Recognition of gluten sensitivity and the consequence of Celiac Disease is that if
sensitivity is ignored it is not so easy to determine early. Medical tests fail
often enough, turning up negative while people who are gluten intolerant
continue to suffer a plethora of symptoms.
Those people are often told it's all in their heads after testing shows up
negative. But traditional gluten intolerance blood testing looks for only one
of six polypeptides in wheat, gliadin.
There are five others: wheat germ agglutinin, glteomorphin, gltueinin,
prodynorphin, and omega gliadin. Any one or a combination of these five can
cause anyone to have reactions to wheat.
Symptoms alone can be attributed to several other issues. Even gluten
intolerant or Celiac Disease sufferers will manifest a variety of different symptoms.
It's rather complex.
Sometimes these symptoms appear right after meals and don't last long. In other
cases, the symptoms can last for weeks or even chronically, which then often
leads to a diagnoses of an autoimmune disease instead of gluten intolerance.
Six common
symptoms of gluten intolerance
(1) Obviously, there are
gastrointestinal (GI), stomach, and digestive problems. These can include one
or some of the following: Gas, bloating, queasiness, abdominal cramping,
constipation, diarrhea, or an alternating combination of both - IBS (Irritable
Bowel Syndrome).
(2) Headaches and/or migraines.
(3) Fibromyalgia is not a disease, it's a syndrome. Getting a medical
diagnoses is bogus. You don't need to be told you have muscular and connecting
tissue aches and pains. That's what fibromyalgia means. Fibro= Connective
Tissue; Myo= Muscle; Algia= Pain. Thus fibromyalgia.
(4) Emotional issues involving chronic irritability and sudden,
irrational mood shifts.
(5) Neurological issues, including dizziness, difficulty balancing, and
peripheral neuropathy affecting nerves outside the central nervous system and
resulting in pain, weakness, tingling or numbness in the extremities.
(6) Fatigue, whether chronic or almost after every meal. Chronic fatigue
syndrome (CFS) is, like fibromyalgia, a syndrome, not a disease. If that's what
you're diagnosed with, it means your doctor can't locate the cause of your
fatigue.
Yes, all of the symptoms are common to other health issues and diseases. That's
why symptoms alone as a diagnoses is perplexing.
Go on a gluten-free diet for 60 days. If you feel you can't,
that may already indicate you're addicted to gluten. We are often addicted to things we're
allergic to.
That gluten-free diet would eliminate wheat, rye, barley, spelt, kamut, oats, and
triticale which are grains with gluten. Quinoa, buckwheat, and sorghum grains
are gluten-free. So is rice.
Packaged foods have different ways of sneaking in gluten. Read those labels
carefully. Here's a reference site and source for all foods (http://www.celiac.com/). This can be simplified
by ignoring processed foods, sauces, and salad dressings and preparing meals
from bulk items.
After the 60-day period, go over your notes and see how many of your symptoms
remain. If they are mostly gone, you might decide to stick with your gluten
free diet. If you're uncertain, go back to your former diet to see if those
symptoms come back with a vengeance.
Dr. William Davis, author of Wheat Belly will be on the Dr. Oz show
Monday December 3, 2012. This should be interesting and informative to watch.
Healthy life.
Suzanne
