You feel awful most of the time. You’re tired, achy, and it seems like you’ve either got diarrhea or constipation almost constantly. Maybe your skin itches and flakes, or you get unexplained rashes or hives. You may even throw up occasionally, for no obvious reason.

If you’ve sought medical help for your problems, you might have left the doctor’s office frustrated– feeling as if you weren’t being taken seriously. Perhaps the doctor threw out terms like irritable bowel syndrome or chronic fatigue syndrome, leaving you just as confused as when you came in. So you started looking online, and you found something interesting. Is it possible that you suffer from a food allergy or intolerance?

In short– yes. It’s very possible.

There are many types of food intolerance and allergies, and wheat intolerance is one of the most common. But all wheat sensitivity is not created equal. Broadly speaking, health problems related to wheat consumption fall into three categories:

1) Celiac (or Coeliac) Disease

Celiac disease is an immunological (allergic) response in the intestinal tract to a very specific protein contained in wheat and several other grains, called gliadin– a gluten protein. It has many other names, including gluten allergy, gluten enteropathy, gluten intolerance, and coeliac sprue. Over time, it can cause damage to the intestinal tract, but it can be effectively treated with a gluten-free diet. The bad news is, people with celiac disease have it for life. There’s no cure, and they don’t “grow out of it”. The good news is that much of the damage done to the body can repair itself after gluten is removed from the diet.

2) Wheat Allergy

Wheat allergy is also an immunological response to wheat. Unlike celiac disease, however, it includes allergic reactions to many different proteins found in wheat and related cereal grains. It can be gastrointestinal, but it can also be similar to hay fever, causing asthma-like respiratory symptoms, hives, rashes, contact dermatitis, cough, runny nose, and itchy eyes. Sometimes called “baker’s allergy”, wheat allergy may be exacerbated by exercising or taking aspirin, causing a very violent and dangerous– even life-threatening– allergic condition called anaphylaxis. Once again, avoidance is the key, though some wheat allergy sufferers are able to tolerate alternative gluten-containing grains such as barley and rye.

3) Wheat Intolerance

Confusingly, celiac disease is sometimes called “gluten intolerance”. However, wheat intolerance generally refers to a non-allergic negative reaction to eating wheat. Wheat intolerance is not usually as violent or acute as wheat allergy, and can be a lot harder to diagnose because the symptoms may manifest many hours after the consumption of wheat; even up to a couple of days later. Though poorly understood, it’s still an immune-related response, but one which affects a totally different part of the immune system than that which causes a ragweed sufferer to sneeze or someone with a peanut allergy to go into anaphylactic shock. Avoidance is still the main approach to solving the existing problem in individuals with wheat sensitivity, but there’s good news– with careful management, some people may be able to build up a tolerance for small amounts of wheat over time.

If you think you may have a form of wheat sensitivity, there are a range of testing and treatment options, which we will cover in future articles– along with some great tips and recipes for living gluten-free… with style.

Technorati Tags: celiac, coeliac, wheat allergy, wheat intolerance

Salmon is an excellent source of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids

These days, it’s trendy to eat foods high in PUFAs (poly unsaturated fatty acids), but PUFAs are only beneficial when the ratio of inflammation-causing omega-6 fatty acids to inflammation-reducing omega-3 fatty acids is about 4:1, or even lower. Unfortunately, the average American’s ratio of these essential fatty acids is close to 10:1, due to high intake of omega-6 rich grain-fed meat, poultry, and grain- or seed-based oils (soybean oil, corn oil), versus a relatively low consumption of omega-3 rich fatty fish, flax, and walnuts.

Even then, not all omega-6 fatty acids are created equal. Because most meat sold and consumed today is factory-farmed, it relies heavily on grain-based, concentrated feeds. Grain-fed ruminants produce lower levels of the beneficial omega-6 variety called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) than grass-fed ruminants. Cage-raised hens produce eggs with lower CLA levels than pastured hens.

This is particularly important to people with wheat intolerance or celiac disease. A recent Italian study published in the journal Molecular Nutrition & Food Research indicates that CLA protects the small intestine of celiac sufferers from damage subsequent to gluten exposure. The head of the research team noted that both CLA and omega-3 fatty acids are shown to have beneficial effects on inflammation and auto-immune disorders in animal studies.

So what’s the takeaway? If your diet is low in fatty fish and other omega-3 sources, but high in grain-fed meat and grain or seed oils, consider switching to grass-fed meat, pastured eggs, and taking a commercial commercial fish oil supplement to correct your omega-3,6 imbalance. Try it for a month and see if you notice any change in your intestinal health and comfort.

