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!”

A Gluten Free Diet Helps Type 1 Diabetes

It has long been understood that two autoimmune diseases, celiac disease and type 1 diabetes are related. They share common genes and the incidence of celiac disease is higher among type 1 diabetics. There have been some anecdotal reports regarding children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes who were put on a gluten-free diet soon after their diagnosis and for a period of two years or more didn’t require any insulin. The thought was that the gluten-free diet effectively halted the progression of the diabetes, at least for the duration of the study.

Studies of mice have shown that despite utilizing a genetic strain of mice that was strongly in-bred to increase the risk of type 1 diabetes, 2/3 of the mice did not develop the disease when a drug was administered to prevent leaky gut. This study was performed by Dr Alessio Fasano and his team. Dr Fasano, Director of the Center for Celiac Research and Treatment at MassGeneral Hospital for Children, is one of the world’s acclaimed researchers in the area of celiac disease and gluten sensitivity.

Leaky gut is associated with the initiation and continuation of autoimmune disease and Dr Fasano’s work with these genetically predisposed mice shed a great deal of light on the power of an undamaged gut lining to effectively forestall  development of a genetic condition, in this case type 1 diabetes.

A study out of Immunology, dated August 22, 2012,  is titled “Dietary gluten alters the balance of proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines in T cells of BALB/c mice”. The title is a mouthful but here is what the researchers out of Denmark found:

Their initial premise was based on the idea, as I mentioned above, that dietary modifications, specifically a gluten-free diet, could reduce the  risk of developing type 1 diabetes. The question they posed was, “How did this occur?”

They discovered that wheat gluten induced the production of pro-inflammatory chemicals called cytokines that would damage the intestinal lining and immune tissues of the small intestine. More importantly, a gluten-free diet didn’t just neutralize the negative effects just mentioned, but it actually caused the production of anti-inflammatory chemicals that would provide protection for the immune system and gut. So, while gluten is a known bad guy, a gluten-free diet doesn’t just take the negative away, it actually induces a positive, healing response.

Clinically, we frequently see this with patients here at HealthNOW Medical. As soon as we meet a patient with any history of autoimmune disease, we quickly test them for celiac disease and gluten sensitivity via lab tests and a 30 day elimination diet. If we discover any negative immune reaction to gluten, we begin a strict gluten-free diet.

Happily, we often see stabilization, if not reversal, of their autoimmune disease. We support the gluten-free diet with our other protocols for normalizing gut permeability (healing a leaky gut) and strengthening the immune system. Taken together this program yields excellent results.

I hope you found this information helpful If you know anyone suffering from an autoimmune disease, please show them this post. Gluten could be a component in worsening their disease while a gluten-free diet could be a positive influence in their journey to improved health.

Need Help? We're Here for You! 

If you felt as if I was describing you above, you are not alone. As I mentioned earlier, adrenal fatigue/exhaustion is almost epidemic. If you would like assistance and don’t have a clinician whom you feel can assist you, consider contacting us for a FREE Health Analysis. We are a Destination Clinic and treat patients from across the country and internationally. We would be delighted to help you as we have been doing so for over two decades.

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!”

Is Depression Really a Chemical Imbalance or Does Gluten Play a Role?

Patients with depression are told they have a chemical imbalance.  If someone else in their family is also

depressed, the “gene card” is played.  “Your depression is genetic”, they are told.

I have been in practice for over 20 years and I find the above data to be false.  Consistently we find patients who are suffering from depression and anxiety to be gluten (and dairy) sensitive.

How could a food cause depression?  Let’s take a look:

After the digestive tract, the most common system to be affected by gluten is the nervous system. It is thought that depression can be caused by gluten in one of two ways. 

First, gluten causes inflammatory changes. The immune system in an individual with glutensensitivity or celiac disease responds in a negative, inflammatory fashion to the protein gliadin.  Unfortunately, that protein is similar in structure to other proteins present in the body, including those of the brain and nerve cells. A cross reactivity can occur whereby the immune system “confuses” proteins in the body for the protein gliadin.  This is called cellular mimicry and the result of this confusion is the body literally attacking it’s own tissues. When inflammation occurs in the brain and nervous system, a variety of symptoms can ensue, including depression.

Research shows us that patients with symptoms involving the nervous system suffer from digestive problems only 13% of the time.  This is significant because mainstream medicine equates gluten sensitivity almost exclusively with digestive complaints, a mistake that causes millions to suffer needlessly.

