SHARING GOOD NEWS VIII - DIET AND NON CELIAC GLUTEN SENSITIVITY

The recent article below is about persons who exhibit symptoms, but have tested

negative for celiac disease, including having biopsies. On the column to the left,

click under External Links to read the medical paper on the “non-celiac gluten

sensitivity”:

cbc.ca/news/health/story/20...

Without knowing beforehand, I learned I have this sensitivity. By abstaining from

all grains for the past eight months, I slowly lost all of the GI symptoms that plagued

me since childhood. They are probably the cause of my iron and other deficiencies,

plus many ailments.

Currently I eat a high protein diet, consisting of meat, salmon, all dairy, most vegetables

and fruits. I avoid all nuts but consume dried fruits for the non-heme iron. All items in

my diet are fresh, frozen if necessary, nothing from cans or packages. Absolutely no

condiments. Instead of sugar I use stevia sparingly.

The haematologist who saw me recently for iron deficiency anemia (90-day wait)

requested the celiac disease test. Mine came back negative. Despite the good news,

I will refrain from grains entirely, and continue with my high protein intake. The feeling

of satiation after having meat/milk/eggs tells me my body needs it.

The opposite was true when I consumed grains: I always needed another helping.

There are nine essential amino acids that humans do not make in their bodies:

they are found in protein sources such as meat, dairy, and eggs. No wonder my

ferritin levels raised from 7 to 22 in four months(reference range 11-150): they went

up 2 points in 18 days in the last blood test.

So I eat eggs daily, roast meat twice a day, and salmon two days a week.

By taking high levels of niacin (B3) I prevent my LDL levels from rising without the

use of statins. I hope to stay away from pharmaceuticals as long as I can.

Yours in good health!

[poing]

I have gluten sensitivity.

I believe that this means gluten is damaging the gut and causing inflammation - I get what I reckon are deficiency symptoms when I eat the stuff, on top of the digestive problems. It feels quite literally like my digestion stops working.

Plus I had a stool test and it showed very high levels of anti-gliadin antibodies (90th percentile) - antibodies against gluten itself. I think this is signficant.

In coeliac disease there is gut damage from gluten AND then the gut can't repair itself because the auto-antibodies are directed against the repair enzymes. So that's a double whammy, and is obviously much worse.

But although you could say that gluten sensitivity is not as bad as coeliac, I think it causes inflammation and malabsorption, and those are definitely problems in their own right.

Anyway, that's my undertstanding so far.

It's good that you worked out that you are sensitive - the medical professional really need to get to grips with gluten sensitivity and work out how to test for it!

[Hidden]

Hi Poing:

Thanks for your input. It must be very challenging to handle coeliac disease. I shared my difficulties, and they were only from gluten sensitivity.

The blood work result for my tTransglutaminase IgA showed my result as being: < 2, with reference range as < 4 U/mL. The following disclaimer followed:

tTG IgA Ab < 4 U/mL rules out almost 100% of active Celiac disease and 80% of dermatitis herpetiformis. (Note: A false negative result may occur in the presence of IgA deficiency.)

The medical paper in the article made reference to this IgA issue, but I will not pursue

it further. I am happy without any grains, and starches as well, having also eliminated rice and potatoes. Even yogurt I will not consume if thickened with starch. I have lots of vegetables with my meat/fish, and like their taste, seasoned with lemon juice. Just some 100/150 grams of roast meat with vegetables twice a day is satisfying both in taste and energy provided.

Years ago, in the mid 1990's I bought a book from a Canadian woman who wrote about gluten allergies. She described the story she heard from a mother who wrote to tell her daughter barked like a dog in her sleep, from eating rye bread. Some think the GI is our second brain.

I think it reacts not emotionally, but sensitively, to the food being processed.

It is the "villi" (hairlike tentacles in the intestines that absorb nutrients as they travel their long road 30 feet road) that once damaged prevent the body to benefit from the nutrients we ingest.

In the mid 1990's I learned through one of my British cousins that she is blood type B, sub-type RH Positive, that her son also had the same type and sub-type, so did her mother; my father's sister. Since I have the same types, I concluded I inherited it from my father. Blood type B is prevalent up to 35% in Asian countries, supposed to have originated in Tibet. How did it get to my British side of the family (rosy coloured skin, freckles, blue eyes) I will never know. In Europe and North America type B exists in only 9% of the population.

So, I searched for diets for type Bs, and came across the "hunter" diet. Currently my diet is the "hunter-gatherer" type, and am very comfortable with it. I also learned that type Bs are supposed to have lots of "lipase," the digestive enzyme that handles lipids.

Slowly I could feel and hear sounds in my tummy. Those were the peristaltic movement, as my GI re-started its job, evidently satisfied with the nutrients. In the past six months I used golden seal in gel caps plus high doses of vit C to eliminate the inflammation.

Most important is that protein in my diet helps to increase my ferritin levels, without having to resort to iron transfusions. There are too many side effects to them, despite the hematologist endorsement.

All the best to you in your search for good health, Poing.

[Dalamar]

Hi,

I think that I have Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity, I got negative blood test twice for the celiac blood panel (igA, igG, ttG...) y also negative for celiac in the biopsy (less than 30% infiltration) but I have ulcers and helicobacter.

I have a bad reaction to gluten/wheat usually the day after and it lasts for a few days, I get pain in the stomach, the CT Scan said that is inflammation in the Ileon Terminal (scary)... but it seems related to gluten/wheat and I'm suspicious of dairy, I gave up gluten and dairy for a few months and I was better than ever, a few weeks ago I started with things with dairy and probably traces/crums of gluten, so far so good, I thought that the issue was gone, I started having more dairy products and a bit more of gluten, and the symptoms came again...

I think that I can tolerate cross-contamination and traces, is the same for you?

Thanks!