MSG, Gluten and Nervous System Diseases

Gluten Intolerance Can Cause Neurological Disease

Ataxia (unsteadiness of gait or balance is highly associated with gluten intolerance – more so gluten sensitivity than celiac disease.

Some patients suffering from ataxia call themselves clumsy or accident prone as there are likely to fall into things, trip, etc. Unfortunately ataxia can get so severe that a patient’s life is greatly inhibited as they are no longer able to drive and may feel afraid to be alone.

Gluten is the most common cause of something called cerebellar ataxia. (The cerebellum, a part of the brain, helps modulate voluntary movements so that they become more accurate, smooth, and require less conscious effort to perform. A good example of this is learning to ride a bicycle. Initially you have to consciously balance, and think hard to coordinate the movements of your arms and legs, etc. Yet as you practice more and more you can eventually ride the bike without thinking about it – that is your cerebellum at work.)

50% of Gluten Intolerant Patients Have Nervous System Problems

Neurological complications are found in many patients with gluten intolerance  - 30-50% to be precise. The critical step is to try to diagnose patients, early on, who are having their nervous systems affected by gluten because it has been found that gluten-free diets sometimes cannot stop neurodegeneration (degeneration of the nervous system) that has progressed too far.

Over the years I have noticed that many of my gluten intolerant patients are also MSG intolerant. Let’s look at why that might be and how it can affect the nervous system.

Substance called “Free Glutamate” Can Act Like MSG

Insidiously enough, many companies tout their products as being free of added MSG but that doesn’t mean that they are also devoid of free glutamate. Glutamate, an amino acid, is typically found in high protein foods. When bound it isn’t a problem but prolonged cooking or processing liberates or “frees” the glutamate and that is when problems arise for some individuals. The presence of free glutamate is not found on any labels but suffice to say that most fast food institutions and many highly processed foods (especially those high in protein) have either added MSG or free glutamate present.

If you know that your body responds poorly to MSG or you have any type of neurological complaint, I would recommend that you become familiar with these foods and consider eliminating them from your diet. Remember, free glutamate does not tend to be present in what I consider fresh, healthy food. A little internet search will give you more specifics on these types of foods.

We use ‘gluten’ to refer to the protein structure found in the grains wheat, rye, barley. Factually we should be using the word ‘gliadin’ as only wheat contains true ‘gluten’. Don’t worry about it, but for this post I wanted to make the distinction for a reason. And that is to explain that gliadin is broken down, upon digestion, into the amino acids proline and glutamine. Glutamine in turn breaks down into glutamate (both are amino acids) and the highest rate of this breakdown occurs in the small intestine. So there is a cascade from gliadin to glutamine to glutamate as digestion occurs.

How Gluten and Glutamate are Related

Interestingly, gluten and glutamate share a common thread in the area of creating neurological complaints. Could the ingestion of foods with high glutamate, though gluten-free, explain the onset of neurological symptoms due to a high free glutamate? It does give one something to think about... It certainly has been the case in this some of my patients.

Let’s put this all together to understand just how gluten can create neurological problems and how glutamate might be adding kerosene to the fire.

Excitotoxicity  - the Killer of Cells

First a definition: Excitotoxicity - a process whereby excess glutamate accumulates outside cells, resulting in damage and eventual death of cells in the nervous system.

Excitotoxicity can Cause Stroke, Autism,  Alzheimer’s and Seizures

So as you can see, glutamate can kill cells of the nervous system if not removed efficiently. Excitotoxicity is associated with such disorders as stroke, autism, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and seizures due to the fact that glutamate can result in severely decreased blood flow to the brain.

Inflammation Creates Excitotoxicity – A Bad Outcome

The bottom line is that a lot of glutamate is produced in the brain when it’s “excited”. It is “excited” when it’s inflamed and gluten is a major source of inflammation in those who are intolerant– see how it all comes full circle?

