LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

Gluten-free Diet

Reflux esophagitis in coeliac disease: beneficial effect of a gluten free diet – (03-18-03)

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Reflux esophagitis in coeliac disease: beneficial effect of a gluten free diet.

No need to make lifestyle changes like avoiding wheat–just take acid suppressive therapy. After all, acid is not important for digestion of proteins, activation of multiple digestive enzymes, activation of multiple anti-cancer compounds in foods, absorption of nutrients like B12, iron and certain types of calcium and sterilization of bacteria–so what’s the big idea of shutting it down? On a more common sense note, a trial of a wheat free diet is a very good idea for any patients with reflux. Many of these patients also respond well to addtion of stomach acid, contrary to popular (but wrong…) belief.

Gut — Abstracts: Cuomo et al. 52 (4): 514

Click here for more information.

Chronic Migraine Relief Begins…HERE?

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migrane headaches and gluten linked
Migrane headaches and gluten linked

You suffer from headaches and have been searching for some type of chronic migraine relief; so your PCP should send you to a neurologist, right?

It sounds like a great place to start.  After all, your headache is in your head and deals with your nervous system, right?  If you’ve been reading the Rantings for any time now, you understand how flawed this method of thinking is.  Migraines may be felt in the head, but they are really a problem with your entire body.  Something is wrong, and your body is screaming at you to fix it in the loudest way possible.

If this is the case, it certainly makes medicating a headache without finding the root cause shortsighted, if not downright dangerous.  Dangerous because, in those who experience migraines (particularly with aura and in women), there is an increased risk for things like stroke and heart disease.  Merely treating the headache with medications does not lower this increased risk.

So what does all this have to do with this particular study?

There is a well established relationship between food allergies and neurological problems, most notably wheat allergies to gluten.  The list is quite long, but does include seizures, which I have written in a previous blog article that can be read by clicking here.

Given that I’ve written a book on the relationship between migraines and seizures, it should come as no big shocker to you that, if gluten is related to seizures, it just might be related to chronic migraines headaches as well.

Researchers looked at patients with gluten sensitivity and inflammatory bowel disease to see how many of them experienced headaches.  Here’s what they found:

  • Celiac disease led to a 379% higher risk of experiencing headaches.
  • Gluten sensitivity led to a whopping 953% increased risk of migraine headaches (Tweet this).
  • For inflammatory bowel disease, there was an increased risk of 266%.
  • 72% of celiac disease subjects graded their migraine as severe.
  • 30% of IBD graded their migraines as severe.
  • 60% of GS rated his or her headache as severe.

These are some very strong associations.  Strong enough so that any physician treating a patient with migraines should be asking about diet and, more specifically, gluten intake.  If they do not, and the first recommendations are medications, it’s probably time to run the other way.  It would be a strong indication that the physician does not stay current with medical literature.  This is not someone I would want taking care of my brain.

If you suffer from migraines, have you tried a gluten free diet?  If so, did it seem to help?

Are You Eating Foods That Contain Gluten?

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Celiac disease. Gluten sensitivity. Allergy to wheat. Gluten intolerance. How real is it? And should you go through the trouble to avoid foods that contain gluten?

Gluten free has become the buzz phrase of the decade.  It’s not that avoiding gluten was ever a bad idea, but somehow word got out that gluten was bad for you and causes all kinds of bad health conditions.  I remember a situation from early in my practice career (maybe 13 or so years ago).

A patient was referred to me for a weird skin lesion on her back.  She had been to the U of A dermatology department and called herself the “poster child” down there.  At one point she remembered baring her back while a near endless stream of residents and interns paraded past her for a good look.  While they tried many meds and creams, nothing was  working.

That’s when she came to see me.  We discussed food allergies and skin problems (the gut and the skin derive from the same embryological tissues, so what aggravates one tissue may affect the other) and I recommended a 2 week trial of a gluten free diet and “Bingo!” the skin lesions disappeared.  They reappeared almost instantly after a reintroduction of wheat after the 2 weeks.

I remember another case where a patient presented with dermatitis herpetiformis, a blister like skin lesion that shows up commonly on the elbows and is very strongly associated with gluten sensitivity.  He had been put on Dapsone (an antibiotic used to treat leprosy) about 10 years prior, but the treating doctor told him he did not need to avoid gluten because that was too difficult.  I can only assume that this doctor was unaware that the damage to the gut in these patients continues unchecked with Dapsone use, but the skin lesions DO improve.  And that’s all that matters, right?

Would you like my take on the gluten free craze?  Of course you do–you’re already 322 words into the post.

Clearly gluten sensitivity is very real.  It is a spectrum that ranges from minor sensitivity to the gut destroying flattened villa of full blown celiac disease.  We are likely seeing an increase because of the combination of nitrogenous fertilizers (increases levels of gluten in grains) and the overuse of antibiotics (there is a cross reactivity between gluten and Candida albican yeast).

I have covered more on the effects of gluten on the body in a previous post that can be read by clicking here.

So what about switching to gluten free foods and avoiding all those foods that contain gluten?

This particular article should give you some reassurance that most of the foods labeled gluten free are actually gluten free.  The authors found that the gluten content in 99.5% of 205 commercially available gluten free products tested, the samples had a gluten concentration <20 mg/kg.

Good news, right?

Here’s my take.

We live in a society heavily dominated by grains.  It seems like we can’t go a single meal or a single snack without some form of wheat attached to it.  And, more often than not, it’s the nearly poisonous enriched wheat flour.

So, after watching Dr. Oz, you decide that avoiding foods that contain gluten is a good idea.  So you go to the store and spend way to much money on the exact same type of foods you were eating but this time they are gluten free.  Gluten free bread.  Gluten free pasta.  Gluten free hamburger buns.  Gluten free broccoli.

Wait…gluten free broccoli?  But isn’t broccoli gluten free anyway?  YES.  That is the point.

Instead of spending your money and taste buds on the same types of food that got you into this mess in the first place, expand your horizons and eat foods that are naturally free in gluten.

I have to laugh when Sprouts, a local natural-oriented food store, has its “gluten free” sale.  Anything in the store that is gluten free is on sale and marked.  Not a single food in the fruit and vegetable section has gluten.  Nothing at the meat counter.  Nothing in the spices (at least not the quality ones).

So, it’s great to know that foods that are labeled gluten free are very likely to be so, why not skip the concept altogether and buy foods that don’t need to be modified so that they no longer contain gluten?

If you have tried a gluten free diet, what was the one food item you missed the most?