In a study examining blood flow to the brain, 15 patients with untreated celiac disease were compared to 15 patients treated with a gluten-free diet for a year.  The findings were amazing. In the untreated group, 73% had abnormalities in brain circulation while only 7% in the treated group showed any abnormalities. The patients with the brain circulation problems were frequently suffering from symptoms such as anxiety and depression.

In addition to circulation problems creating symptoms of depression, other research has looked at the association between gluten sensitivity and its interference with protein absorption.  Specifically, the amino acid tryptophan can be deficient. Tryptophan is a protein in the brain responsible for a feeling of well-being and relaxation. A deficiency can be correlated to feelings of depression and anxiety.

Is it worth it to discover if your depression is being causes by something in your diet? Absolutely, in my opinion.

Our society is too willing to accept a “chemical imbalance” as an explanation for their symptoms and instead of getting to the root cause of the condition, simply opt to swallow a pill – a pill that in the case of anti-depressants has very dangerous and sometimes lethal side effects.

The frequency with which we are able to successfully taper patients off their anti-depressants is considered “unbelievable” to many mainstream doctors, yet we do it regularly.  How is that possible?  We actually diagnose the root cause of the depression.  Frequently the culprit is gluten.

I hope you found this informative. If you or someone you know is suffering from depression, consider calling us for a free healthanalysis – 408-733-0400. We are a destination clinic and we treat patients from across the country and internationally. You don’t need to live local to us to receive assistance. We are here to help!

Need Help? We're Here for You! 

If you felt as if I was describing you above, you are not alone. As I mentioned earlier, adrenal fatigue/exhaustion is almost epidemic. If you would like assistance and don’t have a clinician whom you feel can assist you, consider contacting us for a FREE Health Analysis. We are a Destination Clinic and treat patients from across the country and internationally. We would be delighted to help you as we have been doing so for over two decades.

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!”

Gluten Intolerance Can Cause PMS

Your Stress Gland Balances Your Hormones

The part of the body responsible for helping you deal with stress, also creates energy, maintains an ideal weight and balances mood and hormones. It’s called your adrenal gland(s) – you have two of them and they sit on top of each kidney.

Adrenal fatigue is one of the secondary effects that gluten intolerance creates, which is why it can relate to PMS. In our stressful world, it is not surprising to learn that adrenal fatigue is all but epidemic. Normalizing adrenal function is an integral part of the job of clinical nutritionists.

 

Adrenal Stress Causes Many Hormonal Problems

When the adrenal glands become exhausted from chronic stress, they cannot keep up with all the demands made upon them. This can then lead to such symptoms as fatigue, depression, loss of libido and hormonal imbalance symptoms such as PMS, migraines, heavy bleeding and infertility, to name a few.

Gluten Intolerance Adds to the Problem

Gluten intolerance, be it from celiac disease or gluten sensitivity is responsible for putting stress on the adrenal glands in two ways:

1.  Inflammation is created in a gluten sensitive individual’s digestive tract. If the inflammatory reaction happened only occasionally it wouldn’t be an issue. But in patients with gluten sensitivity this inflammation occurs chronically, every time they eat any gluten.                                                                                                                                               This continued inflammation acts as a chronic strain on the adrenals glands, thwarting their ability to perform all their functions. One of those is to make the precursor hormones that in turn make the sex hormones, both male and femaile.These hormones need to be maintained in proper balance to prevent such conditions as PMS, anxiety and infertility.
2.  Nutrient deficiencies can occur due to the damage created from inflammation, as mentioned above, as well as from the tissue destruction that occurs in the small intestine from celiac disease. Important nutrients such as B vitamins, calcium and iron, to name but a few, can become deficient. The lack of these nutrients has been mentioned in scientific literature as a cause of hormonal imbalance in women and mean alike, all as a result of gluten intolerance.

What is important to realize is that when your body has been under chronic stress it is forced to make a decision: It can get you through the day, putting one foot in front of the other, or it can make adequate amounts of sex hormones. It is designed to perform both activities, but it can’t because it’s too overwhelmed by stress. 

Is Your Body Low in Progesterone?

When put in this situation, your body decides that the most pro-survival thing to do is to get you through the day, to the detriment of making sex hormones. The insufficient production of hormones does not occur evenly across the board however and progesterone tends to fall more dramatically than does estrogen resulting in a net estrogen dominance.

