Is Your Nervous System Being Traumatized by Your Gut?

We have long known that gluten intolerance, both celiacdisease and gluten sensitivity, are highly associated with neurologic symptoms. Migraines, ataxia (unstable gait), seizures, schizophrenia – the list is long. But a  research study sheds new light on what the mechanism may be. 

Understanding why such debilitating symptoms occur as a result of a gluten intolerance will hopefully go a long way to increase awareness in the lay public and amongst clinicians alike. It is certainly true millions of Americans suffer the effects of a gluten intolerance that creates nervous system problems unknowingly. Such individuals don't feel unhealthy but they have no idea that gluten is the culprit.

The digestive tract is sometimes called the second brain. Some say that is because it is second in importance to the brain. After all, if the food that is consumed doesn’t turn into fuel that can effectively feed the 10 trillion cells in the body, those cells will be unable to perform their job and keep the body healthy. In fact, poor digestion is absolutely linked to poor health and increased onset of degenerative disease, including autoimmune disease and cancer.

The article in Current Pain and Headache Reports looks at another possibility for naming the digestive tract the second brain, and it simply stems from anatomy. The digestive tract actually has a ‘mind of its own’, more correctly a nervous system of its own, called the enteric nervous system. ‘Enteric’ simply means having to do with the intestine. This nervous system, according to research, is very similar to the brain housed in the head in that it is bathed in similar chemicals (called neurotransmitters – which, interestingly enough, are mostly produced in the gut!), it sends and receives impulses and records experiences and is influenced by emotions. Some proof of the latter: Have you ever been nervous and had diarrhea?

This particular study cited that experiencing ‘adverse events’ created a state of hypervigilance (a state of being overly responsive - not a good thing) in the nervous system which was associated with migraines and IBS. Such  ‘hypervigilance’ was previously only associated with the central nervous system – the one attached to the brain in the head. This group of researchers feels that the initiation of hypervigilance may very likely lie in the enteric nervous system also.

What this means is that if the small intestine is genetically sensitive to gluten and gluten is ingested, it could set off a nervous system response that could create disabling diseases, such as migraines and IBS, but likely others as well. 

The take-away is that it is truly critical to diagnose gluten intolerance as soon as possible. Once that hurdle is surmounted it then needs to be followed with a program of nutrition, lifestyle and diet that will ensure healing of the small intestine and a ‘calming’ of the hypervigilant nervous system. You may sometimes hear this referred to as healing a leaky gut..

Here at HealthNOW we often see this clinically in patients who seem intolerant to many different foods and can’t seem to enjoy stable improvement of their symptoms, despite eliminating gluten from their diet. The reason for this insufficient improvement is that a comprehensive follow-up program is missing – a program that addresses what we call the Secondary Effects of Gluten. This entails evaluating for any other food sensitivities, cross reactive foods, a tendency towards autoimmune disease, the presence of any infectious organisms, healing the leaky gut, balancing the probiotic population, and more.

While increasing awareness of the presence of gluten intolerance is absolutely critical, neglecting the secondary effects, as mentioned above, can result in long-term ill health that is truly preventable.

Have you experienced such symptoms? Have you removed gluten but are only partially healthier? I’d love to hear from you.

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!”

Reference: “The Bowel and Migraine: Update on Celiac Disease and Irritable Bowel Syndrome”, R.K. Cady, K. Farmer, J.K. Dexter, J. Hall, Current Pain and Headache Reports, Mar 2012.

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!”

Is Gluten Shrinking your Brain?

A recent study revealed that patients with celiac disease who also had neurological problems such as balance disturbance, headaches, or sensory loss were more likely to have abnormalities in the white matter of their brain. [Note: sensory loss includes numbness, tingling or any loss of sensation.]

What is the white matter? It makes up about half of the brain and seems to be involved in connectivity, or uniting various regions of the brain into networks that then are involved in performing mental functions. It basically provides a relay and coordination function. Researchers suspect this function based on evidence that when damage occurs to the white matter the result is a disturbance in normal mental function. 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.

Obviously, anything acting to damage these important parts of the brain should be identified promptly, in order to prevent any long term damage.

The researchers presented their findings in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry on August 20, 2012 in an article entitled, ‘Should we be 'nervous' about coeliac disease? Brain abnormalities in patients with coeliac disease referred for neurological opinion’.  One of the authors, Dr Hadjivassiliou from the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom, 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 to whom they visit to seek advice.

The study consisted of 33 diagnosed celiac patients, whose condition was confirmed by biopsy. The patients had been referred to neurologists due to primary complaints of balance disturbance, headaches or sensory loss. Each patient was compared to a control group and differences in brain volume and chemistry were evaluated. The average age of the patients was 44 years old – not an elderly population.

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

Thirty six percent of patients showed white matter abnormalities, quite unexpected for their age group. The highest incidence of these abnormalities was found 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 patients with sensory loss revealed about a sixth of the white matter abnormalities of the headache group patients. But all groups were markedly more affected than the control group that was free of celiac disease.  

And in my opinion, one that is also supported by other research, neurological symptoms do not solely occur in the celiac. Those suffering with gluten sensitivity often have more neurological symptoms than the classic celiac patient. Does this mean their brain function is equally affected? I wouldn’t be surprised based on my clinical experience, but we don’t yet have research findings to support this. 

