Gluten Diagnosis

I have been doing a lot of reading about the diagnosis of gluten sensitivity and am just beginning to get lab tests back so I can make some general comments. What we are trying to discover is who will most likely benefit from taking steps to remove gluten from their diet.

It appears that the most sensitive indicator is the clinical picture. That means your history and family history of chronic and autoimmune disorders. If you or someone in your family has one of the 100 or so chronic disorders that is often related to GS, then this is paramount in your diagnosis. You ignore those symptoms at your peril.

To that I would then add a good genetic profile. If you don’t have any celiac or gluten sensitivity genes, then maybe this isn’t your problem even if you have one of those disorders mentioned above. If your test comes back positive AND you have a chronic illness, then your next step should be to get off gluten for a year and see what happens. You should notice something in the first several weeks of being truly gluten free but complete healing or maximum healing could take a year or two.

Next comes anti-body testing. My preference is stool testing and then blood testing. If one or both of these is positive along with the other indicators above, you are off gluten forever or you risk misery and an early death. If the anti-body testing is negative, that is only a maybe because anti-body testing isn’t as sensitive as what your body is saying or the health of close family and the genetic tests.

Next comes intestinal biopsies. Biopsies will show damage in some cases but not in all people that will be healthier with gluten out of their diets.

Gluten Withdrawals

You can expect some serious withdrawals when you finally go truly gluten free. If you are still getting significant hidden gluten, you won’t notice anything. If you make a sudden change to zero gluten, your opiate receptors that have been getting their gluten hit will cause some problems all over your body. This lasts about 3-4 weeks depending on the person and how much gluten you are used to eating.

Don’t worry it doesn’t last forever. The worse the reaction the more you need the treatment!

Gluten and Acne

I see some articles are being written about the gluten and acne connection. So far the explanations I see are not that great. Once you understand how gluten can affect the body, it doesn’t surprise me that there would be a connection.

The skin comes from the same embyological tissue as the brain. We know that the brain and nerve tissue in general is targeted by the IgA created as a reaction to the gluten. One documented reaction to gluten is alopcia areata or loss of hair, sometimes to the extreme that all of the hair and nails fall out.

In acne my guess is that the anti-bodies are attacking the sebaceous glands and producing an inflammatory reaction that causes an increase in production of sebum. Other factors are involved too but acne should be a clue that it is time to get a gluten sensitivity checkup.