Gluten Intolerance Symptoms

Before I begin, I want to disclaim that the only medically accepted treatment for celiac disease has been and remains a strict gluten-free diet. However, with new research suggesting a variety of origins of the disease, we must consider additional or supplemental methods to assist us in treating this frustrating condition.

The two areas I want to focus on are vitamin D deficiency and intestinal flora.

This Science Direct paper on Gluten and Lactobacillus casei indicates that when certain intestinal flora are introduced together they may amplify an immune response which may catalyze celiac disease symptoms.

Meanwhile, a study published at FASEBJ (Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology) indicates that addressing and avoiding vitamin D defficiency may suppress the immune response which leads to intestinal inflammation disorders as well as celiac disease (described in the study linked earlier in my post).

In short, this could mean that celiac disease may be induced by early exposure to a combination of gluten and strains of intestinal flora while also suffering from insufficient vitamin D in your diet.

To further corroborate this idea, we have two additional recent studies which indicate that 1) vitamin D assists in preserving the intestinal mucosal barrier and 2) that individuals born in the summer (and who thus experience their early months during the winter with less vitamin D providing sunlight) are more likely to develop celiac disease.

The first study can be found at the American Journal of Physiology here: Vitamin D Helps Maintain Intestinal Mucosal Barrier. The second study, a Swedish study, can be read at the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health here (requires free registration to access): Children Born In The Summer Have Increased Risk of Celiac Disease

So what is left to be seen is this… can supplementing ourselves with specific probiotics (good intestinal flora or healthy bacteria) and vitamin D help us treat the symptoms of celiac disease?

At this point it seems possible, but we’ll have to wait for some more comprehensive research which addresses this matter specifically before we can make any specific recommendation. As I stated earlier, for the time being, a strict gluten elimination diet is the only certain way to address a true case of celiac disease.

Another related topic to contemplate and research is this: since there is clinical evidence supporting that exposure to sunlight affects mood disorders (such as seasonal affective disorder), and sunlight provides humans with vitamin D, is it possible that a vitamin D deficiency could contribute to celiac depression? This is pure conjecture at this point, but it seems like something worth investigating.

Thank you for visiting Symptoms of Gluten Intolerance and I hope this further illuminates this difficult disease.

Tags: causes of celiac disease, celiac depression, celiac disease, celiac disease symptoms, gluten-free diet, intestinal flora, symptoms of gluten intolerance, vitamin d deficiency

I’ve always been a little frustrated with how little coverage Celiac Disease and gluten intolerance receive in the mainstream media. So I was glad to find this article by Anna Seaton Huntington in the New York Times.

Does this sound familiar?

Mimi Winsberg never knew that the energy bars and pasta that sustained her during endurance training were also making her ill. She had completed dozens of triathlons and marathons, but four years ago, when she was in her late 30s, her health and athletic performances rapidly and inexplicably spiraled downward.

It’s interesting that they look at it from an athletic perspective. And I’m relieved they discuss how underdiagnosed gluten intolerance symptoms remain:

“Celiac is grossly underdiagnosed in this country,” said Dr. Peter H. R. Green, a professor at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia and director of the university’s Celiac Disease Center. He said that at least 1 percent of the population had the disease but that only a fraction of the cases were diagnosed.

And please note this great but frustrating insight which may explain celiac goes undiagnosed so often and receives so little attention from the medical world:

Green said the current “lack of pharmaceutical backing for the disease” — the fact that it is controlled by diet, not drugs — was behind the scant research, medical education and public awareness. Doctors frequently miss the pattern within telltale symptoms of celiac, as happened to Winsberg and Hahn, Green said.

Read the whole article here: A Debilitating Disease That Is Often Unknown

Tags: celiac disease, celiac disease media coverage, celiac disease symptoms, food allergies, gluten intolerance symptoms

Okay, so my post title is a little tongue-in-cheek, but I have a serious point about gluten intolerance, whether it is celiac disease or non-celiac gluten intolerance.

Believe or not, there is some truth to the cheeky statement in my blog post’s title. While we know celiac disease can easily lead to constipation if not treated through a rigorous gluten-elimination diet, many studies now seem to indicate that celiac disease can also lead to depression.

How exactly? Well that part isn’t too clear just yet. I call the phenomenon celiac depression, but its sources could be from celiac disease itself, malnutrition resulting from malabsorption from celiac disease or gluten intolerance, or perhaps just the stress and anxiety many face initially while adapting to a gluten-free lifestyle.

(By “just the stress” I don’t mean to belittle the anxiety. Believe me, I understand what many of you are going through… but please! Hold out hope! It gets better, it really does!)

Read more about this phenomenon on my site’s new article: Celiac Depression.

In many cases, it seems the malnutrition angle appears to be the most substantial and legit. And what happens before you start suffering this malnutrition from gluten intolerance symptoms?

Yep, celiac disease constipation. So you can see how my cheeky post title actually represents a grain of truth.

I hope these new articles I’ve added on celiac disease constipation and celiac depression encourage you to take your gluten elimination diet seriously.

Thank you for visiting Gluten Intolerance Symptoms and if you haven’t already, please stay a while and have a look around.

Tags: celiac depression, celiac disease constipation, gluten intolerance symptoms