Many patients know their personal association with nervous system malfunction and gluten. If they ingest it by accident or on purpose, the headache, brain fog, loss of balance, etc is a well known repercussion. But did anyone for an instant consider they 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.

What should be our take-away from this study?

1.       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.

2.       If you are currently the patient of a neurologist, please share this information with them. Whether gluten intolerance is germane to your condition or not, 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.

3.       Share this with your family doctor. If you think of the sheer number of people who complain of headaches and the likelihood that a percentage of them are gluten intolerant and causing brain damage, you would be doing a humanitarian service to enlighten your doctor to something that he or she has likely not considered.

I hope this was helpful. Early brain degeneration is a scary prospect. Anything that can be done to avoid perception and acuity loss is well worth it, especially when the solution is as simple as changing your diet.

Please contact me with any questions you may have. If you or someone you care about is suffering from any nervous system problems, consider calling us for a free health analysis – 408-733-0400 - we are here to help!

If you don’t live locally to us, that isn’t a problem. Our destination clinic sees patients from across the country and internationally.

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:

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.

Currie S, Hadjivassiliou M, Clark MJ, Sanders DS, Wilkinson ID, Griffiths PD, Hoggard N.

Brain Changes in Autism caused by Gluten?

Gluten affects the brain and the nervous system. This is knowledge that we’ve had for some time. Unfortunately that knowledge has not arrived at the doorstep of many doctors whom are stuck in the historical description of celiac disease as a disease that presents with a patient who is dramatically underweight, has abdominal pain, diarrhea and bloating. No wonder we diagnose a mere 3% of our celiacs in this country! Many doctors flatly refuse to even test patients who do not present with classic symptoms.

What this means for our population is that children with autism, teens with anorexia, depression and anxiety plus adults with a host of similar neurological problems will continue to suffer due to the underlying root cause remaining undiagnosed. What is the cause? Gluten.

Back in 2000, a study titled “Agnormal regional cerebral blood flow in childhood autism” was published in Brain. This was a complex study that actually mapped out the areas of the brain that received insufficient blood flow in autistic children. What was so fascinating was the correlation between the regions affected and the type of behavior most afflicting these autistic children. Various abnormalities including theory of mind (inability to understand other people’s mental states) abnormal responses to sensory stimuli (they don’t want their feet to leave the ground, noises bother them dramatically, normal grooming is overwhelming for them, etc.) and the obsessive desire for sameness (activities need to be done exactly the same way, in the same order, at the same times, etc.) had a direct correlation to the parts of the brain suffering from lack of blood flow – called hypoperfusion.

How does this relate to gluten and celiac disease? In 2004 a study was presented in the American Journal of Medicine titled “Regional Cerebral Hypoperfusion in Patients with Celiac Disease”. This research revealed hypoperfusion in individuals with untreated celiac disease. This group revealed a loss of blood flow to a particular area of the brain (the frontal lobe) that was associated with increased instances of anxiety and depression. When evaluating celiacs who were untreated against healthy normal controls, the evidence was clear: “No blood flow abnormalities were found in the healthy control subjects. Of the 15 untreated celiac patients, 11 had at least one area of hypoperfusion in the brain region…while only 1 of 15 celiac patients on a gluten-free diet had hypoperfusion… high levels of anxiety were common in the untreated celiac patients (11/15)…depression was more common in untreated celiac patients (10/15).”

This makes it clear that when you have a negative reaction to gluten and you continue to eat it, you are putting your brain at risk. Lack of blood flow to the brain was seen consistently in untreated celiacs and it was also not seen in the healthy normal control group. And the best news was that it also not a major issue in the treated celiac group- meaning those celiacs who were following a gluten-free diet.

The takeaway here is that gluten is a known initiator of poor blood flow to the brain and the area of the brain affected seems to correlate to the behavioral and mental symptoms experienced by the patient. Based on the autism research it seems a prudent idea to screen autistic children for gluten intolerance as soon as the autism diagnosis is made. What do you think? What about those with depression and anxiety? The 2004 study results are quite compelling. Lastly there was a study published in Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics also in 2004 that stated they found similar blood flow alterations in untreated celiac who suffered from anorexia nervosa. Would it be a good idea to screen those suffering from anorexia for celiac disease?

I’d like to hear what you think.

I hope this was helpful and I equally hope that this information will help to diagnose someone who is suffering with one of these conditions due to gluten intolerance and its affect on blood flow to the brain.

If you or someone you know is suffering, please consider calling us for a free health analysis. We are here to help!

Our destination clinic treats patients from across the country and internationally.

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!”

References:

Brain 2000, 123, 1838-1844. “Abnormal regional cerebral blood flow in childhood autism”. Researchers out of Tokyo, Japan.

American Journal of Medicine, “Regional Cerebral Hypoperfusion in Patients with Celiac Disease” , March 1, 2004, pp. 312-317.

Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, 2004 Issue 20, pp. 821-824
Pediatrics, Kieslich, M., Vol. 108 No. 2, August 2001.

Lancet Neurology, 2010; 9: pp. 318-30