Gluten Sensitivity
Coming soon!
I will be trying to help you hash out the difference between celiac disease and gluten sensitivity. In the meantime, a Google search for “gluten sensitivity”, “celiac disease”, “Gluten intolerance” will yield the latest definitions, findings, and incidence estimates by researchers in the field.
The current “official” number of celiacs according to Johns Hopkins and Mayo is 1:120. In Italy, the latest number is 1:55, up from the 1:100 figure being used by them 10 years ago, when the official position by the medical community in the USA was still ” It is a rare disorder, occurring in less that 1:5,000 Americans”. How wrong can we be about something so important? Wow!
Celiac researchers have recently estimated that the more correct number of celiacs in the US is likely to be closer to 1:30. But those same experts believe that 1:3 are “gluten sensitive”. In other words, when today’s gluten enters the bloodstream of those who consume it, one out of three individuals will have something bad happen somewhere in their body.
Where does gluten go once it gets into the blood? Everywhere. And we now know that the number one organ that is negatively affected by gluten other than the lining of the intestinal tract is the brain. Gluten has been tied to A.D.H.D., autism, epilepsy, schizophrenia, and all of the major neurodegenerative diseases (MS, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, etc.). We have to face it: Neurons and their glial cells- and the resident organisms they contain- really dislike it when gluten attaches to them.
Could the latest suggestion be true? Could it really be the case that every individual who consumes gluten be sensitive to its ill effects to some degree, with only 1/3 of us showing outward signs of that sensitivity? That is certainly in keeping with the conclusion I came to 10 years ago after reading how gluten creates such a wide array of damage in celiacs. It made sense to me that gluten was not “good” for anyone, just better tolerated by some than others.
Thankfully, there is nothing that we need to derive from gluten grains (wheat, barley, rye) that we cannot get from multiple other sources that are much healthier and less problematic. There are plenty of substitutes now, including millet, flax, sorghum, tapioca, buckwheat, quinoa, and others). But this non-essential nature of gluten is also true for the other three horsemen of our medical apocalypse- dairy, soy and corn. We can live without them…and must learn to do so.
For more on the four horsemen…
