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 ASK THE EXPERT: 

"What is Glutin Intolerance? What food Contain Gluetin and What are the symptoms?"

Today we are kicking off our Special Features section, "Ask the Expert." Ask the Expert will examine different topics, diets, fads, nutrition, tips from expert bakers, or chefs, special tips, health and more. I chose Glutin Intolerance to kick off this section. 

Obesity in America is a proven rapidly growing problem. With the rise of IBS sufferers, Glutin Sufferers and Celiac Disease I thought it might be an interesting topic. I have been hearing from more and more frieds that they are Glutin Intolerant and after suffering for years from various stomach problems whether it be constipation, or diarrea, weight gain, bloating, sinus problems and or headaches they finally had tests run with their doctor which lead to their discovery of a Glutin Intolerance. 

I was able to find some information on the topic and I'm looking forward to this share. Please leave us comments and share your stories. REMEMBER if you believe these symptoms sound like something you may be experience always see your doctor. A Glutin Free diet is a difficult diet to change to and requires nutritional supplements to give your body crucial nutrients that our found in wheat based foods. Talk to your doctor. If you find that you are indeed a Glutin Sufferer I have found some excellent reads to help you begin your journey - The G-Free Diet, and Living Glutin Free for Dummies - See links to these book's on this page, available at Amazon.  Todays "Ask the Expert" is by, Jo Jordan - More of this article including case study information can be found by clicking (here).

Coping with Gluten Intolerance 

By: Jo Jordan

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Are you gluten intolerant? You could be if you suffer with bloating, constipation and/or diarrhea, fatigue, weight gain, bone or joint pain, dental enamel defects, depression, infertility, anemia, alopecia areata (hair loss), migraines, multiple sclerosis (MS), psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, or any of the dozens of other symptoms now believed to be connected to gluten intolerance.

If you have difficulty digesting gluten – which means you have a sensitivity to wheat, rye, barley, and oats – vitamin deficiency could become a serious, long-term health problem unless you incorporate a daily multi-vitamin into your health regimen.

People with gluten intolerance and other associated malabsorption syndromes – such as celiac/coeliac disease, celiac sprue, non-tropical sprue, endemic sprue, gluten enteropathy, and gluten-sensitive enteropathy – have challenging dietary concerns.

While the best way to test for gluten intolerance is to eliminate wheat, rye, barley, and oat products from your diet, many people find this a struggle without the aid of good information about gluten substitutes.

Ultimately, getting the necessary nutrients from food intake alone is nearly impossible for most people. This problem is magnified for those with malabsorption issues, which is why a daily multi-vitamin and mineral supplement is vital for the gluten intolerant.

Gluten Intolerance is Far-reaching

While gluten has been a food staple in the Western world for hundreds of years, today the enormous scope of gluten intolerance is a health problem that cannot be underestimated.
Unfortunately, many people are unaware that the symptoms they're experiencing could be a reaction to the gluten contained in the wheat, rye, barley, and oat products they consume on a daily basis.

What is Gluten Intolerance?

While the world is just beginning to understand gluten intolerance, scientists believe it developed hundreds of years ago when our ancestors – who used to forage for nuts and meat – first introduced grains, such as wheat, into their diets. Today, approximately two million Americans suffer from celiac disease alone.¹

Gluten intolerance is a malabsorption syndrome caused by a reaction to gliadin, a gluten protein found in wheat, rye, barley, and oats. People with gluten intolerance cannot digest this protein and, as a result, suffer from various bowel abnormalities.

The thread-like projections, known as villi, in their small intestines – normally responsible for absorbing fluids and nutrients – become flattened and deficient in digestive enzymes, severely reducing the area available for absorption of nutrients such as fat, protein, vitamins, and minerals.

One of the main reasons gluten enteropathy is so devastating is that the place in the small intestine where it wreaks the most havoc is the site where B12 is absorbed. This vitamin is critical for many cellular functions, including the body's manufacture of red blood cells, nerves, and neurotransmitters.

Who is Affected by Gluten Intolerance?

Gluten intolerance is a genetic issue to a very large extent. It is commonly, but not exclusively, connected to type O blood. While thirty-three percent of the Western world's population has type O blood, it is difficult to say just what percentage of these people will become gluten intolerant.

People with type O blood tend to be of Irish, English, and Mediterranean descent. However, people with other blood types are known to become afflicted as well.

