Imagine waking up every morning with debilitating stomach pains, brain fog and anxiety. As you drag your own body through the motions of your day at school or work, stopping intermittently for healthy meals and snacks, you ask yourself, “Why do I feel this way?”
For 1 in every 133 people worldwide, the answer is gluten, as reported by Dr. Rodney Ford, M.D., in an article on Celiac.com. Gluten is the protein found in wheat, described as a “tough, viscid, nitrogenous substance remaining when the flour of wheat or other grain is washed to remove the starch.” When one is allergic to gluten, their body recognizes it as a “foreign invader,” like a virus. A mere decade ago, the number of people with gluten intolerance was only 1 in 2500. The dramatic increase in sufferers has everyone from traditional medical doctors to holistic nutritionists racking their brains for an answer. So what is the cause of this rise in gluten intolerance?
Many doctors and wellness reporters have stated that present day wheat is not the same as traditional wheat, in terms of the growing and processing procedures. In particular, researchers have been noticing a new amino acid strand that did not used to exist, according to the Weston A Price Foundation’s website. Amino acids are the molecules that make up proteins, and this new amino acid is under scrutiny by this Foundation’s health experts. The cause of this strand is thought to be the decrease in the quality of our soil, and it is believed that the amino acid is a prime cause of the increase in gluten allergies.
Most people are not diagnosed with gluten-allergy at birth, but rather, later on in their lives after suffering from chronic stomach problems. Sufferers often spend thousands of dollars trying to figure out the root of their problems, and they are too frequently misdiagnosed since gluten-intolerance can be mistaken for so many other diseases like Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis. For this reason, it is often more sensible for those with ongoing stomach problems to simply eliminate gluten from their diet and see if their stomach problems decrease and any depression or brain fog dissolves.
Celia Kim, a 22-year-old art student from New York City is a prime example of someone who was diagnosed with gluten intolerance via a nutritionist.
“I was not born with it. I’ve always had digestive problems and they kept getting worse as I was getting older. Earlier this year, it took months of trying different diets to determine what the problem was, which was gluten,” Kim said, “I’ve tried going to doctors but decided to try the nutritionist’s method instead, which involves diets instead of invasive biopsies.”
Kim spends her time studying Art History at Pratt Institute, going to art galleries and music festivals, and hanging out with friends in the Lower East Side. She appears to be happy and outgoing, and loves to dance. However, her gluten intolerance causes her a lot of unnecessary angst and depression, according to her.
Kim’s diet approach is more feasible, since a traditional diagnosis includes a traumatizing upper endoscopy in order to see the inside of the GI tract, when the doctor suspects gluten intolerance. This biopsy can cause bleeding, accidental puncture of the upper GI tract, and mal-reaction to sedatives, according to the National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse. With these life-threatening risks at hand, it is easy to see why one would opt for an elimination diet rather than a traditional biopsy, although a biopsy may be more acceptable in mainstream medicine.
Erin Higgins, an upbeat, brilliant artist and 19-year-old student from New City, New York, was diagnosed through similar, non-traditional means. Erin’s chiropractor suggested a detox diet, which lead her to believe that gluten could have been the problem.
“After [eating gluten] I would feel sick, I wouldn’t really want to do much and it would make me upset and scared to eat most of the time,” Higgins said.
Being afraid to eat is probably not something anyone wants to experience, yet 1 in 133 people worldwide have food anxiety due to the agony they will endure if they eat even the smallest amount of gluten.
“After accidentally ingesting gluten, I'm doubled over in stomach pain for days. I feel weak, fatigued and bloated,” Kim said.
In addition to physical affects, gluten has also been proven to have a slew of emotional effects on sufferers, particularly depression, according to Celiac.com and Dr. Petersen.
“After the digestive tract, the most commonly affected system to be affected by gluten is the nervous system. It is thought that depression can be caused by gluten in one of two ways…when inflammation happens in the brain and nervous system, a variety of symptoms can occur, including depression,” Dr. Vikki Petersen wrote in an article on Celiac.com
A study was also performed where 15 patients with untreated celiac disease were tested against 15 patients on a gluten-free diet, and the findings showed 73% of the untreated group to have abnormal brain circulation while a mere 7% of the gluten-free group showed dysfunctions. Abnormal brain circulation has to do with obstructed oxygen flow into and throughout the brain, hindering thought process and decision making skills, according to Medical Dictionary. Those patients with brain circulation issues were often experiencing anxiety and depression as well, according to Dr. Petersen.
“Gluten definitely affects me neurologically and emotionally, I start losing feeling in my hands and fingers, and I get extremely depressed after ingesting it; this can last up to days, even if it was a tiny amount,” Kim said.
“I think not being able to have any of the foods I want has affected me a little emotionally,” Danielle Nelson, a 19-year-old student said. Nelson was diagnosed traditionally by a gastroenterologist at Columbia Presbyterian.
A typical day of eating for Nelson is gluten free cereal for breakfast, a salad for lunch, one or two gluten free snacks throughout the day, and chicken and vegetables for dinner. She expressed her boredom with this diet, and although there are ways to eat more creatively on a gluten-free diet, it can be hard to get access to ingredients and recipes.
“There are days I go without eating as much as I should because I cannot have another salad,” Nelson said.
Although there are so many gluten-free options these days, it is harder to realize this when one does not live in a large city such as New York or Los Angeles. Nelson’s case shows us that some gluten-sufferers still do not realize just how many options they have. Access and knowledge are the greatest tools for allergy sufferers, and there is more information to match the increase in gluten-intolerance every day.
Kim lives in Brooklyn, New York, whereas Nelson lives in a suburb about 30 minutes North of the city. The difference in knowledge and access is clear.
“Some of the things I ate over the past few days include pasta made from corn/quinoa/amaranth flour, bread made from rice flour, eggs, tofu, veggies and fruit, gluten-free oatmeal, stir-fry’s and curries, and soup,” Kim said.
In comparison with Nelson’s gluten-free cereals and salads, Kim’s diet is much more complex.
Kim is eating a much larger variety of foods, possibly because she has more access to gluten-aware grocery stores such as Whole Foods, whereas the closest Whole Foods to Nelson’s hometown is about 30 minutes away. When one lives in a major city local restaurants are more likely to be conscious of growing allergies since the population is more dense and there is likely to be more variation in individuals’ dietary needs. To gain the same type of knowledge outside major cities, one would have to really connect to sources of gluten-free knowledge, such as the gluten-free network of blogs that has sprang up in the past few years.
Gluten affects sufferers’ outside lives as well as their personal lives, hindering them from fulfilling responsibilities.
“Gluten poisoning has prevented me from getting schoolwork done in a timely manner, I’ve had to leave work early, and cancel plans with friends…it’s more debilitating than people think,” Kim said.
“I remember while I was being diagnosed, there was one day that I literally could not get out of bed to go to work, my stomach pains were so bad,” Nelson said.
If 1 in 133 people have known gluten allergies, imagine how many people are walking around, feeling terrible with no known cause, or worse, a misdiagnosis? Individuals experiencing symptoms that could be linked to gluten are encouraged by traditional and holistic doctors to try an elimination diet where they exclude gluten from their diet and take note of any changes. The discomfort felt by those intolerant to gluten has been said to be completely lifted and alleviated by the elimination of gluten, conveyed by Kim, Nelson and Higgins when talking about their physical and emotional well-being after cutting gluten from their diets.
“The bottom line is that once you've come from the perspective of being bedridden, and sick and dizzy whenever a storm is passing through, to a normal life...there's no looking back,” Vickie, a female gluten-free blogger stated on her website.
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