Incriminating wheat

[HeronNS]

This is interesting.

mentalfloss.com/article/875...

Not as recent a discovery as that article suggests.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

- if anyone feels like wading through the medicalese of that paper dated 2012

[PMRpro Ambassador]

I've just been shown it by someone else - and I suggested they start a thread on their home forum discussing autoimmune disorders and gut issues.

I'm one of the so-called divas from the first article - wheat makes me itch in even small amounts if i'm not on pred and I develop a rash very similar to dermatitis herpetiformis, a form of coeliac disease. I know it isn't gluten - I can eat pure rye, and even spelt and kamut which are ancient wheat forms - it is something in the structure of the wheat, I still reacted to foods in the UK made from the gluten-free flour there which was (not sure if it still is) made from "washed wheat starch". There were quite a few of my coeliac friends who reacted violently to that - so obviously something else in wheat posed a problem. Here in Italy , they have always had to use naturally occurring gluten-free grains to make substitutes.

[HeronNS in reply to PMRpro]

This may explain why since I cut back on grains a helping of rice or oats - or even barley or rye bread without wheat - doesn't make me horribly burpy and hiccupy - and more than a very small amount of wheat does.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to HeronNS]

That is a very common reaction to wheat...

[PMRpro Ambassador]

I didn't drown...

The 2012 paper limits their comments to intestinal inflammation - the other lot is linking it to far more general autoimmune disease:

"The scientists found that consuming pure ATIs can cause all manner of nasty reactions throughout the body, triggering inflammation not just in the gut but also in the lymph nodes, kidneys, spleen, and brain. That same inflammation can exacerbate autoimmune conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, asthma, lupus, and inflammatory bowel disease. "

[cdenoncourt]

Thanks HeronNS. I had only seen the first article before. I gave up wheat about 18 months ago after an elimination diet (and trial reintroduction) indicated it gave me problems. I do think I feel better without it, but it's obviously not a cure for my GCA/PMR, just another thing to help me cope.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to cdenoncourt]

No - my "itch" started probably in parallel with the PMR, or it was the first sign. I realised pretty quickly that wheat was the culprit as I had tried cutting carbs to try to lose weight and then realised the rash went while we were at home but always returned when we were here on holiday in Italy - even I wasn't missing out on pizza and pasta. Living in the UK the only way to avoid wheat was to go gluten-free - but it has never helped my PMR that I could identify.

So was it simply the catalyst that triggered the PMR? A local coeliac specialist said he thought it was possibly "leaky gut" syndrome - a mainstream medical expert who identified the possibility very early on?

[HeronNS in reply to cdenoncourt]

I never had observable problems with wheat until after I had drastically cut my consumption early on in PMR/pred journey, as I had such high blood sugar. I've tried to keep eating a little wheat just so whatever part of my microbiome is used to digesting it doesn't go completely awol, but I do tend never to have it for just a snack, it has to be a valuable part of a meal, as I've found I can't afford to eat more than a tiny amount. My son made tabouli the other day and I was fine with it, but it was part of a decent-sized meal. A small cookie is all right. But I can no longer eat a bowl of wheat cereal, or sandwiches, where wheat is by far the main component of the meal.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to HeronNS]

In the early days I knew if I ate even a salad dressing that had wheat in it! I would start to tickle around my neck within 20 minutes. It was only when eating wheat every day for long enough - i.e. normal use of wheat - that the eczema would appear a few weeks later. And that was what made it so difficult to identify the cause. We never did come up with any reason for the delay in the appearance of the rash.

I have made tabouleh (never realised how may ways you can spell it!) using spelt grains - since I am fine with it and it is close to the genuine bulgur wheat than other options. Do like it - OH doesn't though so it is a rare treat.