Are you or someone you love suffering from an autoimmune disorder? Do you have thyroid dysfunction, chronic anxiety, autism, depression, neurodegeneration, memory loss/brain fog, leaky gut, digestive issues (IBS), malnutrition, dark circles under your eyes, headaches, or insomnia? Do you want to improve your overall health? Then, cutting gluten from your diet might be the ticket.
As we research the benefits of a gluten-free lifestyle, we recognize that avoiding gluten found in wheat, barley, rye, and some commercially contaminated oats might greatly benefit your health.
Gluten sensitivities have skyrocketed across the world. According to the National Institute of Health, more than two million Americans have Celiac Disease, a gluten allergy. And the research being revealed by the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness suggests another 18 million Americans have a non-celiac gluten sensitivity, intestinal inflammation, and digestive issues from ingesting gliadin proteins. However, many believe that number is much higher.
1. The Wheat of 50 Years Ago is NOT the Wheat of Today.
Not only are we consuming more wheat than ever before, Neurologist David Perlmutter, MD, concludes in his book Brain Grain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar – Your Brains Silent Killers that our ancestors ate gluten for millennia, but that more recent changes to our crops have transformed a once-safe food into something that causes great suffering.They changed a once-hard wheat donut into a fluffier pastry to make it doughier and more marketable.
2. The Toxic Herbicide Glyphosate, the Main Ingredient in Roundup, is Now Being Sprayed on the Wheat as a Drying Agent.
More recently classified as a carcinogen, a growing body of research documents many health concerns, including allergies, inflammation, endocrine disruption, and gut dysbiosis – killing our beneficial immune fighting gut bacteria. It has also been linked to damaged DNA, birth defects, reproductive problems, and psychiatric issues.
“This disorder is characterized by abnormal immunological responsiveness to ingested gluten. Celiac disease, or gluten-sensitive, can cause neurological manifestations and neurological dysfunction in patients.”- The Lancet Neurology, 2010 “From Gut to Brain.”
3. Gluten Can Create Systemic Inflammation in Your Body and Trigger an Autoimmune Disorder, Even in People That Test Negative for Celiac Disease.
Amylase trypsin inhibitors (ATIs for short) can provoke an inflammatory immune response in the GI tract by stimulating immune cells. Studies demonstrate that many people with non-celiac gluten sensitivity have autoimmune markers in their blood.
4. This “NEW” Wheat Contains More Gliadin Proteins (Glue-tin) Which Glue Our Villi in the Intestines Together, Causing Inflammation and Malabsorption of Essential Brain Nutrients.
According to the Journal of Popular Nutrition, these proteins also bind to the opioid receptors turning into several morphine-like substances destroying our gut, stimulating our appetite, and signaling our body to crave more. “Gluten can be degraded into several morphine-like substances, named gluten exorphins. These compounds have proven opioid effects and could mask the harmful effects of gluten protein on gastrointestinal lining and function. Here we describe a putative mechanism, explaining how gluten could “mask” its own toxicity by exorphins that are produced through gluten protein digestion.”
5. Gluten Protein Irritates the Lining of the Intestines.
This increases intestinal permeability (leaky gut) and allows toxins and food particles to leak into the bloodstream causing food allergies.
Brain fog, ADD/ADHD, cognitive function, and fatigue is common when ingesting too much gluten, and in many cases - any gluten at all. In addition, gut inflammation and microbiome disturbances involved in the immune-inflammatory response to gluten increase vulnerability to autism, dementia, neurological symptoms, depression, anxiety, Alzheimer’s disease --- and Autoimmunity in general.
As one can see, eliminating gluten may be just what the doctor ordered. Well, maybe not. Sadly, many doctors are not reading the same medical journals I have. And, here are my 10 Hard Lessons I Learned Trying to Heal My Children from Autism, Anxiety & ADHD. To learn more about how to help you or your family overcome ADHD, autism, and mental health conditions while at the same time improving your overall health purchase my book Healing Without Hurting; click here.