Are You Suffering from Celiac Disease or Gluten Intolerance?

Have you had an upset stomach or felt bloated after eating wheat bread? If this happens quite often, then you might be suffering from a form of food allergy known as Celiac disease.

Those suffering from Celiac disease, also known as gluten intolerance, cannot digest gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye.

When someone with Celiac disease eats gluten, an autoimmune response is triggered, provoking the body to attack itself and destroy healthy tissues, especially the villi in the small intestine.

All nutrients are absorbed in the intestine through the villi, and if this delicate mechanism is damaged, it can cause all sorts of problems such as chronic diarrhea, gas, bloating, reflux and constipation.

More serious concerns include malabsorption of nutrients (leading to malnourishment) and the “leaky gut syndrome,” wherein undigested proteins and plant toxins called lectins enter the bloodstream to wreak havoc on the immune system.

Celiac disease can also manifest in ways having nothing to do with the digestive system. Other people experience fatigue, joint pain, mouth ulcers, bone pain, and abnormal menstruation and infertility in women. That is why many doctors tend to misdiagnose it or mistreat it. One study has shown that it takes an average of 11 years for patients to receive a correct diagnosis. (Read more about the symptoms of Celiac Disease at Mercola.com.)

A decade ago, it was believed that Celiac disease affected only one out of every 10,000 Americans. But a 2004 report estimated that as many as one in every 133 Americans have Celiac disease. That’s roughly 2 million people!

Celiac disease is believed to be inherited to some extent. The nature of a person’s gluten sensitivity may stem directly from the chemical nature of gluten, but is mostly due to a reaction that occurs in the immune system of individuals who have certain genes that recognize gluten as a foreign protein, and therefore, toxic.

Why Is Gluten Toxic for Some People?

Early men were hunter-gatherers and humans as a species only began consuming grains 6,000 years ago, when agriculture was discovered. It is believed that man’s shift from a hunting and gathering lifestyle allowed the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt to flourish. These two civilizations were among the first to cultivate grains.

The gluten-rich grains that we eat today are actually domesticated and are genetically hybridized versions of what originally were wild grasses. Wheat, barley, rye and oats are genetic derivatives of wild grass, which may explain why eating a wild plant may be toxic for certain people.

For Dr. Joseph Mercola, the prevalence of Celiac disease provides more evidence that modern humans have not evolved mechanisms to cope with foods that are rich in starch and sugars.

Dr. Mercola explains that a diet high in grains causes more serious problems than Celiac disease because 65 percent of Americans are overweight and 27 percent are clinically obese. Why? Because of an addiction to sesame seed buns for that hamburger, French fries and a Coke.

Mercola believes that it’s not the fat in the food that we eat but the excess carbohydrates from our grain-rich and sugar-loaded diets that is making people overweight and unhealthy, leading to epidemic levels of chronic illnesses such as diabetes.

Gluten intolerance can be treated very easily by eliminating gluten and most grains from your diet. If you’re suffering from Celiac disease or simply want to get healthy, then the No-Grain Diet will work wonders for you.

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