Tuesday, September 03, 2013

Is Gluten Damaging your Brain?



Do You Have Any of These Symptoms?

Do you get headaches? 
Have you ever gotten one as a result of gluten contamination or ‘cheating’?
Have you had balance or dizziness problems, sometimes known as ataxia? 
How about numbness, tingling or other sensation type issues?
For you, are any of these known side effects due to gluten exposure - meaning that you experience them when you come into contact with gluten?

If you or someone you know falls into this category, whereby gluten affects you neurologically, read on.

Gluten Can Damage Your Brain

A study out of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry last August 2012 revealed that a group of celiacs who were referred to see a neurologist, had significant brain damage.

This group of individuals, average age forty four, when compared to a control group had significantly greater damage to their brains. Since the researchers found damage to both the white matter and grey matter, I thought we should define each.

The white matter makes up about half of the brain and seems to be involved in connectivity, or uniting various partss of the brain that are involved in performing mental functions. White matter affects how the brain learns, even into adulthood.

The grey matter of the brain is made up of nerve cells. The grey matter includes the parts of the brain involved in muscle control plus sensory perception such as seeing, hearing, memory, emotions and speech.
One of the researchers, Dr Hadjivassiliou from the University of Sheffield in the UK, is renowned for his work in the area of celiac disease and gluten sensitivity.

The goal of the research was to determine the extent of brain abnormalities in celiac patients.

While it’s certainly not news that gluten can cause brain and nervous system symptoms, the extent to which this study showed significant damage to the white matter of the brain is certainly worth sharing with the general public who suffer from these symptoms, and the neurologists from whom they seek advice.

The study consisted of 33 diagnosed celiac disease patients, whose condition was confirmed by biopsy. Each patient was compared to a control group and differences in brain volume and chemistry were evaluated.

The study revealed that celiac patients had diminished cerebellum volume (the part of the brain that coordinates and regulates muscle activity) plus multiple regions of decreased grey matter density.


In the Study, 30% of Celiacs Showed Brain Damage


Thirty six percent of patients showed white matter abnormalities, completely unexpected for their age group, with the highest incidence in the headache group. They demonstrated twice the number of white matter abnormalities on MRI as compared to the other two subgroups. 

Celiac patients suffering from balance disturbance were discovered to have half as many white matter abnormalities as the headache group, while those with sensory loss revealed about a sixth of the white matter abnormalities. All groups were markedly more affected than the control group that was free of celiac disease.  

While we have long known of the nervous system irritation created by gluten, did anyone for an instant consider that their gluten ingestion could be creating permanent brain damage? That they could be compromising the size and function of their brain? Not likely. But this study reveals that such an outcome is indeed possible.

Anyone Suffering from Neurological Symptoms Should be Tested for Gluten

If you or anyone you know suffers from headaches, imbalance problems, sensory problems or any sort of nervous system imbalance, including seizures and depression, a thorough work-up for gluten sensitivity is an excellent idea.

If you are currently the patient of a neurologist, please share this information with them. Increasing the awareness of your neurologist on this topic will likely benefit many of his or her patients who are gluten intolerant and are unaware of it.

Share this with your family doctor who likely treats many, many patients with complaints of headaches. The likelihood is that a percentage of them are gluten intolerant and potentially suffering from brain damage as a result. You would be doing a humanitarian service to enlighten your doctor to something that he or she has likely not considered.

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 – call 408-733-0400We 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.

Until next time, I wish you very 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!”














Reference:
Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. 2012 Dec;83(12):1216-21. doi: 10.1136/jnnp-2012-303281. Epub 2012 Aug 20.
Should we be 'nervous' about coeliac disease? Brain abnormalities in patients with coeliac disease referred for neurological opinion.

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