Going gluten-free is still the best way to treat wheat intolerance symptoms, but changing your fat intake can help your body deal more effectively with gluten.

Technorati Tags: celiac, celiac disease, wheat intolerance

Because of the difficulty in diagnosing microscopic colitis during regular colonoscopies, women in the risk group who also have the symptoms should consider undergoing colonic biopsies, which can be used to detect the condition more reliably. The good news is that microscopic colitis is considered a relatively benign condition, and most sufferers recover with treatment.

Technorati Tags: celiac, celiac disease, gluten allergy symptoms, wheat intolerance

The answer is diet. Early farmers replaced the hunter gatherer diet of meat, wild-growing vegetables, fruit and nuts with the agricultural diet of grains, legumes, and later, dairy. Unfortunately, while human culture can change on a dime, historically speaking, human physiology and genetics cannot. The beans, wheat, and dairy produced by farmers all contain chemical components that are difficult for the human digestive tract to process, causing irritation, chronic inflammation, and even allergic reactions in many individuals, which today is familiar to us as IBS, lactose intolerance, and wheat intolerance. In addition, grains are not nutrient dense foods– ever wondered why most bread and flour is “enriched”?– so the intake of several important vitamins and minerals was drastically reduced when people switched from hunting and gathering to sowing and reaping.
Today, there is a movement to improve individual health by returning to a diet that more closely resembles what our paleolithic ancestors ate. Called the Paleo or Primal Diet by various practitioners, it involves cutting out all grain, sugar, dairy, and legumes in a bid to heal the digestive tract and provide a rich variety of nutrients from meat, seafood, vegetables, nuts, and fruits to help the body rebuild itself.
I have been on this diet for about two months now, and I am convinced that, for me, this is the way forward to lifelong health after more than a decade of illness and misery. After starting this diet and stopping the birth control pill, I have completely eliminated all digestive discomfort and now consider myself symptom-free and “normal” after more than ten years of IBS.
If you would like to join me on this journey, here are a few resources to help you get started:

• The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Foods You Were Designed to Eat by Dr. Loren Cordain (This is the book I read when I started the diet.)
• Mark’s Daily Apple (The blog of Mark Sisson, author of The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram your genes for effortless weight loss, vibrant health, and boundless energy)
• Healthy Meal Plans (A blog with weekly meal plan suggestions for people following a Paleo or Primal Diet.)

I hope that everyone who tries this diet has the same level of success with it that I have had. I can honestly say that right now, I can’t imagine ever eating any other way again.

Technorati Tags: celiac, ibs, paleo diet, wheat intolerance

Two months ago, I realized that my scariest and most painful, debilitating digestive episodes, while they did not occur every month, always occurred on a multiple of twenty-eight days apart, plus or minus one day. We’re talking episodes that, on one memorable occasion, caused me to pass out on the bathroom floor from the pain in my gut. Episodes where, a couple of different times, I would totally have called for an ambulance (something I’ve never done in my life) if I could only have gotten to the phone… but I couldn’t, and I was alone in the house, and when it finally subsided some half hour or forty-five minutes later, I was okay again– for a given definition of “okay”.

Every twenty-eight, or fifty-six, or eighty-four days (plus or minus one day), this would happen. I only noticed the coincidence because it always hit me in the morning, and there were always three active birth control pills left in my monthly pack when I would eventually stumble out into the kitchen and try to drink and eat something. It probably wouldn’t have taken me years to make the connection if it had happened every month, but it didn’t. However, make the connection, I eventually did, and I went off the pill three days later, at the end of a pack.

Want to waste an hour or two online? Do a Google search for “birth control pill” IBS. The disheartening part is that the pages and pages of material that you’ll find are all anecdotal. Apparently, there’s no incentive for medical research into possible links between oral contraceptives and digestive disorders– and plenty of doctors out there who pooh-pooh women who come to them asking if their birth control might be making them sick.

Nonetheless, dig deeper and you’ll find plenty of information about the side effects of the pill that no one warned you about: massive dietary vitamin and mineral depletion, especially of vitamins B and C, magnesium and zinc. B-2, in particular, is vital for carbohydrate metabolism. Is this the cause of your wheat intolerance? What about your aching joints, depression, anemia, and lethargy? These are all symptoms of deficiencies in the vitamins and minerals blocked by the pill. Except for the joint problems (in my case, much of the joint damage already appears to be done), every one of these symptoms has eased dramatically in the thirty-one days since I stopped taking the birth control pill.

