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Why all the Hype about Gluten?

11-Gluten

Each day in the world of marketing the advertisers are always looking for the next “attention getting” buzz to attract customers to their products. In the past few years they have latched onto the subject of gluten because the public has been making requests for ‘gluten free’. So, why is the public making this request and are the products actually ‘gluten free’ ?Do we have a medical necessity to stop eating gluten and other foods?

 

So what is it that has the public clamoring so loudly that the manufacturers’ are responding? It is very simple – the research from both the laboratories and clinical case reports indisputably indicate that the population is becoming more sensitive to gluten (and other food proteins) resulting with a wide range of symptoms and the proliferation of autoimmune (AI) diseases that currently are under diagnosed and subsequently not being treated. The scariest factor is that these new AI diseases are attacking our nervous system within the brain and the symptoms of the onset are not within the diagnostic awareness of the main stream medical community due to the newness of the research information. Folks, we have a wide range of new ailments caused by our modern foods and some are the cause or contributors to several existing diseases which have no known cause by conventional medicine. The name for this ‘disease’ is ‘Gluten Sensitivity’ and/or ‘non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity”.

 

Whoa – wait a minute! What happened to the wheat and other grains that now cause’s our immune system to respond in a damaging way? It is the unfortunate result of good farming practices of hybridization and sometimes in laboratory genetic modification (GMO). For centuries all farmers has strived increase their crop’s yield – increase the quantity that can be produced per acre. Example: Farmer A is growing a wheat that stands very tall, with a thin stem and has a lot of grain. During the winds and rain many of the stem break and the grain can’t mature hence the farmer does not get a ‘good yield’. Farmer B is growing a wheat that is short height, has a very thick stem and has less grain. During the winds and rain the stems do not break and the farmer gets his maximum yield but he’d like more. Farmer A and Farmer B decide to cross-bred their wheat grains – cross-hybridize – and produce a wheat with a medium height, moderately thick stem and has more grain that B’s and less than A’s. The result is during the winds and rain the stems don’t break and they get a greater yield than their A and B crops.

 

The down side is that the DNA sequence of the protein in the new plant’s grain is different than the DNA sequence in plant A and plant B. This poses a problem because our immune system is accustomed to the DNA sequence of plant A and plant B thus recognizing them as friendly proteins BUT the new DNA sequence of the plant C is recognized as a foreigner – unwelcomed enemy- by the immune system and it responds with inflammation and/or antibodies to destroy the foreigner to protect the body. (It produces the same response as when it encounters a new flu virus.) The end result is that the inflammation damages the body and at worst the new antibodies can confuse our body tissue as being the plant C protein and attack/destroy the tissue thus a new autoimmune disease. The disease is advanced and sustained by continuing to eat the ‘modified grain protein’.

 

The top 20 newly emerging AI diseases are all related to gluten sensitivity! So, if you are gluten sensitive and you eat gluten your immune system will react and there will be more tissue damage. A commonly under diagnosed disease is Hashimoto’s which is the destruction of the thyroid gland and for many patients they are diagnosed as simply hypothyroid and given hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Sadly, the autoimmunity is not recognized and the patient’s gluten ingestion increases the destruction of the thyroid gland which leads to the increase of hormones therapy and its side effects and cancer risks.

 

Are there any brain-based neurological diseases that can be driven by gluten sensitivity? Are you ready to hear the scary news? Multiple Sclerosis, Dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson Syndrome and other brain dysfunctions that have no disease name. If they have been diagnosed as such, the ingestion of gluten can be advancing their disease.

Can Gluten can damages the intestinal barrier system? Yes and that leads to poor health/infections by an under effective immune system, to autoimmune diseases, malabsorption and subsequent nutrition deficiencies at the basis of many common health disorders. This can be the cause of Leaky Gut.

Can some people have a REAL chemical addiction to gluten and is it harmful? YES – for some people the gluten stimulates the release of opiods just like heroin or morphine and sometimes the withdrawal can be as physically painful and as difficult to stop. The proteins responsible for the release of the opiods are known as gluteomorphin and caseomorphin. It is harmful because you can be addicted to the food that is damaging your body and brain hence your emotional and psychological abilities to not eat the gluten can be a nightmare not only for you but everyone around you.

Like any addiction it can be undermining and destroying your sense of self, self-control and causing your behavior to be extreme – whether it be manic, depressive, inability to control rage or violent behavior and that can irreversibly impact on your personal and professional life or worse you can harm others. For some the emotional struggle and behavior responses are not as extreme but still causing pain and suffering.

If you or someone you love is struggling with recovery from substance abuse, recovery of an eating disorder, has anger management issues, uncontrollable behavior, a psychotic disorder, Autism, Asperger’s, obesity or hormone driven mood swings they maybe in an unknown battle with a gluten addiction and need the appropriate testing and treatment. Click Here to Read More

The good news is this: 1) Today we now have advanced blood testing that can determine if you are gluten sensitive and gluteomorphine or caseomorphine responsive. 2) We can tests which grains and other foods are causing reactions. It is important to know which foods are problematic because the damaging physiological consequences of an exposure can last up to 6 months.  3) We can manage your health with natural substances and you may not require steroid drugs. There are great natural products that will dampen and slowdown the damaging response by the immune system thus you are not limited to using steroid drugs that suppress your immune system from responding and the drugs side effects.

