Do you feel like your digestive symptoms hold you back from reaching your full potential?

I know I felt that way when I was really sick.

Whether I was in trouble with my boss because I was stuck in the bathroom with diarrhea AGAIN or watching my kids as they played outside while I was too weak and exhausted to join them, I knew… I was capable of so much more if I could just get well.

That’s how it was for my friend Amy, too. In fact, Amy and I have a LOT in common:

• We both worked in the fast-paced world of engineering
• We were both diagnosed with Celiac, after a lifetime of health problems
• We both got WORSE following a conventional gluten-free diet

We have one other thing in common too… we both took control of our health and started healing.

I’ll let Amy explain how our Solving Leaky Gut program is helping her overcome the lifetime of symptoms that have been holding her back.

[Enter Amy]

Up until about 1997, I think most people would have used one or all of the following adjectives to describe me: hard-working, overachiever, Type A, engineer, athlete, leader, extrovert.

But I suddenly found myself still trying to be all of those things, while silently battling chronic pain and fatigue, tingling skin, periodic numbness in my hands and feet, memory lapses, constant sickness, and a series of doctor visits and laboratory testing that all came back largely inconclusive.

There were days I could barely get out of bed and my family was afraid to hug me because they knew it hurt. It sure put a damper on the excitement of graduating from college and starting my life as an independent adult!

This cycle would continue for roughly ten years.

Looking back now, I recognize that I had lots of symptoms when I was growing up – hindsight really is 20/20.

I have vibrant memories of ongoing battles with:

• Strep throat from a very early age, only to be told as an adult “you’re a carrier and there’s nothing that can be done to change that”
• Doctors telling my parents I was mildly anemic and to load me up on iron-rich foods, like Cream of Wheat
• Menstrual cycles that were so irregular and heavy that I faced them with an abnormal and unhealthy dread
• My family always remarking that I went to the bathroom immediately after every meal because I was trying to get out of my chore of washing dishes (although it never actually got me out of doing the dishes – the dishes were always still waiting for me when I returned!)

I Maintained as Much Normalcy as I Could

At the height of my poor health status, I worked really hard to maintain as much normalcy as I could… complete with balancing a high-pressure engineering job and completing my Master’s degree concurrently.

I then decided that I should go back to graduate school full-time for my Ph.D. – why not?!

I simply could not allow myself to be “sick” – after all, I looked generally healthy on the outside. I was pushing myself to exhaustion (not that I had very far to go most days) just to make sure I was living my life as best I could and accomplishing the goals I’d set for myself in spite of the obstacles.

I still had no real answers as to what was causing my illness and it had evolved into a process of elimination. Much like peeling an onion, we were peeling back the layers and treating each symptom of the day:

• Hypothyroid
• Fibromyalgia
• Chronic fatigue
• Anemia
• GERD
• Depression
• And the list goes on

Because treating these conditions still wasn’t solving the problem, doctors started looking for some pretty serious underlying conditions:

• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Multiple sclerosis
• Cancer

I was about six years into this process by then – exhausted from having no substantial answers, being told (or at least suggested) that it was all in my head and, at my lowest point, entirely convinced that this mystery illness would kill me.

I was only about 27 or so at the time and routinely questioned whether I’d live to see 40.

The Vicious Cycle Continued…

By about 2007, the vicious cycle was continuing and I was managing my Ph.D. work, while seeing a whole new panel of doctors trying to figure out what was wrong and to manage the symptoms I had.

The day’s events are now burned into my brain – I’d gone out with friends the evening before and woken up in a terrible state… horribly bloated, in pain all over my body, and exhausted well beyond what would be considered normal after even a semi-late night. As I sat in the office, I said to my doctor “you know, I can’t imagine that all of this isn’t related to something I’m eating or something in my environment that no one has found yet.”

In that instant, his face lit up and he said he thought he knew what was wrong. More blood work was conducted, and it pointed to a few different food allergies as well as Celiac disease.

Celiac was confirmed by biopsy three days later.

Even though I shouldn’t have been surprised, I was shocked. Part of the shock was that no one had picked up on this along the way and I’ve spent some time trying to rationalize that, but most of the shock rested in finally having what my doctor felt confident was the underlying answer.

So, I Started on a Gluten-Free Diet

Although the concern that this was just “one more diagnosis” versus “THE diagnosis” rested firmly in the back of my mind, the changes were noteworthy within about six months of starting a gluten-free diet. (Those over-achieving personality traits drove me to learn and manage everything I could.)

I FINALLY had an answer and was back in control of my health ….until I wasn’t anymore.

Early in 2015, I finally admitted to myself that something wasn’t quite right. I felt like I was reacting to everything I put in my mouth. The fatigue had returned; my routine blood work was increasingly poor, especially with respect to vitamin absorption and cholesterol/triglycerides; and I started getting sick pretty frequently again. I always had a reason – I’d changed jobs, so it was easy to convince myself and others that it was related to the stress of my new job or the fact that I was traveling 30-50% of the time and had a lot more exposure to cross-contamination.