I am now starting the the paleolithic diet — which is totally free of all grains and dairy– in hopes of further improving my health, but my non-celiac wheat intolerance was markedly improved during the couple of weeks between stopping the pill and starting the new diet. So, does this article constitute medical advice for women with non-celiac, non-allergic wheat intolerance who also happen to be on the pill? Hardly. But it certainly is food for thought.

Technorati Tags: depression, ibs, outrage, wheat intolerance, wheat intolerance symptoms

Speaking as someone with multiple food allergies and sensitivities, I’m always inordinately touched when someone takes time to pay attention to my special dietary needs. A gift that helps with a person’s gluten-free diet is a thoughtful gift, indeed.

People with wheat intolerance symptoms who don’t have celiac disease may want to investigate some of the other tests used to obtain a diagnosis of IBS. These include tests for lactose intolerance, parasitic infections, and fructose malabsorption. The last test, in particular, may be of interest to those who can’t tolerate wheat. Because wheat contains high levels of fructan, it is often a problem for people with fructose malabsorption. However, fructose malabsorption cannot be effectively treated by simply removing wheat from the diet; there are other high-fructose and -fructan foods that also trigger symptoms.

So, if a person knows they can’t tolerate wheat, but also has symptoms after eating a variety of other foods, fructose malabsorption is a possibility that should be checked. If that test comes up negative, further testing may eventually result in a diagnosis of IBS. Unfortunately IBS, like fructose malabsorptin, cannot be cured, only managed. And that management includes avoiding foods which trigger symptoms… like wheat.

With that in mind, are you really any further ahead with a diagnosis than you would have been just cutting out any foods that bother you and cause symptoms? The answer is yes– probably. Because IBS involves eliminating curable and treatable conditions, you will know that there isn’t a simple solution to your digestive issues. How bad would you feel, for instance, finding out years later that all of your problems could have been permanently solved with a round of anti-parasitics?

This must be balanced against the medical costs involved in testing. It may not be practical for someone with poor– or no– medical insurance to pay for all the tests and office visits involved in an IBS diagnosis. In that case, if symptoms can be managed with control of the diet, even with no diagnosis, that’s certainly better than nothing.

Technorati Tags: celiac, ibs, wheat intolerance, wheat intolerance symptoms

One of the decisions you may wish to make is whether or not the entire family should go wheat and gluten free, this is a decision that is entirely up to each family and it is not necessary – although it might make things a little easier and less prone to mistakes. If you choose to NOT go completely gluten-free then making sure that items in the pantry and refrigerator are properly labeled, and this practice is adhered to, can make life much simpler than guessing all the time.

When it comes to talking about celiac disease and wheat intolerance with your kids, the best results I have seen are when parents start talking to them about their diet right away whether they are three years old or 13 years old. Don’t be afraid to use some of the bigger, or more medical terms and of course don’t make up any words either. The whole point of this is to give your child an understanding of the situation so that they can control their diet themselves instead of their diet controlling them.

Regardless of your child’s age they will obviously have been aware by now after being sick for an extended period of time, and seeing concern with you as their parents, in addition to multiple visits to the doctor that those times are behind them now and soon they are going to start feeling much better.

As your discussions progress with your kids, there’s going to be a steep learning curve for everyone. Most families don’t realize initially the implications of having someone with a dietary restriction and living wheat free. Usually these issues emerge over time and just need someone to take ownership of ongoing communication and reinforcement. The best advice I have ever heard when dealing with someone young in the family recently diagnosed with celiac disease or wheat intolerance is to always have an alternative and better tasting snack on hand.

While it’s extremely anecdotal and certainly doesn’t apply to all Red Lobster locations, I recently had a lovely eating experience at a Red Lobster in Missouri. After years of not going because of the limited selections available for someone who can’t have dairy or wheat (and, oh, how I miss those cheesy biscuits!), I found myself there with my dairy-allergic mother for an informal family affair. The waitress, whose sister has wheat allergy symptoms, took as good care of us as she would have done for her sister, and we had a delicious, enjoyable, and stress-free meal.

For these reasons, I’m going to recommend that readers patronize Red Lobster (with the caveat that any new restaurant should be approached cautiously), because any national chain who is at least trying to help its customers stay safe and healthy deserves all the encouragement we can give it.

Just don’t be tempted into indiscretion by the biscuits!

Now, a team in Argentina is working on a methodology which will largely eliminate the need for biopsies in celiac diagnosis. They hope to prove that a simple serology test (using a small blood sample from the patient) is sufficient in the vast majority of cases to provide a definitive diagnosis of celiac disease.

Want to read more about the proposed new testing procedures? Click here…