Hidden infections and gluten intolerances

As a doctor who has written a book on the subject of gluten, I am writing about this very important, although often overlooked consequence of celiac and gluten intolerance - hidden infections.

The mechanism revolves around the inflammation that is created in the small intestine with the ingestion of gluten for many years. This inflammatory response weakens the immune system of the intestine thereby allowing pathogenic (disease causing) organisms to gain a foothold. Every 10 minutes our small intestines are exposed to pathogenic organisms. A healthy immune system destroys them but a compromised immune system can't defend itself adequately.

These organism can cause a myriad of health problems including gastrointestinal symptoms, arthritis and joint inflammation, obesity, hormone imbalance - just to name a few.

Anyone with celiac or gluten intolerance is at risk for these infections which can be bacterial, parasitic, amoeba or yeast. I find a stool test to be the most accurate way to detect them but there are some labs I prefer over others due to their sensitivity and accuracy.

To find out more information and to schedule a free consultation, call 408-733-0400.

Hope this helps anyone curious.

Best,
Dr Vikki Petersen
www.rootcausemedicalclinic.com
www.glutendoctors.blogspot.com

Also, if an infection is found it is critical to retest to ensure that it's been eradicated. And lastly, since the immune system of a celiac or gluten intolerant individual can take a few years to reestablish once gluten and any offending organisms have been removed, annual testing is probably a good idea for a couple of years.

Best Blood Test to Diagnose Gluten Sensitivity

New Research Argues There IS a Test for Gluten Sensitivity

Mainstream literature continues to state there is no blood test for gluten sensitivity. While it may not be perfect (but what tests are?) some researchers offer a differing opinion, and I wanted to share their results with you.

While there is no further argument of the existence of gluten sensitivity, having a blood test that everyone can agree on has not yet occurred. In a 2012 study published in Clinical Reviews in Allergy & Immunology entitled “Serological Tests in Gluten Sensitivity”, the authors set out to characterize a potential pattern in blood testing that would be helpful in diagnosing gluten sensitivity as compared with celiac disease. They took 78 patients with gluten sensitivity and 80 patients with celiac disease, and retrospectively tested their blood for four standard tests, three of which are classically used for celiac disease, and one that is more commonly thought to be accurate for gluten sensitivity.

For those of you who like the specifics, the tests used were: 

1) IgG DGP-AGA (deamidated gliadin peptide antibodies)

2) IgA tTGA (tissue transglutaminase antibodies)

3) IgA EmA (endomysial antibodies)

4) IgG/IgA AGA (anti-gliadin antibodies)

And the Winner Is...

Here are the findings: The  IgG AGA test was the winner in detecting gluten sensitive patients—56.4% were positive. The test doesn’t rule out the presence of celiac disease however. 81.2% of celiac patients were also positive. The IgA version of the same AGA test yielded vastly different, although not unexpected, results. The test was elevated in only 7% of gluten sensitive patients while 75% of those with celiac disease were positive. Why is that not a surprise?

IgA is found on the mucous membranes of the body where it is exposed to outside foreign substances: nose, lungs, GI tract, ears, eyes, etc. 

Since celiac disease mostly affects the lining of the GI tract, it isn’t unexpected that the IgA part of the immune system might be most affected. But when you compared the "classic" celiac tests against the gluten sensitive patients, the results were rather definitive—only one gluten sensitive patient was positive for DGP-AGA and zero gluten sensitive patients demonstrated a positivity for tTGA or EmA. But the celiacs showed a positivity rate of 88.7%, 98.7% and 95% respectively for these three tests.

What Do We Know From This?

A couple of things: 1) Ensure that when you are tested you receive a complete panel of tests, including all those mentioned above. Additionally both the IgA and IgG versions should be included, especially for the AGA test. 2) When interpreting the tests, remember that you are doing more than just ruling out celiac disease.

For many doctors that is their goal. Despite international research knowledge to the contrary, many doctors still don’t appreciate the existence of gluten sensitivity. While no single test is perfect, if you’re suspecting celiac and you test positive for the classic celiac panel of tTGA, EmA and DGP-AGA, then you’ve likely identified your condition. If you know that you do poorly with gluten and test positive for AGA, especially the IgG version, and negative for the rest of the celiac panel, you can feel more assured of a gluten sensitive diagnosis.

Some other tell-tale signs of gluten sensitivity, according to the researchers, are a varied clinical picture, meaning many symptoms occurring at the same time. And while many of these symptoms are similar to another disease, IBS, the authors warn against considering gluten sensitivity as a subtype of IBS. The "extraintestinal" symptoms so common with gluten sensitivity are not typically seen in those patients suffering with IBS, making the distinction clear, in these researchers’ opinion.

