Gluten Sensitivity

There is a growing awareness in regard to Celiac disease and the lesser known non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity. Celiac disease has traditionally been confirmed if the patient had antibodies to gliadin and tissue transglutaminase. A biopsy of the patients gut was also completed to determine the presence of total villous atrophy, otherwise known as leaky gut.

 Today, labs such as Cyrex are able to test against a broader range of components of the proteins contained in wheat, barley and rye. These type tests are a more accurate way of determining if the patient has non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity.

 You do not have to resort to the these tests if you do not want to invest the money. In this case, you can try complete (avoid all pre-processed foods, including those labeled as gluten free) elimination of gluten from your diet. You should also take care to avoid body products which contain gluten. Try this for 90-days and see if you feel better and if you potentially eliminate symptoms you did not otherwise think were due to your diet (skin rashes, migraines, fatigue, etc).

 The bottom line is that grains are nutritionally deficient and have no real place in the human diet. We are genetically unable to break down gluten in our digestion cycle, which eventually impacts the health of an individual.

 I would encourage you to check out Dr. Tom O'Bryan's web site for additional information.

 In closing, I recently ran two of the Cyrex test arrays to see if I had leaky gut (Array 2) and was otherwise sensitive to gluten (Array 3). Happily, the results, shown below, showed that I did not have a leaky guy and was not sensitive to gluten. This may be due to my infrequent consumption of grains over the past couple of years.