There is some discrepancy about who/when people develop gluten intolerance. Some medical authorities claim there are two peak periods during which onset takes place. The first being infancy, between six months to two years of age, and the second is between the ages of thirty and fifty years. Women are more prone to gluten intolerance than men.

Other experts claim that onset of the disease has no age or sex restriction.

There is also disagreement about the multiple manifestations of gluten intolerance. Dr. Jesse Hanley, MD, public speaker, instructor, and co-author of Tired of Being Tired, What Your Doctor May Not Have Told You About Premenopause, Women's Passages, and Attention Deficit Disorder, believes that gluten intolerance is much more than one isolated part of the body part malfunctioning.

"It's a metabolic problem – it's your brain, your neurons, an inability to absorb, and the ensuing inflammation that travels around peoples' bodies," says Dr. Hanley. "After all, each person is one entirely complete unit, with all parts reliant on the rest of the mind and body in order to function."

While some estimates suggest that one in 133 Americans have celiac disease,² statistics for those related to someone with celiac disease – such as a parent or sibling – are much more far-reaching; one in twenty-two will develop the disease.³

Dr. Hanley believes the figure is higher still; as many as one in thirty Americans, she says, will exhibit symptoms of gluten intolerance.

Researchers do agree that gluten intolerance often emerges after a trauma such as an infection; a physical injury; the stress of pregnancy; post surgery; or severe psychological/emotional stress brought on by divorce, death of a loved one, or job loss.

Symptoms of Gluten Intolerance?

There are dozens, possibly hundreds, of gluten intolerance symptoms. Unfortunately, no one symptom is specifically characteristic of this common ailment. The majority of people with gluten intolerance (and celiac disease) have intestinal symptoms as well as many others. Common manifestations include⁴:

• Bone, joint, muscle pain
• Delayed/disrupted menstrual cycles (amenorrhea/delayed menarche)
• Dental enamel hypoplasia (enamel defects)
• Fatigue
• Gastrointestinal distress (gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, vomiting, reflux)
• Headaches (including migraines)
• Inability to concentrate
• Infertility
• Moodiness, depression
• Mouth sores
• Seizures
• Short stature
• Tingling numbness in the legs
• Weight loss/gain

Other Conditions Associated with Gluten Intolerance

While gluten intolerance is largely hereditary, its prevalence is being exacerbated by the enormous problem of over processing and hybridization of refined grains.

Combined with issues such as the plastics now being found in common products like pizza dough, and all the chemicals used by the large agricultural corporations, it becomes clear why the human body sometimes reacts with an allergic reaction to common food.

Not everyone is negatively affected by eating whole grains, but for those who are truly allergic and cannot digest gluten/gliadin properly, the damaging health effects begin in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to detect, or even to study, reactions taking place in the small intestine.

One thing is for certain; almost everyone eats too much refined wheat – the main source of gluten – and the list of symptoms associated with gluten intolerance continues to grow.

Symptoms may also include:

• Abnormal liver test
• Addison's disease
• Alopecia (hair loss)
• Anemia
• Asthma
• Ataxia (loss of coordination)
• Autoimmune hepatitis
• Chronic abdominal pain
• Chronic fatigue
• Crohn's disease
• Dermatitis herpetiformis (itchy skin sores)
• Down syndrome
• Epilepsy
• Family history of celiac disease
• Gall bladder disease
• GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease)
• Hyperthyroidism/hypothyroidism
• Total IgA (blood immunoglobulin) deficiency
• Insulin-dependent diabetes (type 1)
• Infertility, spontaneous abortions, low birth-weight babies
• Iron deficiency
• IBS (irritable bowel syndrome)
• Lactose intolerance
• Malnutrition
• Multiple sclerosis
• Non Hodgkin's lymphoma
• Osteoporosis, osteopenia, osteomalacia
• Pancreatic disorders
• Pathologic fractures
• Peripheral neuropathy (nervous system disorder)
• Primary biliary cirrhosis
• Psoriasis
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Scherosing cholangitis (bile duct inflammation)
• Sjögren's syndrome
• Systemic lupus
• Turner syndrome
• Ulcerative colitis
• Vitiligo (white skin patches)

Note that dormant or mild celiac disease may be responsible for the symptoms experienced by some who are believed to have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Diagnosing and Treating Gluten Intolerance

The most effective test is one you can complete yourself. Because it is very difficult to detect reactions taking place in the small intestine, medical tests are ineffective and unreliable to a large degree. Your own body is the best laboratory; the only sure way to confirm gluten intolerance is to stop eating it.