The common complaints associated with gluten sensitivity include:

• abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, constipation

• foggy mind, tiredness

• eczema/skin rash

• headache

• joint/muscle pain

• numbness of legs/arms

• depression

• anemia

• together with a normal or mildly abnormal lining of the small intestine

In conclusion, when you’re building a case for gluten sensitivity, you need to look at several factors: blood testing, symptoms, and reactions to eating and eliminating gluten.


New Information on Celiac Genes

In the past, the rule of thumb was that "you could never have celiac disease if you didn’t carry the genes for it". That remains true, but these researchers cited findings from 2010 that demonstrated a full 40-50% of gluten sensitive patients possess the same genetic profile as those with celiac disease—HLA DQ2 or DQ8. And with that we watch another stable datum ‘bite the dust’. This opens the door to a new interpretation of genetic testing that doctors should be aware of. Instead of being too quick to tell a patient that while they may have the genes for celiac disease, considering that their blood tests are negative for the disease they’re fine to eat gluten; we now understand that such genes can be present in a case of gluten sensitivity as well. And as we now know, the classic celiac blood tests would be negative in such a case.

I believe we’ll be seeing a wide array of genes responsible for these diseases in the future. But knowing that almost half of those with gluten sensitivity demonstrate the exact same genetic profile as someone with celiac disease is important to know when a patient or their doctor is trying to make an accurate diagnosis. Based on this common gene profile, it is then not surprising to learn that gluten sensitivity can be found in celiac disease family members. In this study almost 13% of the gluten sensitive patients were first degree relatives of celiac patients.

What Might the Future Hold?

As a clinical nutritionist, I have been speaking of celiac disease and claiming the existence of gluten sensitivity for over two decades now. We continue to discover more and more about these conditions. One day there will be a near perfect test and one day we will readily and easily diagnose most all of those suffering. And that my friends, will be a good day! I hope you found this informative.

Find Out Your Gluten Sensitivity Level!

Get diagnosed!—contact us for a FREE CONSULTATION. 

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

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!”

Gluten Sensitivity Can Cause Belly Fat

Where did my flat tummy go?

Below is a case study from our book, “The Gluten Effect”. This patient had some very common complaints, but the common treatment she was receiving was having no effect. Did you used to have a flat stomach but can't seem to “find” it anymore? Gluten intolerance could very well be the underlying cause.

J.W had developed a big belly that she could not get rid of. She felt bloated all the time—and no matter how often she exercised or how closely she watched her caloric intake, her weight remained the same. She felt and looked four months pregnant.

A Successful 30-pound Weight Loss!

We diagnosed her with gluten sensitivity, and after being off gluten for several months, she went from a size 14 to a size 6, with a thirty-pound weight loss. She not only lost the weight, but it came off her problem areas first—her stomach and face.

She now had a flat belly, which she had never enjoyed before. J.W. also noted that her bloating was gone, and that she felt “clean” inside.

Lab tests revealed several infections, which were treated successfully, and that removed other chronic stressors from her system.

In J.W.'s case, the distribution of weight around the mid-region of the body was typical of excessive cortisol (a hormone) production with adrenal (your stress gland) exhaustion, secondary to a food sensitivity. Once gluten was removed, the stress on her body subsided, and a normal weight distribution returned.

Do You Have a “Spare Tire” or “Muffin Top”?

What we've discovered after working with patients for over 20 years is that much of that “tire” can be due to swelling of the small intestine from the inflammation caused by gluten and the adrenal fatigue ensues from malabsorption of nutrients.

You have about 23 feet of small intestine—with the surface area the size of a tennis court.

Look down at your abdomen. That's a lot of track to be laid down in a relatively small space.
Now imagine, that 23 feet is swollen, due to irritation created by a diet that doesn't suit your body, or an infection. Infections in the intestine are very common secondary to gluten intolerance. When it swells it has to go somewhere—welcome spare tire!

What's the Solution?

The solution is to discover the underlying cause of the swelling. Now I'm not against exercise, quite the contrary. But I can promise you that all the crunches in the world will not flatten a tummy that's swollen from a food intolerance or irritation from an untreated parasite or bacteria.

5 Things You Can Do

1. Discover if you're gluten intolerant for starters. There are tests available for this and remember we're talking about finding out if you're sensitive to gluten, not just if you have celiac disease.

2. If you already know that you're sensitive to gluten, then realize that you must be perfect about removing if from your diet. Being good “most of the time” is just not enough.

3. If you have not had a comprehensive stool analysis to check for the presence of infectious organisms, this really is something you should look into. It is rare that a gluten sensitive individual DOESN'T have some type of infection due to years of assault on the immune system from eating gluten.