Gluten Can Inflame the Brain

We know that gluten can cause systemic (throughout the body) effects upon the immune system, even though it enters the body through the gut. It has also been well established that gut irritation can activate immune cells in the brain that initiate immunoexcitotoxicity (a process whereby the brain is subject to excitotoxic damage).

The more Brain Inflammation Occurs, the More Damaging It Is

The brain’s immune cells can secrete a number of inflammatory substances, but even worse, once it’s occurred the first time, the next irritation that occurs causes the immune cells to pour out excitotoxins, creating neurological symptoms.

Heart Disease, Diabetes and Cancer Share a Common Root Cause

There are 3 excitotoxic amino acids that are poured out, one of which is our friend glutamate. These amino acids suppress the transport system that allows glutamate to be removed efficiently from the brain. Buildup thus occurs, increasing excitotoxicity and unstable substances (called free radicals) that will react with most tissues of the body creating destruction in their wake. Free radicals are known to cause many disease conditions including cancer, diabetes and heart disease, to name but a few.

By the way, we also know that the immune cells of the brain are activated by not only gluten and glutamate but by chronic infections and toxins, including pesticides and herbicides.

What is the Take Away? 

Let’s review:

• We know that chronic inflammation is a bad thing and we want to prevent it.
• We know that when sensitive to gluten a body can become inflamed in many areas, especially the gut and the nervous system. 
• We know that we want to prevent neurological diseases such as stroke, autism, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and seizures and that they may very well be initiated by a negative reaction to gluten, one of its breakdown products glutamate, and foods high in free glutamate.
• And lastly we also know that we want to avoid excitotoxicity as it literally spells a death sentence for the cells of the nervous system and brain.

What Can You Do?
First it must be determined if the individual suffers from gluten sensitivity or celiac disease. This can be difficult in some people who yet have no symptoms, as neurological problems may take years to develop although the damage is slowly and relentlessly occurring.

Blood tests that measure AGA, tTG, EMA and dAGA are all available. Cyrex Labs has a nice test that is more sensitive than those previously used and it’s the one we use here at HealthNOW. Our major goal is early diagnosis – we want to discover the problem before too much damage has occurred.

It must also be determined if glutamate containing foods are problematic. Many people who are sensitive to MSG know it, but unfortunately they are unaware of the free glutamate in food, so they chalk up feeling badly to some other source.

We must encourage protection of the nervous system and reduce stress on the brain’s immune cells.

How? Nutrients found in cranberries and many other brilliantly colored fruits and vegetables have potent antioxidant activity which may help fight heart disease and cancer in addition to protecting the nervous system. DHA is a powerful anti-inflammatory for the brain that not only inhibits immune activation of brain cells, but it improves blood flow to the brain and blocks excitotoxicity – all very good things!

Lastly we must remove any additional sources of inflammation to the body. Possible culprits are other foods causing problems, infectious agents, heavy metals and other toxins.

It sounds difficult but we must strive to “clean up” our body’s internal environment. We can’t swim in a sea of toxins and expect to be healthy. The body can only tolerate so much.

Neurological diseases are terrible but the good news is that they may be largely preventable.

I hope you find this information useful and please share this data with someone who has some of these symptoms or suspects they may be suffering from gluten intolerance.

If you would like to improve your health please call me for a free health analysis. I’m here to help!

HealthNOW is a destination clinic and we see patients from all over the country as well as internationally, so you don’t need to live locally to receive assistance.

Visit us at www.RootCauseMedicalClinic.com. If you have questions or need any help, I’m here for you! Call 408-733-0400.

I look forward to hearing from you.

To your good health,

Dr Vikki Petersen, DC, CCN, CFMP


IFM Certified Practitioner

Founder of Root Cause Medical Clinic
Co-author of “The Gluten Effect”

Author of the eBook: “Gluten Intolerance – What You Don’t Know May Be Killing You!”

Permission is granted to repost this article in its entirety with credit to Dr Vikki Petersen & HealthNOW Medical Center and a clickable link back to this page.