healingways
Gluten: Trust Your Gut
Scientists Confirm Widespread Sensitivity
by Claire O’Neil W
alk through the gluten-free product aisles at the
grocery or health food store and many people might wonder: “Is this a food fad? Who has a problem with gluten?”
As it turns out, more people have gluten sensitivity than scientists, physicians and researchers previously thought. A study at the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Center for Celiac Research estimates that 6 percent of the U.S. population, or more than 18 million individuals, have some sensitivity to gluten, a protein found in wheat (including kamut and spelt), barley, rye, malts and triticale. Research published online by
BMC Medicine and
CeliacCenter.org this year provides the first scientific evidence of what many people allergic to gluten already know: While gluten sensitivity presents less serious negative health effects than celiac disease, its host of symptoms can become prob- lematic. An earlier study in Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics con- cluded that for dealing with both wheat allergies and celiac disease, the dietary avoidance of gluten-containing grains is the only effective treatment.
Case in Point
Carol Mahaffey, a tax attorney in Columbus, Ohio, was experiencing
natural awakenings September 2011 43
intermittent joint pain and what she calls “living in a fog,” in the summer of 2009. Because she had read that joint pain can sometimes be caused by glu- ten sensitivity, she decided to eliminate gluten from her diet.
Although her new regimen didn’t
relieve the joint pain—she was later professionally diagnosed with rheu- matoid arthritis—she found that after four to five weeks, she looked and felt better overall. “I was losing weight, my digestive system was better and I found it easier to mentally focus. Somebody at work also happened to mention that I didn’t sniffle anymore,” she relates. Although Mahaffey’s blood tests were negative for celiac disease, she had all the signs that she is gluten-sensitive. “Imagine degrees of gluten inges- tion along a spectrum,” says Dr. Alessio Fasano, a professor of pediatrics, medi- cine and physiology and director of the Center for Celiac Research. “At one end, you have people with celiac dis- ease, who cannot tolerate one crumb of gluten in their diet. At the other, you have the lucky people who can eat pizza, beer, pasta and cookies—with no ill effects whatsoever. In the middle,
...the feel-good benefits of a gluten-free diet can more than make up for some of the inconveniences.
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