4. The damage created by gluten in the intestines results in a condition known as a “leaky gut”. This is very common. Removing gluten from the diet is usually not enough to restore the integrity to the intestine. Such treatments as probiotics, herbs and other supplements may be needed to repair the lining of the gut to it's normal healthy state.

5. Get an idea of how your adrenal glands are functioning. Adrenal fatigue or exhaustion is quite common in our society. It is especially associated with malabsorption of nutrients and unstable blood sugar, which is definitely an effect created by gluten sensitivity.

The good news is that with some help from clinical nutrition, including dietary changes and lifestyle management, restoring that nice flat tummy is within reach—no surgery required!

Please let me know how I can assist you. Or call us to schedule a Free Health Analysis: (408) 733-0400.

Here at HealthNOW we are a Destination Clinic and we see patients from across the country as well as internationally. We are here to help!

Visit us at www.RootCauseMedicalClinic.com. If you have questions or need any help, I’m here for 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!”

Celiac Disease vs. Gluten Sensitivity—Are They Different?

70-80% of Medical Research is Funded by Pharmaceutical Companies

We live in a society where medical treatment efficacy is gauged by two major standards:

1) Make a diagnosis, then

2) Find the drug best suited to treat the symptoms associated with that diagnosis

Fully 70-80% of all medical research is funded by pharmaceutical companies. Where does celiac disease fit into this paradigm? Celiac disease is considered to be a rare disorder and there is no drug to treat it. You can imagine where that puts it on the hierarchy of most medical practitioners.

In addition, the “face” of celiac that most doctors are taught, is a patient presented with chronic diarrhea and severe weight loss. Is it any wonder that little emphasis is put on its diagnosis? Once the patient with severe weight loss has been ruled out for cancer and other serious diseases, then their doctor might consider celiac disease.

What’s the Difference Between Celiac Disease and Gluten Sensitivity?

In my opinion, very little. The problem we have encountered is that celiac disease is the only manifestation of gluten sensitivity that medicine has been able to diagnose. And not very well at that—considering it takes the average celiac patient as long as 10 years before they're even given the proper diagnosis.

So what is the problem?

Is it that something considered rare is not often looked for?  Partially.

Is it because there's no drug to treat it, so there's no “easy fix”?  Partially.

Is it the fact that the only treatment for it is a dietary change—and no one really wants to “condemn” a patient to never eating wheat, rye or barley again?  Definitely!

Is Celiac Disease Just a Subset of Gluten Sensitivity?

Celiac disease is just the tip of the iceberg of the greater issue called “gluten sensitivity”. 

In this case, the tip is 1/40 of the whole iceberg—because research has been telling us that while celiac disease affects 1% of the population, gluten sensitivity’s incidence is anywhere from 7% to up to 40%. 

Estimates vary widely. But even conservative estimates take it right our of the “rare” category with higher estimates putting it squarely in the category of obesity which is considered to be an epidemic!
 
The Problem with “Diagnosis”

The “gold standard” for diagnosing celiac disease has been a positive intestinal biopsy that reveals severe degradation of the surface of the small intestine. But damage has to occur for many years before such a test is positive, not to mention all the secondary problems that have likely arisen during that time. Yet we wait and wait for that positive test during which time it's considered “perfectly good medicine” to tell a patient to continue eating gluten if their test is negative!

Is It Malpractice?

I have been saying that, within the decade, the current protocols being used to diagnose and treat celiac disease will be looked upon as malpractice. Is that too strong a statement? I don't think so. 

Do we wait for a patient to have a heart attack before we assess risk factors for cardiovascular disease? Of course not!

So why is it acceptable to allow a patient to get to the point of severe atrophy of their intestine with concomitant malabsorption, inflammation, and risk of autoimmune disease before we make a diagnosis? It isn't!

Gluten Intolerance Puts You at Risk for Many Severe Diseases

I've been working with gluten sensitive patients for around 20 years and even co-authored a book on the subject, "The Gluten Effect". What I have come to find out through research and clinical experience has taught me that we have an obligation to our society to change our procedures and strategies.

We are creating many ill patients by missing the diagnosis of gluten sensitivity.

Such things as: obesity, depression, anxiety, fatigue, migraines, IBS, and autoimmune disease (such as arthritis, lupus, diabetes, thyroid disease, and osteoporosis) are all implicated with gluten sensitivity. The list is long and growing as we learn more.

Everyone Should Be Screened

I believe everyone should be screened for gluten intolerance, which includes both celiac disease and gluten sensitivity. It involves a simple lab test which should be evaluated by an experienced clinician. The reasoning behind this is that interpretation of these tests requires some experience and it's often not a simple “yes” or “no” proposition.