The symptoms of estrogen dominance are such things as cramping, heavy bleeding, menstrual irregularity, endometriosis, polycystic ovaries, fibrocystic breasts, migraines and PMS.

A major symptom of progesterone deficiency is infertility and miscarriage, along with depression and anxiety.

There is an Easy Solution!

The existence of gluten intolerance and its resultant stress upon the adrenal glands is common, but rarely diagnosed. Millions of women therefore suffer with symptoms that are correctable with often something as simple as diet, nutrition and lifestyle changes. The exciting aspect of treating both gluten sensitivity and adrenal exhaustion is that neither one requires drugs or surgery. The treatment is completely natural.

There are lab tests available that identify gluten intolerance as well as adrenal fatigue. If you would like assistance in this area I am happy to offer you a free health analysis - call 408-733-0400. 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!”

Permission is granted to re-post this article in its entirety with credit to Dr Vikki Petersen & HealthNOW Medical Center and a clickable link back to this page. Dr Vikki Petersen, DC, CCN is founder of HealthNOW Medical Center and the author of “The Gluten Effect” and eBook: “Gluten Intolerance – What you don’t know may be killing you”.  She has been featured in national magazines, international medical journals and is a frequent headlined speaker.

Gluten and how it may affect a developing Brain

A reader submitted a question that I wanted to answer here because it brings up two incredibly important issues. First is the question of gluten “challenges” and second is the effect gluten has on the brain.

Here is her question:

“I was diagnosed with Celiac Sprue at age 12 after having suffered my entire life. After that they had me do two challenges, one at age 13 and one at age 14. Both left me sick for months. I am a person that responds to eating gluten in both physical and mental ways. When I slip I get depressed, anxious, and have mood swings. My question is if eating gluten can affect the brain and actually cause lesions, what happens when a person has undiagnosed Celiac Sprue during the time that the brain is still maturing?”

                                                                                                                                         -Catherine

You may think that because Catherine is likely an adult that her gluten “challenges” occurred more than 10+ years ago and such things wouldn’t happen today.  I wish that were true, and honestly little gets me more upset than hearing from someone that they were “made” to challenge gluten for several weeks in order to re-do a biopsy or other celiac testing procedure, only to get incredibly ill as a result.

As I’ve stated before I am not against celiac testing. But there are times when one needs to evaluate what is the greatest good. When a person has “suffered [her] entire life” prior to being diagnosed, only to remove gluten from her diet and feel vastly improved, what really is the point of doing a challenge?  And since the first challenge left her “sick for months”, what on earth could be the justification for doing another one?  It certainly wasn’t because her symptoms were subtle. She clearly states that she feels ill both physically and mentally when any gluten enters her diet.

Yet this happens often – too often.  I hear about it personally from our patients, not to mention those who write to me.  My biggest concern is that a gluten challenge will cause the body’s immune system to cross a threshold from which it cannot be brought back with the result being an autoimmune disease.  I have seen this all too often which is why you’ve heard me refer to gluten challenges and cheating as playing Russian roulette. It has been well established that untreated gluten intolerance shortens one’s life span.  It too has been well established that gluten is a frequent root cause of autoimmune disease.  I never see a good reason to do a gluten challenge in an individual who “knows” they are sensitive – it certainly violates the oath to “do no harm”.

Catherine goes on to ask a good question about how gluten may affect a developing brain. As I mentioned, the inflammatory and autoimmune effects of gluten upon the nervous system are well established.  The symptoms created are numerous and include depression, chronic headaches or migraines, ADD/ADHD, autism, developmental delay, poor memory, schizophrenia and more. The degree to which gluten affects the nervous system is likely dependent on several factors, specifically, the presence of a leaky gut, a genetic predisposition, the presence of gluten in the diet, and the health of the immune system.  Factors in utero are highly related to the health and diet of the mother, in addition to the genetics of both parents. All these variables likely go to answering the question of why some people seem to “come out of the womb” ill from gluten, while others can live many decades before it becomes a problem.

Dr David Perlmutter has and continues to do some excellent work in this area.  Just recently he was published on Huffington Post so you can read more there.

Is gluten, in its current state, truly good for anyone? With the recent research revealing that many develop celiac disease later in life, one really starts to wonder…

I hope this data is helpful.  If you'd like to improve your health, consider calling us for a free health analysis - call 408-733-0400.. We are a destination clinic and treat patients from across the country and internationally. You don't need to live local to us to receive 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!”