Why I went Gluten Free

For years I suffered with migraine headaches that just seemed to get worse. I wanted to prevent them and I wanted to get off my prescription medication. I became very concerned about the medication I was using when I found out from an insurance underwriter that it was flagged as increasing my risk for stroke.

Getting off gluten was not easy for me and I tried at least half a dozen times before I was able to successfully "wean" myself off. I guess you could say I found that I was addicted to gluten!
 
When you tell people you don't eat gluten many think this GF diet is a "fad". Nothing could be further from the truth. For those skeptics who think there's no good reason to remove gluten (or for those convinced they could not live with out these grains) please let me illuminate some facts.

Why is gluten getting such a bad rap?
First gluten is is very inflammatory and inflammation is the driver of all chronic disease. Gluten is  now being linked to a host of other serious disease states. You don't have to test positive for the antibodies to be gluten sensitive or intolerant either. So there are "degrees" of reactivity so to speak. Celiac Disease is the most severe form and is an autoimmune disease. For Celiac's eating gluten is life threatening. Again, you don't have to test positive for Celiac's disease to be gluten sensitive. I think this causes a great deal of confusion for people. You can (and many people do) react to gluten without having the antibodies (tTG; TGA;AMG; AMA; EMA; ARA) show up on a blood test. This test is useful but it's not the only gauge of gluten reactivity. Food intolerance's (or sensitivity) are what's known as delayed immune system reactions. This means it can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days for symptoms to present.

Second, many wonder why there are so many people affected now. By one estimate at least one in every 100 people are gluten sensitive! That's a huge number of people. One theory for the rise in gluten sensitivity is that gluten is a relatively new food for humans. If you think back to Paleolithic times grains were not eaten. People ate what they hunted or gathered and grains were not one of those foods. Grains are a farmed crop and as such are commercially grown for use in thousands of products.

These grains contain gluten: 

Wheat – including wheat germ and wheat bran

Rye

Barley including barley malt

Bulgur

Couscous

Spelt

Kamut

Semolina

Triticale

Einkorn

Because Gluten containing grains are used in so many foods we love to eat like pasta, bread, crackers, pastries and desserts. Plus gluten is used as a filler in thousands of products. Grains are also fed to livestock as feed.....so you are starting to see how massively profitable this grain thing is now aren't you? Your probably also beginning to see why eliminating gluten can be a challenge for those who eat many packaged and processed foods or who dine out frequently.

This love affair with gluten grains has Americans in particular eating them at every meal and as snacks, so the sheer quantity of gluten people are now consuming is another reason at least in theory, why we are seeing a rise in gluten intolerance.
 
Common Symptoms of Gluten Intolerance:
The best way to gauge gluten reactivity is by symptoms you notice when you have eaten gluten containing foods. Here are some common symptoms of gluten intolerance:

skin eruptions - acne; rosacea, psoriasis
digestive issues - constipation; diarrhea, gas, nausea, IBS
pain/inflammation - joint paint, muscle pain, head aches (migraines especially!)
Other symptoms: weight loss/gain, depression, exhaustion , itchy eyes, runny nose, sneezing

If you have any of these symptoms -
Do a trial of removing gluten and gluten containing products for a few weeks and see if you notice improvement and less symptoms. If you do you'll know your better off with out gluten in your life. It does not support you. You may also find you have less pain and inflammation removing not only gluten but dairy, and corn too. Soy is also very unhealthy (see my The soy deception book review in this blog).

When I removed gluten I stopped having migraines. this was a very big life changer for me as my migraines had become very severe and debilitating. My rosacea also went away once I stopped eating gluten :-) !!!

Auto Immune and other diseases are now being linked to Gluten!
The list of disease states now linked or suspected to be connected in some way to gluten intolerance keeps growing. If you search the PubMed database you will find this is an area of expanding research. Here are conditions that have been shown to be aggravated if not brought on (more research is required for absolute confirmation) - although I have seen enough to convince me to stay off gluten for the rest of my life.

Cancer
RA & OA
Fibromyalgia
Lupus
MS
IBS & IBD
Schizophrenia
Neuropathy
Autism
ADD & ADHD
Epilepsy

And since gluten feeds yeast these are common aliments associated with gluten:
Candida/Yeast overgrowth
Toe fungus
Psoriasis

Bottom line is your better off with out gluten in your diet!

Here are some other helpful links:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/04/12/gluten.free.diet.improve/index.html

http://migraine.com/blog/expert-featured-article/gluten-sensitivity-and-migraines/

http://drhyman.com/gluten-what-you-dont-know-might-kill-you-11/