Most researchers and clinicians prefer also using a blood test, although the efficacy of saliva testing has been validated. Personally, I use blood and saliva testing both for my patients, with a stool test recommended for those living too far away to come into the office.

What if the test is equivocal? What if it’s in the gray “suspicious but not confirmed” area? The TRUE gold standard test is evaluating a dietary change—it's called elimination and provocation. Eliminate gluten completely from your diet for a minimum of 30 days and see how you feel. If you notice a change, that is considered a positive test.

We are committed to spreading the word about gluten and are here to help you, your family and friends. Patients come to see us from around the country and internationally.  

Our clinic is in Sunnyvale, California. Please let us know if you want to visit. Or call to schedule a FREE CONSULTATION: (408) 733-0400.
I look forward to hearing from you.

To your good health,
Dr. Vikki Petersen, DC, CCN

IFM Certified Practitioner

Founder of HealthNOW Medical Center

Co-author of “The Gluten Effect”

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

New Research Argues There IS a Test for Gluten Sensitivity

Best Blood Test to Diagnose Gluten Sensitivity

Mainstream literature continues to state there is no blood test for gluten sensitivity. While it may not be perfect (but what tests are?) some researchers offer a differing opinion, and I wanted to share their results with you.

While there is no further argument of the existence of gluten sensitivity, having a blood test that everyone can agree on has not yet occurred. 

In a 2012 study published in Clinical Reviews in Allergy & Immunology entitled “Serological Tests in Gluten Sensitivity”, the authors set out to characterize a potential pattern in blood testing that would be helpful in diagnosing gluten sensitivity as compared with celiac disease.

They took 78 patients with gluten sensitivity and 80 patients with celiac disease, and retrospectively tested their blood for four standard tests, three of which are classically used for celiac disease, and one that is more commonly thought to be accurate for gluten sensitivity.

For those of you who like the specifics, the tests used were:

1) IgG DGP-AGA (deamidated gliadin peptide antibodies)

2) IgA tTGA (tissue transglutaminase antibodies)

3) IgA EmA (endomysial antibodies)

4) IgG/IgA AGA (anti-gliadin antibodies)

And the Winner Is…

Here are the findings:

The  IgG AGA test was the winner in detecting gluten sensitive patients—56.4% were positive. The test doesn’t rule out the presence of celiac disease however. 81.2% of celiac patients were also positive.

The IgA version of the same AGA test yielded vastly different, although not unexpected, results. The test was elevated in only 7% of gluten sensitive patients while 75% of those with celiac disease were positive. Why is that not a surprise? IgA is found on the mucous membranes of the body where it is exposed to outside foreign substances: nose, lungs, GI tract, ears, eyes, etc. Since celiac disease mostly affects the lining of the GI tract, it isn’t unexpected that the IgA part of the immune system might be most affected.

But when you compared the “classic” celiac tests against the gluten sensitive patients, the results were rather definitive—only one gluten sensitive patient was positive for DGP-AGA and zero gluten sensitive patients demonstrated a positivity for tTGA or EmA. But the celiacs showed a positivity rate of 88.7%, 98.7% and 95% respectively for these three tests.

What Do We Know From This?

A couple of things:

1) Ensure that when you are tested you receive a complete panel of tests, including all those mentioned above. Additionally both the IgA and IgG versions should be included, especially for the AGA test.

2) When interpreting the tests, remember that you are doing more than just ruling out celiac disease. For many doctors that is their goal. Despite international research knowledge to the contrary, many doctors still don’t appreciate the existence of gluten sensitivity. While no single test is perfect, if you’re suspecting celiac and you test positive for the classic celiac panel of tTGA, EmA and DGP-AGA, then you’ve likely identified your condition. 

If you know that you do poorly with gluten and test positive for AGA, especially the IgG version, and negative for the rest of the celiac panel, you can feel more assured of a gluten sensitive diagnosis.

Some other tell-tale signs of gluten sensitivity, according to the researchers, are a varied clinical picture, meaning many symptoms occurring at the same time. And while many of these symptoms are similar to another disease, IBS, the authors warn against considering gluten sensitivity as a subtype of IBS. 

The “extraintestinal” symptoms so common with gluten sensitivity are not typically seen in those patients suffering with IBS, making the distinction clear, in these researchers’ opinion.

The common complaints associated with gluten sensitivity include:

• abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, constipation
• foggy mind, tiredness
• eczema/skin rash
• headache
• joint/muscle pain
• numbness of legs/arms
• depression
• anemia
• together with a normal or mildly abnormal lining of the small intestine

In conclusion, when you’re building a case for gluten sensitivity, you need to look at several factors: blood testing, symptoms, and reactions to eating and eliminating gluten.