 

My practice includes utilization of these advance blood tests and treatment protocols using the natural compounds. In addition to treating and providing managed care of those gluten brain-based neurological diseases I also provide healthcare to the other conditions that make up the remaining top 20. This includes Lupus, Type I diabetes, PCOS, Rheumatoid Arthritis and most any inflammation driven AI disease. It is important to note that in the top 20 emerging AI diseases there is an antibody to heart muscle and joint cartilage hence an unidentified gluten sensitivity is insidiously and unknowingly advancing the cardiac diseases and osteoarthritis.

Register and Get Your Gluten Screening Consultation

What is gluten?……………….How did it become harmful?…………….and when it says ‘Gluten Free” is it really absent of gluten?

Gluten is a protein substance in EVERY GRAIN – not just wheat. For almost a half century we have known that many people have an immune response to wheat. The typical symptoms range from sinus mucus congestion to destruction of the intestinal wall causing Celiac’s disease.

Today many more people are having immune responses to the gluten proteins because those proteins have been altered through two processes to help strengthen grain crops and produce more grains 1) standard hybridization which is the cross breeding of two or more grains and 2) GMO’s which is the laboratory genetic modification of the proteins. Although the crops have become more disease resistant and increased grain yield, the problem is that our bodies need about 10,000 years to make the genetic adaptation within our immune system so that we accept these proteins as a friend and not an enemy to the body.

Packaging that says ‘Gluten Free’ may NOT be absent of gluten! You read my sentence correctly – the labeling on packaging may NOT be accurate and it is not false advertising. Here’s why. Food manufacturers are making a specific reference to WHEAT gluten. Products that are ‘wheat gluten free’ have emerged in the market in response to the Celiac’s Disease population. However, the processed food manufacture’s sometimes will substitute a different grain’s gluten to get the benefit of gluten.

And what are the benefits of gluten being added to foods – why do the food manufacturers’ add it to their products? It makes their products more appealing to the public. It makes bread’s and pancake mixes fluffy. When added to salad dressing or sauces (ketchup, mustard, gravy, BBQ sauce) the ingredients will not separate and you no longer have to ‘shake’ the bottle before using. There are dozens more applications that make foods creamy, smooth and visually appealing.

Earlier I stated that EVERY grain contains gluten hence a box of pancake mix which says ‘Gluten Free’ means that there is no WHEAT gluten in their product. That is a healthy choice for the person who is sensitive to wheat gluten. But, what if the person is unknowingly sensitive to barley gluten which was used in the ‘gluten free’ pancake mix? When that person eats the pancakes their immune system is activated causing inflammation, damages the GI barrier and the blood brain barrier. Worse, it can cause and/or advance an autoimmune disease.

Click here to read the reasons why this discrepancy and the difference between Gluten Sensitivity and Celiac’s disease.

Let’s be clear – it is not the gluten attacking our body’s tissue – what happens is that these new proteins activate our immune system and its response is not perfect. The result is a combination of inflammation and by-products that damages the intestinal barrier and the blood brain barrier. The breaches to those barriers results with more immune system responses that damage our own brain tissue, can interfere with neurological function and frequently can produce a new antibodies to our own tissue that we will produce for the rest of our lives.

Are there other foods that can trigger or activate the same immune system response as gluten causing the same harm? Yes – Cow’s Milk, yeast, tapioca, sesame seed, white potato, corn, instant coffee, and egg, These are considered cross-reactive proteins that activate the same response.

NOTE: USA dairy cows have been hybridized and genetically modified to increase milk production. Back 40 years ago Bessie the cow used to produce approximately 200 lbs of milk and was milked once a day. Nowadays ole Bessie is producing 750 lbs and milked three times. Just like the hybridization of grains, the hybridization of Bessie has altered the protein in her milk which our immune system identifies as an enemy thus the harmful response to our body and brain. Let’s be clear – this is not a lactose intolerance response.

Register and get your Gluten Screening Consultation

Videos:

Gluten: What You Don’t Know May Kill You by Dr. Mark Hyman. This video provides you an overall understanding of the health risks and the prevalence of undiagnosed gluten sensitivity and it being the root cause to many health conditions that are misdiagnosed.

Gut-Brain Axis by Cyrex Labs. This video discusses the pathophysiology of damage caused to the blood brain barrier due to reactions to gluten in the GI tract. This immune system response is at the basis of many autoimmune diseases and most of them impact the nervous system. In most cases the patient will have neurodegenerative signs and symptoms before there are noticeable GI disturbances.

Gluten Sensitivity: A Layman’s Primer by Dr. Peter Osborne Diplomat with the Clinical Board of Nutrition. This video provides a thorough discussion of the differences between  Gluten Sensitivity, Celiac Disease and Gluten Intolerance. It is a detailed lecture that provides the science foundation to the pathologies associated with gluten.

Six Reasons You Should Avoid Milk at All Cost by Dr. Mark Hyman. Dr Hyman discusses the non-science basis of the Food Pyramid’s recommendation of Milk as well it’s reflective of the dairy industry’s financial interests and not your health’s best interests.

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