The Gluten Syndrome | Rodney Ford

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Gluten Syndrome

The Gluten Syndrome

Does your child have health or behaviour problems?

I am a consultant paediatrician and nutrition and allergy specialist. I have been managing people with food allergy reactions for over twenty-five years. I very commonly see exhausted parents, tired children and grumpy families. Why is this such a common problem?

These children are difficult, they are often run-down (catching everything that is going around) and may have a distended tummy. Parents blame their constant tiredness to being hassled by their children. These families are sick, tired and grumpy!

Are you “normal”?

I have been investigating these families for years and have now discovered that many of them are in fact intolerant to gluten – but they have no inkling of this. Lots of children (and adults) have chronic symptoms but think that they are “normal”. They experience symptoms and bad feelings every day of their lives – but this is “normal” for them. They do not recognise that they have a problem.

The secret is out

My data shows that the most common reason for these symptoms is an adverse reaction to gluten: this is called gluten-sensitivity, or the gluten syndrome. If you (or your child) have any ongoing health or behaviour problems, then you could be suffering from gluten-sensitivity. It affects about one-in-ten people. So you could be the one!

In susceptible people, gluten-sensitivity is caused by eating bread and pasta (and other wheat-based foods). The very first thing to do is get a blood test.

Gluten-sensitivity: you can’t tell if you don’t test.

I made a startling discovery. It happened like this. Many children came to see me because other doctors could not find what was wrong with them. Perplexed, I did a panel of blood tests on them all, especially looking for evidence of an immune reaction to gluten. What I found was that most of these children were reacting to gluten. Their parents were amazed at the beneficial response of taking gluten out of their diets.

Moreover, many of the parents also had blood tests, which also showed that they were gluten-sensitive: they also experienced “miraculous” results on going gluten-free.

Of course not everyone is reacting to gluten, but a huge number are. If you (or your child) are having ongoing health or mood problems – then you need to get a blood test. About one-in-ten people are suffering unnecessarily from eating bread! Your may be the one!

Conclusion

If you are feeling sick, tired and grumpy, then get a blood test for gluten sensitivity and celiac disease. Then try a gluten-free diet. You might be surprised.

Coeliac disease - could you have it?

Feeling tired or exhausted a lot of the time? Wanting more energy? Always seem to have low iron levels? Struggling with irritable bowel or gastric reflux? Get moody or irritable? Bothered by headaches and migraine?

You are not alone. These are the vague but taxing symptoms of coeliac disease: when your gut gets damaged and you feel unwell because of the unpleasant affects of gluten. Gluten is the substance (found in the grains of wheat, rye and barley) which causes one in a hundred people to be struck by coeliac disease. In addition, gluten makes many others unwell with gluten sensitivity.

So how can you find out if you might have coeliac disease? Well, the first step is to consider the possibility. Because your symptoms can come on slowly, over decades, this illness creeps up on you. So I recommend that anyone who has any chronic symptoms should get their blood tested for coeliac disease.

There are reliable blood tests to make the diagnosis. The tissue damage tests are called:

tTG (tissue transglutaminase)
EMA (endomesial antibodies) and
DGP (deamidated gliadin peptide).

The gluten-sensitivity test is the gliadin antibody. If you are feeling sick, tired or grumpy, then ask your doctor to get these tests done.

Look at Blood Tests for more information

Gluten in alcohol drinks

The gluten content of alcoholic drinks depends upon both the primary source of the beverage (wheat, grapes, hops, rye, barley, sugar, etc) and how much it has been distilled. Finally, the gluten content will also depend upon any additives.

The gluten-free alcohol list

Gluten-free alcohol includes those made from grapes and berries:

wine
champagne
brandy
rum
tequila
sherry
port

The MAYBE gluten-in-alcohol list

Many spirits and liquors are made from fermentation of grains: wheat, rye and barley. But the distillation process removes just about all of the gluten proteins. However, residual amounts of gluten will add to the flavour. So these sorts of drinks must be suspect.

Generally, there are insignificant amounts of gluten in distilled alcohols. However, those who are super-sensitive to gluten do report bad reactions to these grain-based spirits. So – if you experience a gluten-tummy or gluten-brain from a new drink, then be suspicious.

The gluten drinks - beer

Beer! Avoid beer! The basic ingredients of beer are water, barley malt, hops, and yeast. This is brewed with malt (from barley) which contains gluten. Beer is a liquid that is: yeast fermented, hop flavoured and malt sugared. The major variation in beer is the type of yeast used in the fermentation process. Unfortunately, gluten proteins do remain in the beer.

Gluten-free beer

There are some gluten-free beers now available. Look out for them.

Gluten headaches and migraine

Every one gets headaches

Billions of people complain of a sore head. Everyone at some stage suffers from headaches. It has been estimated that over a lifetime, only 1% of us escape headaches altogether. Over the course of a year, about 90% of the population will suffer from at least 1 headache.

For migraine, nearly 20% of the population will be troubled with a migraine headache sometime in their life. Gluten is an important factor in this. Gluten might be causing you a headache.

Migraine

Worldwide, over a billion people at some point will get a migraine. The World Health Organization estimates that there are almost 20 million migraine attacks happening every day.

Migraines will affect about 25% of women and 10% of men at sometime in their life.

Various types of food are implicated in triggering migraine is half of these attacks. And gluten is probably the number one offender. How can you find out?

If you have headaches or migraines, then you need to think about the possibilities of gluten being the problem. There are heaps of medical articles that clearly show gluten to be the number one enemy of chronic headaches.

Why do you get headaches with gluten?

Gluten can disturb the flow of blood to your brain. It is the constriction and dilatation of the brain blood vessels that give you the throbbing headache and migraine.
Gluten can cause a feeling of anxiety that leads to stress. Stress then leads to tension headaches.
Gluten can stimulate the pain senses that will give you a sore tummy, and a sore head.
Gluten can interfere with your nutrition, so that you get run down and more prone to headaches.
Gluten can give you a feeling of exhaustion, and this can lead to poor coping and headaches.

What should you do?

Go through the eClinic diagnosis advice process.
A simple blood test can help you find out if you are reacting to gluten (get the IgG-gliadin antibody test).
Try a gluten-free diet and see if this helps control your headache.

How soon will you get better?

Lots of people with gluten-sensitivity experience headaches. It can take many months (or even years) on a gluten-free diet before feeling fully better again. Damaged nerves take quite a long time to recover – the older you are, the longer it takes to get better.

Sick, tired and grumpy - most common symptoms

Many children with food allergy/ intolerance can be described as "Sick, tired and grumpy". They are often “run down” and feel lethargic. They often want to just sit around and watch the screen. They seem to have lost the spark of childhood.

Sometimes these children are thought to be “naughty”. They are grumpy and tend to have irritability and “behaviour problems”. This can be explained by them feeling unwell and they do not feel up to fitting in with your plans.

These symptoms are very common with gluten illness: celiac disease and gluten intolerance. It is best to get blood tests prior to trying gluten free.

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