Note: If you’re already pretty sure you or your loved one suffers from gluten intolerance, I strongly recommend: The Complete Gluten Free Survival Kit
First you must separate gluten intolerance into three distinct categories: Celiac Disease, Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity and a Wheat Allergy. You must also understand what is gluten.
Celiac disease symptoms occur when the proteins in gluten (glutenin and gliadin) trigger your immune system to overeact with strong and unusual anitbodies. Over time, such antibodies wear down the little hairs called villi which line the walls of your intestine (a process called villous atrophy). These finger-like tiny hairs grab and absorb nutrients as foods pass through your lower digestive tract. As celiac disease symptoms slowly destroy these villi, you become less and less able to process any nutrition from your food. This sets off a domino-effect of increasingly serious health problems.
To better understand exactly what constitutes gluten and why it is such a unique substance, I recommend reading my comprehensive gluten guide: What Is Gluten?
In a vast majority of cases, gluten intolerance symptoms will be systemic and will be a result of consuming gluten over a period of time. But symptoms of wheat intolerance will instead manifest themselves more like you perceive a typical allergy: quickly and with single exposure.
For example, if you eat a large, dense piece of gluten-rich bread and have immediate reactions, you are more likely experiencing wheat intolerance symptoms or a wheat allergy rather than symptoms of gluten intolerance which specifically represent celiac disease symptoms.
Read Gluten Intolerance Symptoms
When you consider gluten intolerance statistics, you may be startled to recognize how many more people around you probably suffer from some degree of gluten intolerance. Part of the problem is a lack of awareness and part of the problem may be the changing nature of the grains grown and processed in modern cultures. But part of the problem is also that celiac disease symptoms can include both silent and atypical symptoms. This means sufferers may experience symptoms most don’t associate with celiac disease or they may not experience any evident symptoms at all. Understanding more about what is gluten and how it can impact health is becoming more and more important.
Note: If you’re already pretty sure you or your loved one suffers from gluten intolerance, I strongly recommend: The Complete Gluten Free Survival Kit
To further complicate the matter, now researchers are realizing that there may be a gluten sensitivity that is not just a degree of celiac disease but rather a completely different medical manifestation. And gluten allergy symptoms further obfuscate the matter by blurring the lines between gluten intolerance and a wheat allergy.
Read on to learn current specific statistics associated with the gluten phenomenon and what it means for those people who are diagnosed with celiac disease.
Read Gluten Intolerance Statistics
If any of the many serious symptoms of gluten intolerance concern you or your loved ones, I strongly recommend this excellent survival kit: The Gluten-Free Survival Kit
As you explore the frustrating world of gluten intolerance, you will generally find that sufferers of varying degrees of gluten sensitivity tend to lose weight and not gain it. However, in some rare cases where people are suffering from celiac disease symptoms, people may actually experience a degree of weight gain. The body is a pretty phenomenal machine and in some cases, the typical reduction in nutrient absorption that occurs when we suffer from gluten intolerance actually causes a degree of weigh gain.
But a gluten-free diet is not a weight-loss solution for all and should not be promoted as such.
To further explore this relatively rare phenomenon among sufferers of gluten allergy symptoms and read why I’m not crazy about people promoting the gluten-free diet as a weight-loss solution, read on about gluten intolerance and weight gain, how it might occur, and what you can do about it.
Read Gluten Intolerance and Weight Gain
If you have sporadic ataxia, there’s a possibility that you could be suffering from gluten ataxia. Sporadic ataxia is ataxia that does not have a genetic or other known cause. More often than not, sporadic ataxia turns out to have a link to gluten intolerance. In this article we’ll define gluten ataxia, how it’s diagnosed, and how it relates to celiac disease symptoms.
Fortunately there is treatment available. For both celiac disease and gluten ataxia, the recommended treatment is the same: a strict gluten free diet. With individuals suffering from celiac disease, a gluten free diet can completely eliminate all symptoms if followed for a period of time sufficient to allow the intestines to heal. With gluten ataxia, if detected early enough it is possible to eliminate symptoms as well. In the case of permanent cerebellum damage a gluten free diet can still be helpful in controlling symptoms and eliminate the possibility of future damage.
Read on to learn more…
Read Gluten Ataxia
In this article we’ll discuss the difference between celiac disease and gluten allergy symptoms. I will also provide you with a specific list of these symptoms to watch for in your child.
Please note that in some cases when discussing this matter with doctors or on an internet forum, people may use the term gluten allergy to refer to both a gluten intolerance and a wheat allergy. I know this is confusing; I encourage you to read the front page of my site, Gluten Intolerance Symptoms, my celiac disease symptoms article, and my gluten allergy definition article to come to full grasp of this difficult and delicate matter.
Read Gluten Allergy Symptoms In Children
The exact medical and clinical relationship between gluten intolerance and dermatitis herpetiformis remains unclear.
Dermatitis Herpetiformis symptoms first appear in the early years of adulthood. Patches of small pink to red blisters appear on the back of the neck, buttocks, back and other extensor surfaces. dermatitis herpetiformis symptoms can be distinguished from other skin conditions by the extremely itchy sensation caused by the disease, leading a patient to have a very strong desire to scratch the affected region. On some occasions, the itchy sensation appears well before the blisters begin to the form. The blisters are full of a watery substance, and the blisters may weep in more severe outbreaks. Dermatitis Herpetiformis is one of the more tangible and most visible gluten allergy symptoms and celiac disease symptoms.
Read Dermatitis Herpetiformis
Conclusive results for gluten intolerance are usually found by putting a patient on an elimination diet to see if eliminating gluten relieves their issues. However, this is not the first step. Blood testing and allergen testing is done first, as elimination diets can be risky if other issues are present. A blood test to determine if the patient has Celiac’s Disease, a severe gluten intolerance, is first done. In some situations a doctor may also suggest an intestinal biopsy.
Celiac’s Disease is relatively rare, so if the patient tests negative for the clinical test for celiac sprue disease, an allergen test is then done. Please note that just because you test negative for celiac disease does not mean with certainty that you still do not have some form of gluten intolerance. It also does not preclude the possibility for a wheat allergy. For more on these distinctions, please read gluten allergy symptoms.
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