live with it and even thrive.
Before I do this I am going to type my disclaimer:
I am not a doctor. I have no medical training at all. If you are concerned that you might have gluten intolerance, please see a physician that specializes in such matters. I make no claims to diagnose, treat, cure, or otherwise change your health in any way shape or form. On this blog I am discussing what my wife and I have discovered through more than two decades of experimentation. Your own conditions may be different, may or may not include gluten intolerance.
Now, for what I do know.
From what I can gather, folks describe gluten intolerance in the following way:
1. An allergy to wheat: I’m positive you can have an allergy to wheat. As I understand it, an allergy happens when you get exposed to a protein that causes your body to produce excess of a type of chemical called a histamine. The histamines are what causes allergy symptoms; that’s why allergy medications are called anti-histamines.
2. Gluten intolerance: This is a non specific catch-all name for folks who have trouble digesting items with gluten in it. I have no doubt that such things exist but the more common problem is:
3. Celiac Disease: This is an inherited autoimmune condition affecting more than 1% of the people of the USA. Most individuals with Celiac Disease are undiagnosed.
It is my belief that, by and large, most folks with problems using gluten have celiac disease. I say this because celiac disease, according to my doctor, is drastically undiagnosed in the USA.
So what is Celiac Disease?
In normal digestion, you eat food, chew it up, swallow it. Your stomach then secretes acid that helps to digest the food. It moves on from the stomach to the small intestine, where many nutrients are absorbed, then from the small intestine to the large intestine, where more nutrients and excess water are absorbed, then eliminated.
If someone has celiac disease and eats gluten, the gluten causes an inflammation of the small intestine. The small intestine is not just a tube; its inside is covered with small protrusions called villi that help to absorb nutrients from the food. If a person with celiac disease eats gluten, then the small intestine becomes inflamed, the villi get damaged, and nutrients cannot be fully absorbed.
Folks who have celiac and eat gluten often have a large number of unpleasant side effects:
· Diarrhea: Since your intestine gets damaged by gluten, you cannot absorb food properly.
· Damage to the small intestine: The inflammation caused by consuming gluten causes damage to the small intestine
· “Leaky gut:” I find this referred to less in literature than I used to. The idea here is that if your gut is damaged by gluten, it will ‘leak’ undigested protein into the blood stream.
· Flatulence: Much like diarrhea this comes from improperly digested food.
· Refux: Acid reflux, or GERD, often occurs with celiac disease
· Painful elimination/bloating: In addition to everything else, it is often hard to eliminate foods when you have celiac disease and eat gluten.
Because you aren’t absorbing your food properly, there are longer term problems that can come from eating gluten when you shouldn’t. Malabsorbtion of vitamins and minerals can lead to various deficiencies. These lead to many problems such as:
· Anemia
· Night blindness
· Growth problems (among celiac children, “Failure to thrive” is a classic symptom)
· Rickets (in children)
· Osteopenia/Osteoporosis (in adults)
· Poor blood clotting
· Skin problems
· Cancers
For further information, please see the following:
1. Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org) has an excellent article on Celiac Disease
2. The very best reference book I have seen on the topic of Celiac Disease so far is Celiac Disease: A Hidden Epidemic by Peter H. R. Green M.D. and Rory Jones. It can be bought from amazon through the link on this page.
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