"Trust Me, I'm a Doctor" BBC 2, 8pm tonight looks at whether going gluten free is beneficial

[MacG]

Have been following a strict gluten-free diet for the last couple of years so will be interested to see what they have to say.

[Hidden]

Ooh thanks for the heads-up. Have just gone gluten-free myself so will be most interested!

[Hidden]

The problem is I don't trust them.

[Josiesmum]

Really good programme tonight, they seem to be very interested in diet, autoimmune disease and inflammation which is good. Next week's programme also sounds interesting.

[Naomi8]

Please can we start a thread on the scientific evidence behind recommendations to go GF for folk with Hashimoto's auto immune thyroiditis

I have been GF for a year,on the recommendations of the self-help thyroid community,including TUK,but I feel like I am doing this mostly on trust & anecdotal evidence.However,I am aware I have a sensitivity to dairy,but have been surprised by a big improvement with my sinuses,including what I believe is an episodic inflammatory condition related to the sphenoid sinus,that causes acute pain when infected/inflamed.

I am much improved with T3 & LDN,started at the same time,so I cannot say this is definitely the GF diet.

The programme"Trust Me I'm a Doctor"was only trialling GF for people without auto immune illness,so I didn't find it very relevant to me.I would like to see the results of a similar trial for people with auto-immune!

[Hidden in reply to Naomi8]

my memory is that there is evidence that it reduces antibodies against the thyroid in celiacs, but no one has done the research on hypo alone. I think it is anecdotal that it helps this category, but there are a lot of anecdotes, some of people who checked tgeir antibody count before and after the diet. My sinuses also cleared up on g free, and that was before I began levo etc. It also removed my brain fog, I think. Going g free isn't a cure though.

Presumably last night's group was self selected so biased towards volunteers who had wondered if g free would help. Even so, I was amazed by the overwhelming testimony in favour of g free. It was a very short trial, only six weeks, I would think if it had gone on a lot longer and they had tested a wider group of indicators, including ferritin etc, they might have found it improved nutrient levels or IGg dropped.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

I've just gone through the refs in the Chris Kresser article on this, none of them refer to g free trials of AITs, it seems to be as I said above.

Basically suck it and see is a rational approach, but everyone should test for celiac before trying g free, and it was irresponsible of the tv prog last night not to mention that. Really you need to know if you have a second auto immune disease, and the awfulness of going back on gluten once you're off it for the blood test to find out means that many, like me, will never know.

[Angel_of_the_North in reply to Hidden]

It took far longer than 6 weeks for me to notice any real difference from GF. But then my asthma just went.

[Angel_of_the_North]

The programme never made it clear how they were checking that the people were actually eating gluten-free and non gluten free pasta. Most gluten free products are so foul tasting that it wouldn't surprise me if the people hadn't stopped eating them. The programme said there was no difference in the bloods when gluten was eaten and when it wasn't, but id admit that they might not have been testing the right things. A friend said that felling better might not be because of not eating gluten per se, but because it would mean giving up sandwiches (no Greggs for lunch) and sugary cereal, and generally eating better.