New Information on Celiac Genes

In the past, the rule of thumb was that “you could never have celiac disease if you didn’t carry the genes for it”. That remains true, but these researchers cited findings from 2010 that demonstrated a full 40-50% of gluten sensitive patients possess the same genetic profile as those with celiac disease—HLA DQ2 or DQ8.

And with that we watch another stable datum “bite the dust”. This opens the door to a new interpretation of genetic testing that doctors should be aware of. Instead of being too quick to tell a patient that while they may have the genes for celiac disease, considering that their blood tests are negative for the disease, they’re fine to eat gluten; we now understand that such genes can be present in a case of gluten sensitivity as well. 

And as we now know, the classic celiac blood tests would be negative in such a case.

I believe we’ll be seeing a wide array of genes responsible for these diseases in the future. But knowing that almost half of those with gluten sensitivity demonstrate the exact same genetic profile as someone with celiac disease is important to know when a patient or their doctor is trying to make an accurate diagnosis.

Based on this common gene profile, it is then not surprising to learn that gluten sensitivity can be found in celiac disease family members. In this study almost 13% of the gluten sensitive patients were first degree relatives of celiac patients.

What Might the Future Hold?

As a clinical nutritionist, I have been speaking of celiac disease and claiming the existence of gluten sensitivity for over two decades now. We continue to discover more and more about these conditions. One day there will be a near perfect test and one day we will readily and easily diagnose most all of those suffering. And that my friends, will be a good day!

I hope you found this article informative. If your health is not to the level you desire, consider contacting us for a FREE Health Analysis. Call 408-733-0400.

We are a Destination Clinic and treat patients from across the country and internationally. We are here to help!

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!”

Reference:
1. Clinical Reviews in Allergy & Immunology 2012
Serological Tests in Gluten Sensitivity (Nonceliac Gluten Intolerance)
Umberto Volta, MD, Francesco Tovoli, MD, Ronny Cicola, MD, Claudia Parisi, MD,
Angela Fabbri, MD, Maria Piscaglia, MD, Erica Fiorini, MD, and Giacomo Caio, MD

2. Clinical Reviews in Allergy & Immunology 2010
Cutting-edge issues in celiac disease and in gluten intolerance.
Bizzaro N, Tozzoli R, Villalta D, et al.

Two Things About Gluten: Indigestible and Nutritionally Useless!

In the fall of 2013, we enjoyed some wonderful presentations by many of the world’s leading gluten researchers at “The Gluten eSummit”.

If you missed the summit, I wanted to share with you some of the gems that were shared.
 

Dr. Alessio Fasano

In this post I wanted to share with you what Dr. Alessio Fasano had to say when interviewed. I have always called Dr. Fasano “my hero” and nothing has changed in that regard. If anything, I now have him on a higher pedestal!

Did you notice the title of this blog? While it’s not news that gluten is indigestible, it bears repeating—until more of our population understands that it’s not the nutritional “staple” that many believe.

7 Myths and Facts About Gluten

Let’s look at some common arguments leveled against those who avoid gluten, and counter them with the facts as we know them:

Myth 1: Wheat has been around forever. Of course it must be good for us!

FACT: For 99.9% of our evolution, our ancestors have been gluten-free. We did not evolve to digest gluten. It only arrived 10,000 years ago.

Myth 2: Ancient wheat was fine and didn’t cause any problems. It’s modern wheat that is creating health issues.

FACT: The above statement isn’t completely false, particularly as it refers to problems with modern wheat, but let’s break it down. Gluten as a protein is indigestible due to its odd composition of high amounts of the amino acids proline and glutamine. The composition or sequencing of these amino acids literally is unrecognizable to our enzymes such that we—all humans—(not just those of us who are intolerant to gluten) are unable to digest it properly. The indigestible quality of gluten has always been the case, regardless of how ancient the cultivar.
 
However, what is true is that modern wheat is worse. According to Dr. Fasano, the amount of gluten per dry weight of grain has been increasing over time. It’s doubled in a few centuries. The result is that the indigestible nature of the grain has worsened. Gluten now encompasses 30-40% of the total protein content of wheat, when in the past it was half that.
 
Of course the recent problem of GMO wheat adds yet another health risk, but more on GMO in a future post.

Myth 3: A gluten-free diet can be dangerous because it creates nutritional deficiencies.
 

FACT: According to Dr. Fasano (and this is a direct quote): “Gluten is nutritionally useless. We evolved as a species without gluten.” 

Those who warn that a gluten-free diet is dangerous cite a lack of fiber and vitamins, substances that are readily and more beneficially replaced in a truly healthy diet, regardless of its gluten-free status. The fact that many Americans don’t consume a healthy diet is a different issue. But blaming the lack of gluten as a component in malnutrition, is foolhardy and false.

