It's Not all in our heads

[fraidycat]

And we're not bandwagon jumpers or out to ruin Celiac's lives with our "undiagnosed" intolerance.

 

Thank you science!

 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160726123632.htm

[Guest]

Were people saying it was all in your head? I have hyperpermeable intestines and a still-unspecified but diagnosed autoimmune disorder that is in my intestines. A leaky gut with an immune root, in layman's terms, diagnosed by a board certified allergist/immunologist. People can absolutely have a sensitivity to wheat that isn't celiac. There are other constituent proteins in the wheat that can be inflammatory or allergenic, and you can even be allergic to gluten and NOT have celiac, depending on your specific reaction.

 

This is not exactly a secret, I'm annoyed that someone would imply it was. Plenty of people do finger gluten as toxic when many individuals tolerate it well and their dietary issues and are linked more to sugar metabolism and poor food choices than inflammation mediated by wheat and gluten. But those people don't somehow counteract the diagnoses of those who DO have symptoms from wheat consumption.

 

My allergies are triggered by a number of foods that are safe for most people. It doesn't mean it is safe for me. Why is wheat somehow exempt from that just because the specific immune issue at hand may not be celiac? It's like claiming there are no thyroid conditions besides Graves or Hashimotos because those are the most easily diagnosed immune mediated ones. Clear fallacy.

Edited August 3, 2016 by Arctic Mama

[Katy]

There are plenty of articles about "studies" out there that say that if you don't have celiac, it IS all in your head.

 

I'm allergic to wheat, don't have celiac, and I've had strangers try to argue with me that there was no need for me to eat gluten free if I didn't have celiac.  Well, yes there is, because anaphylaxis.  Start discussing tongue swelling and throat closing up and people back off their completely unreasonable theories. Grain products that aren't specifically packaged as GF are nearly always contaminated with wheat.  Yes, even the organic kind.

 

DH and I have followed these studies over the years.  Because of my need for GF, and the fact that I do 95% of the cooking, he typically eats GF.  But when he goes out to eat, it's a wheat bonanza!  Afterwards he always feels ill for a couple of days.  Not full on celiac symptoms typically, but sometimes vomiting, and always lethargy and malaise.   When he did the 23andMe testing, I wasn't that surprised to see he has a double copy of the celiac gene.  He might not have had the antibiotics or quantity of whole wheat that triggered the autoimmune response, but he should not eat wheat, ever.  He's one of the people who was raised on a completely processed diet, and for once I'm glad.  I'm certain if his mom had baked whole wheat bread from scratch every day the way mine did, his health would have been much worse.  Come to think of it, his mom DID bake whole wheat a lot when he was little, and he was sick all the time then.  When she got too busy to bake and they switched to store-bought white bread, his health improved dramatically.

 

Anyway, glad to hear there really is some science behind this, and it's not just a fad diet.  The more people eat gluten free, the more options we have to go out to eat.

[fraidycat]

Yes. Wheat/gluten was a hot topic for a while. Celiac people or parents would get "so annoyed" by people saying they can't have wheat/gluten but aren't as sensitive to it in regards to cross-contamination, so using the same kitchen tools for wheat or non-wheat items wasn't a big deal.

 

Those of us who can pick off the croutons or pick the bun off a burger were reviled because people with "real allergies" wouldn't be taken seriously. Jumping on the gluten-free bandwagon was some sort of evil plot to make life more miserable for people with real problems with gluten.

 

Thankfully, that line of thought seems to have died down, but the implication and direct attacks were, in the not so distant past, very real.

 

While I understand the very real frustration and fear with food sensitivities and allergies and trying to stay safe, I also feel vindicated now.

 

From the article:

 

"Our studies show that the symptoms reported by individuals with this condition are not imagined, as some people have suggested," said study co-author