I went to see my gastroenterologist and I showed severe GERD and associated GI damage, so we treated it. For the next year, some of the symptoms eased while other symptoms did not, but at least it made it a bit more tolerable.

Finally, in early 2016, I had a lull in my travel schedule and was forced to admit to myself that something was really off.

By Now, My Blood Work Was Entirely Out-of-Whack…

And a scope/biopsy of my GI tract showed it to be in really poor condition. How could that be when I’d been nearly obsessive about my gluten-free diet and generally without symptom for the last nine years?!

My doctor referred me to a nutritionist on his staff and I was fortunate to immediately hit it off with her. Her holistic approach spoke to me and we started talking about how to identify the triggers. She already had her suspicions – corn and nightshades among them – based on previous and preliminary blood work and our general conversations.

Admittedly, I wanted to curl up and cry since corn is such a prevalent replacement for wheat in gluten-free diets.

She also wanted to put me back on natural dietary supplements rather than synthetic ones, because she believed I would absorb and metabolize them much better.

The messages I heard in that first meeting were scary, though – more to change, more to learn, and more to manage. I’m lucky that the tools I needed were right in her kit – she’d developed her own strategy for such scenarios over her years of practice, but had also seen a lot of success with Jordan and Steve’s Solving Leaky Gut protocols and immediately recommended I look into them if for no other reason than to educate myself and find a community of support.

My personal protocol has been a hybrid of the two strategies, but they overlap and complement pretty seamlessly. At the core of both is the process of removing the potential triggers, allowing the gut to heal, and then identifying the triggers for long-term removal. The logical and methodical approach certainly speaks to me.

There was no time like the present, and we kicked things off the last week of March 2016.

The Changes Were Impressive and Almost Immediate

During the first week, though, it became evident that my GI tract was so raw and damaged that I really wasn’t tolerating much at all by way of solid foods, so I lived on the SCD chicken soup and homemade apple/pear puree for roughly the first 30 days.

By that point, if someone had told me I had to live on only soup and applesauce for the rest of my life, but could guarantee that I’d feel fantastic every single day for the rest of my life, I’d have signed up immediately – I was that sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Simultaneously, we began addressing other symptoms, like constipation, that I didn’t even realize were an issue until we started talking about them in-depth. At the end of that first 30 days, I felt fantastic.

We then introduced more solid foods – primarily meats and cooked fruits/veggies.

Even now, over 90 days in, I can tolerate some and not others that should be “safe”… and I’m okay with that. As my nutritionist predicted, I’m not doing well with corn or nightshades, but even then it’s a lot of trial and error. I’m still not tolerating any raw veggies and only a handful of raw fruits.

There’s a long road ahead, but it’s already so worth it. Not only am I feeling like I’m on the upswing, but I’m seeing tangible evidence as well. My last scope/biopsy showed noteworthy improvement in the physical condition of my GI tract and my latest round of routine blood work showed the best vitamin absorption and cholesterol/triglyceride levels that I’ve seen in at least six years, including a sudden drop in triglycerides of over 100 points!

It’s a Tough Road and Definitely Not a Perfect Process

I certainly feel like I experience at least as many failures as successes, while I work on continued healing and reintroduction of foods. But the successes I do experience are so tangible that they keep me going.

What’s been hard for me at times is to focus on my own journey and not be overwhelmed. I often read the comments and questions on the Facebook page and think I’m completely missing the boat on things that others are picking up on – the nuances of supplements or other underlying conditions that should be addressed as part of this process.

It’s easy to find myself spiraling into thoughts of “How did they even know about that topic? Will I ever be healthy if I don’t immediately learn about all of those things?”

For me, the answer has been a resounding yes and the reality has been that I don’t have to do the fine-tuning all at once because I’m seeing success just in doing what I’m doing now. In fact, I don’t think it would be mentally healthy for me to even try to dig into those depths right now. Identifying those foods that send my autoimmune system into overdrive has been far more critical than tackling this complicated beast all at once.

I feel great compassion to those who continue to struggle because they haven’t had the luxury of seeing success simply from food elimination and dietary supplementation alone as I have! (More evidence that while we’re one community, we’re still very diverse individuals living within it.)

Today, I get to focus on my own journey, safe and confident that I’ve got this community standing by for support and information and equally confident that I’ll eventually be a member who gets to offer that same support and information to others.

-Amy C.

[Enter Jordan]

We’re so grateful to have Amy as part of our Solving Leaky Gut community and for sharing her story here today.

Sharing success stories is so important to me because they were pivotal in healing myself. I hope Amy’s story can inspire you like it has all of us on the SCD Lifestyle team.

If you’re feeling like Amy and I once felt – exhausted, overwhelmed, and hopeless – the first step to changing all that is attending a FREE webinar on how to Solve Leaky Gut here:

http://solvingleakygut.com/webinar/live-qva/

-Jordan

The post The Gluten-Free Diet Didn’t Help Amy with Her Celiac Disease, But Here’s What Did appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

I was ready to give up hope…

Years of diarrhea…

Chronic Fatigue…

Depression…

Anxiety…

Acne…

I was slowly dying…

And things just kept getting worse.