Myth 4: Genetics dictates what diseases we get. If it’s in your genes and family tree, there’s not much you can do about it.

FACT: According to Dr. Fasano, it’s the environment that influences our genetics to either express a disease or have it remain dormant. And the gut is where genetics and the environment meet. When it comes to the environment, we don’t just mean your diet. In addition to gluten and other food sensitivities, problems also arise from antibiotic overuse, pollutants, chemicals, GMO foods and infectious organisms.

Yet none of these things would create problems if we didn’t have permeability issues in our gut—leaky gut. The health problems that ensue from a leaky gut include:

• food allergies
• autoimmune disease
• inflammation (known to initiate ALL degenerative diseases)
• stroke
• cancer
• Alzheimer’s disease
• and more!

Yes, Dr Fasano agrees with me that autoimmune disease often begins from a leaky gut. He considers that we are in the midst of an epidemic of autoimmune diseases such as asthma, diabetes, M.S., rheumatoid arthritis and celiac disease. This epidemic, he says, has been taking shape over the past 40 to 50 years as our lifestyle has gotten less and less healthy, resulting in compromised gut health.
 
Can genetic change be held responsible for this ‘epidemic’? No, the rapid increase of autoimmune disease sits squarely on the shoulder of our environment. The facts are that genetic change takes centuries, not years. It is our environment that is changing and challenging us with substances with which we cannot maintain a proper equilibrium.

Myth 5: Autoimmune disease is an immune system disorder where the immune system gets "out of control" and begins attacking the body. There is no cure for these disorders; the only possible treatment is drugs to suppress the immune system.
 
FACT: While Preventional Medicine (steps that prevent the manifestation of the disease) far surpasses Interventional Medicine (treatment once the disease has already occurred), Dr. Fasano stated that you can arrest the development of autoimmune disease by addressing gut health, specifically leaky gut. 

Research has shown that the genes for a disease can be present along with the instigator of the disease (e.g. gluten in celiac disease) and yet the disease won’t manifest in the presence of a healthy gut.
 
The immune system only gets out of control in the presence of an unhealthy gut that allows the passage of "bad guys" from within the gut, where they should be annihilated and excreted out into the bloodstream where they can begin their destruction of various parts of the body.
 
It is the loss of the tightly controlled barrier function that initiates these illnesses by allowing unsafe passage of various molecules and substances.

Myth 6: Celiac affects 1% of the population. That’s significant perhaps, but certainly doesn’t explain the vast amounts of people (40% of population) who choose to follow a gluten-free diet and likely are just following a fad. There is no medical reason for the rest of the population, meaning 99% of them, to eat gluten-free.
 
FACT: According to Dr. Fasano, gluten creates a leaky gut in everyone who eats it. Gluten is ingested, it’s not completely digestible as we mentioned earlier, a substance called zonulin is released, and the result is a leaky gut. The consequence of gluten leaking into the bloodstream is inconsequential—for 70 to 80% of the population—those not reacting to gluten. But for 20 to 30% of the population, the consequences are quite severe—disease and earlier death, per research findings.
 
The point is that if 1% of the population has celiac (this percentage does increase with age at a rate of doubling every 15 years, according to Fasano’s research) then up to 29% has gluten sensitivity if you do the math. Personally I think the percentage is easily 30% of the population if not more, but this is the first time I’ve heard Dr. Fasano make a statement that went that high.

Myth 7: Gluten creates gut problems. If your digestion seems fine, you don’t need to worry about a gluten reaction.
 
FACT: Dr. Fasano cited that calling gluten a GI related disorder was “reductive”. The GI tract is where the immune system first encounters gluten, an enemy, but whether the reaction against gluten occurs there—or in the brain, the joints, the skin, the nerves, the thyroid, etc.—depends on the genetic makeup of the individual.
 
Gluten causes a wide variety of symptoms and conditions. Therefore if your doctor cites the myth above that gluten is solely gut-related, or he/she refuses to test you for a gluten reaction because you DON’T have any digestive symptoms, feel free to show him this article.

I hope you found this helpful. There exist many myths about gluten and hopefully this served to shine the light of truth on some of them. Feel free to share this with your doctor, friends and family, especially anyone who gives you a hard time about your gluten-free lifestyle.

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!”

Reversing Your Autoimmune Disease, From The Inside Out

What’s Wrong with How Autoimmune Disease is Treated?

As I write this we are just concluding the week-long Gluten eSummit, a first of its kind free event that involves researchers from all over the world, all experts in the field of gluten. The Summit’s creator and host is a dear friend, Dr Tom O’Bryan. If you’ve ever attended one of my Gluten Sensitivity & Celiac Forums, or watched a DVD from one, you’ve had the pleasure of watching Dr O’Bryan lecture.