Removing the potential offender is cost effective, and works most of the time. There are, however, specific blood tests to diagnose gluten intolerance in those who have very mild signs or no symptoms at all.

A biopsy from the small intestine is also used for diagnosis. It may show a surface flattening of the villi. Later, a diagnosis can be made if improvement is shown on a repeat biopsy after a trial gluten-free diet. It is, however, a difficult test to perform; it is uncomfortable, expensive, and has some accompanying risks.

Most often, the best way to determine whether or not you are gluten intolerant is to eliminate gluten from your diet for a two-week period – and actually feel the effects.

Three Steps and Eight Weeks to a Pain-free Life

Step 1: Food Limiting – Implementing a Gluten-free Diet

If you have a gluten allergy, when you ingest wheat, rye, barley, or oats your gut will become irritated, and your immune system functioning will turn to dealing with the gluten. Rather than focusing on your immune system, your system will be fighting off a perceived attack.

Further, your system will take the information about the irritant, and spread it throughout your entire body – to your joints, or your brain, where it can manifest as multiple sclerosis, or a myriad of other unpleasant illnesses.

In short, the allergy can go anywhere in your body capable of having an autoimmune response. Remember, if you are gluten intolerant, your system interprets the ingestion of wheat, rye, barley, and oat products similar to how it would respond to any invasion: with inflammation.

But miracles really can and do happen when you alter your diet to suit your body's changing needs. If you believe you may have gluten intolerance, begin by removing gluten-containing foods [link to sub-article on foods to avoid and alternatives] from your diet, and monitor your responses. Rest assured that there are many wonderful alternatives to wheat, rye, barley, and oats [link to sub-article on foods to avoid and alternatives].

The good news is that between fifty⁵ and ninety percent⁶ of gluten intolerant people who choose to implement a gluten-free approach respond very positively when they eliminate gluten from their diets. Many people report feeling better in just one or two weeks. Often, all symptoms disappear within six to eight weeks.⁷

Step 2: A Daily Multi-vitamin

Once the irritant is removed, care and repair of the body is essential. Many with gluten intolerance suffer from greatly reduced intake of nutrients in their diets. They may skip meals when they are feeling unwell, and the damaging results of gluten on their intestines affects nutrient absorption.

For this reason, people with gluten intolerance ought to supplement their diets with a high-quality, easy-to-absorb multi-vitamin – taken with food – to ensure adequate nutrient intake. Puristat's Advanced Supplementation includes calcium and vitamin D, and is especially helpful for those who are also struggling with osteoporosis.

In addition, your body may have become weakened by its struggle with gluten intolerance, and you may have become especially sensitive, and more intolerant, to processed foods. Some people experience bouts of diarrhea. For others, there is an overall, negative cumulative effect. Many people develop secondary lactose intolerance as a result of dealing with gluten intolerance.

However, once wheat, rye, barley, and oats are omitted, and the bowel begins to heal, lactase – the enzyme that breaks down lactose – usually returns to an adequate level, and the lactose intolerance disappears.⁸

L-glutamine is a powerful restorative, an amino acid known to work wonders at healing the bowel. Aloe vera is also recommended for bowel repair. In the meantime, it's important to ensure your body is getting all the nutrients it needs, as well as ensuring regular bowel movements.

Step 3: Digestive Enzymes

If you are struggling with gluten intolerance, malabsorption occurs because the cells can no longer absorb nutrients properly. A digestive enzyme supplement may prove helpful since your body may have become deficient in digestive enzymes.

It is important to define two categories of gluten intolerance in order to understand how the illness is affected by enzyme action in the gut.⁹

Celiac sprue is an autoimmune condition, a genetic inflammatory disorder of the small intestine. When gluten proteins break down during digestion, they fragment. These protein fragments are called peptides.

In celiac sufferers, an inappropriate immune system response in the small intestine is initiated by one type of peptide, and the intestinal cells are damaged.

A second type of gluten intolerance results when the gut is injured by something other than celiac disease – the negative effect of a bacteria or yeast infection, for example, resulting in the loss of the intestinal enzymes which in turn leads to poor gluten digestion.

Using specific enzymes can be effective in minimizing the need for a gluten-free diet for those with gluten intolerance due to gut injury.

While supplementing with enzymes can be beneficial to celiac sufferers, they must remain gluten-free because the damage to their intestines is caused by the gluten fragments, rather than as a result of injury.