After reading the book “Wheat Belly” and seeing a number of my health and weight loss clients do so much better after I advised them to take Gluten out of their diet, I have continued to research this fascinating subject. Recently I read an excellent article by Integrated Medicine Specialist , Mark Hyman, MD.
Is it possible that eating gluten is slowly killing you-rusting you from the inside out?
Most of us realize that eating a diet of French Fries and Soda may be shortening your life. But eating a nice “healthy” dark, slice of sprouted grain/whole wheat bread-could this be aging you? Bread made of wheat, barley, rye, spelt, kamut, and/or oats contains gluten. Gluten is a protein found in many more foods besides bread. It is also hidden in commercially made soups, sauces, casserole mixes, cereals , snack bars, pizza, pasta, wraps, rolls. If you check the labels you will find that gluten is found in most processed foods.
Gluten is a staple of the North American diet. What most people don’t know is that gluten can cause serious health complications for many.” But I don’t suffer from Celiac disease! “ Many people have a strong intolerance even if they don’t have an actual celiac disease. Here is the truth about gluten, as explained by Dr. Mark Hyman. I’ll also share a simple way to determine whether you are sensitive to gluten or not.
The Dangers of Gluten
A recent large study of 30,000 people in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that people with diagnosed, undiagnosed, and “latent” celiac disease or gluten sensitivity had a higher risk of death, mostly from heart disease and cancer.
This study was started in 1969 , ending in 2008 and examined deaths in three groups: Those with full-blown celiac disease, those with inflammation of their intestine but not full-blown celiac disease, and those with gluten sensitivity (elevated gluten antibodies but negative intestinal biopsy).
Here were the study’s findings. There was a 39 percent increased risk of death in those with celiac disease, 72 percent increased risk in those with gut inflammation related to gluten, and 35 percent increased risk in those with gluten sensitivity but no celiac disease.
This is ground-breaking research that proves you don’t have to have full-blown celiac disease with a positive intestinal biopsy (which is what conventional thinking tells us) to have serious health problems and complications–even death–from eating gluten.
It might surprise you to discover that 99 percent of people who have a problem with eating gluten don’t even know it. Most people think their ill health or symptoms are from something other than gluten insensitivity. The good news is that gluten sensitivity is 100% curable .
Another shocking recent study compared the blood of 10,000 people from 50 years ago to 10,000 people today. This study confirmed that the incidences of full-blown celiac disease has increased in our population by 400 percent (elevated TTG antibodies) during that time period. Dr. Hyman concludes that if the medical associations saw a 400 percent increase in heart disease or cancer, it would be major headline news.
The most serious form of allergy to gluten, celiac disease, affects one in 100 people, or five million North Americans, most of who don’t know they have it.
And it’s not just a few with celiac disease who suffer, but an estimated one third of North Americans have milder forms of celiac. Far more people have gluten sensitivity than you think–especially those who have a chronic degenerative condition or disease .
Why haven’t you read much about this?
Dr. Hyman says that we have, but we just don’t realize it. Celiac disease and gluten sensitivity masquerade as dozens and dozens of other diseases with different names.
Gluten Sensitivity: One Cause, Many Diseases
Dr. Hyman sites a review paper in The New England Journal of Medicine listed 55 “diseases” that can be caused by eating gluten. These include osteoporosis, irritable bowel disease, inflammatory bowel disease, anemia, cancer, fatigue, canker sores, and rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, and almost all other autoimmune diseases. Gluten is also linked to many psychiatric and neurological diseases, including anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, dementia, migraines, epilepsy, and neuropathy (nerve damage). It has also been linked to autism.
Gluten sensitivity is actually an autoimmune disease that creates inflammation throughout the body, with wide-ranging effects across all organ systems including your brain, heart, joints, digestive tract, and more. It can be the single cause behind many different “diseases.” To correct these diseases, you need to treat the cause–which is often gluten sensitivity–not just the symptoms.
This doesn’t mean ALL cases of depression or autoimmune disease or any of these other problems are caused by gluten in everyone–but it is important to test for it if you have any chronic illness.
Here is a simple test -. Eliminate 100 percent of the gluten from your diet for 2-4 weeks and see if your symptoms improve. Ask your doctor to do a blood test before and after to measure the inflammation in your body. Now, when I say simple, you will have to be like a food detective here and really read labels.
You will need to eliminate all of the following foods:
• Gluten (barley, rye, oats, spelt, kamut, wheat, triticale–see www.celiac.com for a complete list of foods that contain gluten, as well as often surprising and hidden sources of gluten.)
• Hidden sources (soup mixes, salad dressings, sauces, as well as lipstick, certain vitamins, medications, stamps and envelopes you have to lick, and even Play-Doh.)
• For this test to work you MUST eliminate 100 percent of the gluten from your diet–no exceptions, no hidden gluten.
Then eat it again and see what happens. If you feel bad at all, you need to stay off gluten permanently. This will teach you better than any test about the impact gluten has on your body..
Source: http://drhyman.com/blog/2011/03/17/gluten-what-you-dont-know-might-kill-you/
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