In this post I wanted to share with you my ‘take’ on one of the interviews at the Summit because it addresses a set of diseases that I feel very, very strongly about – Autoimmune Diseases. I blog about autoimmune often and have several YouTube videos on the topic as well. Yet, we need to continue to discuss this condition that manifests itself in over 100 different diseases, including celiac disease, because it is on the rise. Currently, after heart disease and cancer, autoimmune diseases are the third leading cause of death in this country.

Autoimmune incidence is not only increasing rapidly, but the rationale and protocols utilized in our medical community really miss the mark in my opinion – and my opinion, I am happy to share, is echoed not only by Dr O’Bryan, but his guest Dr Aristo Vodjani, a world renown immunologist. Obviously if anyone should understand the inner workings of the immune system and why it would attack the human body (the definition of autoimmune disease), it would be Dr Vodjani.

If You Want the Right Answer, You Have to Ask the Right Question

It’s important to understand that there are several aspects to the immune system. Dr O’Bryan likens them to the various arms of our military – the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. In his analogy he points out that if the country needs to handle a problem in the sea, calling the Army is likely not the best strategy. Similarly, when looking for why the immune system is out of control, one needs to understand that there is more than one ‘branch’, just like in our military.

In other words, a practical example here, if you feel that you are having a reaction to gluten and you visit your doctor and he performs an ‘allergy’ test, when the result is negative for ‘wheat’ does that tell you anything? Well, if it was a Scratch Test it tells you absolutely nothing (more on that in a moment), and if it’s a blood test all it means is that you don’t have an allergy to wheat. It DOESN”T tell you if you have celiac disease and it doesn’t tell you if you are gluten sensitive, which is what you wanted to know.

Sadly this happens every day, to who knows how many suffering individuals. A patient is told that they don’t have an allergy when they wanted to know if they were reacting negatively to something they ate. It is two different questions! You contacted the Army when it was a Air Force problem – see how that analogy works?

To be precise, immunologically speaking, an allergy creates an IgE response (an immediate, fast and sometimes life-threatening response – think peanut allergies), while a sensitivity creates an IgA, IgG or IgM response (a delayed response that can take anywhere from days to weeks to develop).

You need to ask the body the right question to get the right answer. And sometimes you may need to ask that question in a few different ways to truly get the correct answer.

Scratch Tests are NOT Accurate for Food Reactions

Let’s get back to the scratch test (skin test) remark I made earlier: The scratch test has been around for 120 years. It is mostly accurate, but not for food reactions. Use it only for inhalant type allergies – mold, plants, etc. For true allergy food results, use blood. Please spread the word on this one; too many allergists, who are set in their ways, convince their patients that these tests are accurate for food reactions when they are not.

It’s not normal to react negatively to a food. But when it does happen, the immune response occurs in the gut and the specific piece of the immune system reacting is called IgA (think Army). What should occur is that IgA destroys the offending food and ensures that it is excreted without ever entering the bloodstream from the gut. Unfortunately, when an offending food(s) continues to be ingested, the site of the battle with IgA is on the lining of the small intestine. The inflammation that occurs as a result of that battle causes the tight junctions between the cells to open up, creating a leaky gut.

Now we have trouble, because the offending food is no longer contained within the confines of the gut. The leaky gut allows it to escape out into the bloodstream where it can come in contact with other parts of the immune system – think Navy and Marines. More correctly named IgG and IgM. When the immune system of the bloodstream gets involved we now can enter the arena of autoimmune disease.

Why?

How Autoimmune Disease Develops

The ‘bad guy’ (let’s say gluten) gets out into the blood and the immune system reacts. The combination of the ‘bad guy’ and IgG or IgM in the bloodstream initiates something called the ‘complement cascade’ which binds itself to the aforementioned duo. This complex that is now formed is, according to Dr Vodjani, the MOST pathogenic (meaning disease causing) and inflammatory (also leading to disease) molecule in the human body. This is profound. Just read that prior sentence again – “the MOST pathogenic and inflammatory molecule in the human body”.

[And by the way, an ‘ah hah’ moment for me came when Dr Vodjani said that the ‘lag time’ between eating a food and having a reaction in the bloodstream could be as long as 1 to 2 weeks! I had always thought more in the range of 4 days. So that was a learning pearl for myself.]

This complement is the trigger for autoimmune disease. The immune system ‘sees’ the bad guy (e.g. gluten, dairy, etc) but sadly the bad guy ‘looks’ a lot like cells the thyroid, or joints or brain. This results is a confusion, and the immune system begins to attack the cells of the body because they ‘looked like’ the bad guy.

We Have More Control Over Autoimmune Than You’d Think

Fortunately, autoimmune disease takes many years to develop. I say fortunately because the best time to stop it is before it has developed into full-blown autoimmune disease. Dr Vodjani calls it autoimmune ‘reactivity’, this early stage. 

How do we stop it?

We simply remove the initiator or trigger from the environment – which in many cases is gluten. But regardless of what the trigger is, you must remove it and you must remove it permanently. Does this work? I say ‘yes’, but so does Dr Vodjani and Dr O’Bryan. Dr O’Bryan mentioned that not only does removing the trigger reverse autoimmune disease in its early ‘reactive’ stage, but it also has been seen to reverse it in its active full-blown stage. We too have seen that here in our medical and clinical nutrition departments at HealthNOW.

The 64 million dollar question is: How do we identify the trigger? It’s not hard actually. We have great tests at our disposal.

Follow These Steps

Here’s all we need to do to prevent and detect many autoimmune diseases:

1) Isolate triggers to the immune system. This involves testing. Remember ALL the armed forces… When we test here at HealthNOW we use comprehensive blood tests that look at immune system reactions across the board, not just IgE or IgA.

2) Realize that gluten isn’t the only potential food trigger, so look for others. There is an excellent cross-reactive foods blood test that looks at many food triggers.

3) Find out if you are already in the autoimmune reactivity zone—meaning early changes have already occurred that will lead to autoimmune disease. How? We have a blood test for this too. I’ll warn you that this is a newer test on the market and ‘new’ often means pricey and this one is, but that’s its only downside. Otherwise it’s brilliant – how wonderful to see early autoimmune tendencies before they become full-blown disease.

4) Prevent further triggers from assaulting the immune system by healing the leaky gut. Wondering if you have a leaky gut? Yes, we have a test for that. But we often ‘save’ that test for later on in care to determine if we have successfully healed the gut. Often times doing it early on in care can be a waste of funds when it’s pretty obvious someone is suffering from a leaky gut.

5) Get ready to be disciplined! One thing Dr Vodjani made perfectly clear that I completely agree with, and you’ve heard me say it before – Cheating is a no-no. Eliminating these triggers must be a zero tolerance policy.

A Little Message to Dietary Cheaters…

By the way, have you ever cheated and not ‘felt’ it and then thought maybe a little cheating was okay? Dr Vodjani explained why that occurs. If you used to get headaches let’s say when you ate gluten and these headaches went away when you embarked on a gluten-free diet, cheating, either intentionally or inadvertently, doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll again experience headaches. Better for you if it did, or at least if some symptom occurred that caused you some pain and discomfort, because then you’d be less inclined to cheat. Sadly, for many people their ‘reaction’ is a silent one. Gluten can destroy your brain cells, as an example, and you can’t feel that happening. Gluten can cause a lot of destruction inside your better that you are unable to feel until it’s too late and you have a serious disease.

As Dr O’Bryan put it, Alzheimer’s isn’t a disease of 50 and 60 year olds. It begins in the 20s and 30s; it just takes 30 years or so of brain cells being destroyed before you manifest overt symptoms of the disease and finally receive a diagnosis.

The key is that we don’t want to wait for the diagnosis, we want to be pro-active. As we talked about earlier, autoimmune disease is the third leading cause of death and its incidence is increasing dramatically every year. We know that the trigger is environmental and we now understand how to isolate these triggers.

Finding the Triggers Is the Real Key to Prevention and Treatment

That’s pretty exciting actually. It would be a truly wonderful thing to reverse this disease incidence. Are you thinking that it’s all genetic? Remember, having the genes for a disease doesn’t mean that you’ll manifest it… thankfully. Having the genes doesn’t require you to develop a specific disease, it simply means that you are predisposed.

Forty percent of the population has the genes for celiac disease. While the incidence of the disease is on the rise, it’s not forty percent. So don’t ‘fall for’ the idea that it’s all genetics, it isn’t. And that isn’t solely my opinion, again I have very good company amongst world renowned researchers, such as Dr Vodjani and Dr Fasano.

The takeaway from the interview and the one I’d like to impart is that we have at our disposal the ability to make great inroads in detecting, preventing and treating autoimmune disease, something our planet is in great need of – certainly something our country is in great need of.

I hope you found this informative. The human immune system is an amazing but complex system. I endeavored to simplify it better understanding of how autoimmune disease develops.

Let me know if you have any questions. If you are unhappy with the state of your health, we’d love to help you. Consider contacting us for a FREE Health Analysis. As a Destination Clinic we treat patients from across the country and internationally. You don’t need to live locally to us to receive assistance. We are here to help!

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!”