The doctors didn’t know what was wrong with me.

Until one appointment, when I finally convinced my Gastroenterologist to order an endoscopy. A few weeks after the procedure, I got a pamphlet in the mail from her called, “Living Gluten-Free,” with a hand-written note that said:

“Jordan, Tests showed you have Celiac disease. Follow a Gluten-Free Diet and you’ll be just fine.”

Ummm, what? What’s Celiac disease and what’s gluten?!? How could gluten be causing all these problems in my life? I’ll really be just fine if I change my diet?

I can’t help but wonder how many people around the world get the same prescription I did.

Some call it Gluten Free…

But I have a different nickname for it: The Celiac Disease Diet. Why? Because of a very important reason – a reason that almost killed me.

The Celiac Disease Diet Isn’t Working (and Is Making Celiacs Sicker)

It’s widely accepted that the first step in treating Celiac disease is removing gluten from the diet with 100% strictness. In fact, this is the treatment plan copied right from the National Library of Medicine and typical of most doctor-patient conversations after a diagnosis: ^[1]

Celiac disease cannot be cured. However, your symptoms will go away and the villi in the lining of the intestines will heal if you follow a lifelong gluten-free diet. Do not eat foods, beverages, and medications that contain wheat, barley, rye, and possibly oats.

You must read food and medication labels carefully to look for hidden sources of these grains and ingredients related to them. Because wheat and barley grains are common in the American diet, sticking with this diet is challenging. With education and planning, you will heal.

While removing gluten exposure is critical to the treatment of the disease… it isn’t THE only treatment. It’s just part of it. The danger lies in the promise that people with Celiac disease, who follow a strict gluten-free diet for life, will fully heal.

When I followed a strict Gluten-Free diet for 2 years, believing I would be “just fine” and STILL had diarrhea 5-10 times a day, I came face-to-face with insanity.

In fact, things got a little scary when I was absolutely convinced I was getting “gluten contamination” from everything (like the dishwasher, cooking pans, silverware, water, air, kissing, breathing, whatever). It reached the lowest point when I thought I couldn’t eat anywhere but my own kitchen without getting “glutened.” But the reality is: it wasn’t gluten contamination at all.

The Celiac Disease Diet wasn’t working for me…

It turns out I wasn’t alone.

The latest Celiac disease research is painting a scary picture…

The University of Chicago has one of the leading treatment and research centers for Celiac disease in the U.S., so my jaw dropped when they posted this:

“While healing may take up to 2 years for many older adults, new research shows that the small intestines of up to 60% of adults never completely heal, especially when adherence to the diet is less than optimal.” ^[2] 

60% odds are worse than flipping a coin…

It would be easy to read that and think, “So it’s the people that don’t follow a strict gluten-free diet that don’t heal.” But to be honest, I don’t think they said it as strongly as they should have. Here’s a recent study that paints a much darker picture of the Gluten-Free Diet’s success rate.

Only 8% of Adult Patients Healed on a Gluten-Free Diet…

A 2009 study, in The Journal of Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, looked at 465 Celiac disease patients and found only 8% of adult patients reached “histological normalization” after following a gluten-free diet for 16 months, meaning their gut tissue completely recovered to that of a healthy person. The authors stated:

“Complete normalization of duodenal lesions is exceptionally rare in adult coeliac patients despite adherence to GFD.” ^[3]

These people followed a strict gluten-free diet for 16 months and most didn’t heal their gut. The success rate of the conventional Celiac disease prescription isn’t working… and the research is exploding the truth.

Another 2010 study, in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, looked at 381 adults with biopsy-proven Celiac disease. The authors found small intestine mucosal recovery occurred in only 34% of participants following a gluten-free diet for 2 years. They concluded:

“Mucosal recovery was absent in a substantial portion of adults with CD after treatment with a GFD.” ^[4]

The Conventional Merck Manual definition for diagnosing Celiac disease provides that: “The diagnosis is confirmed by an initial microscopic examination of a biopsy specimen revealing flattened villi of the small intestine and by a subsequent improvement in the lining after the person stops eating foods containing gluten.”

These studies clearly show that when a Celiac stops eating foods containing gluten, the intestinal lining isn’t fully healing. But that’s only scratching the surface of what’s going on…

65% of Gluten-Free Celiacs Still Have a Raging Fire in Their Gut

The same 2009 study, in The Journal of Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, of 465 Celiac Disease patients 16 months gluten-free found that 65% still had “persistent intraepithelial lymphocytosis,” a.k.a. inflammation in the gut. ^[5]

Their intestines are on fire with inflammation even after 16 months gluten-free. Why is that important?

We know gut inflammation is associated with a laundry list of health issues, including cancer and early death. That’s bad news for the conventional Celiac prescription and even worse news for the people not getting better on a gluten-free diet. Want more evidence gluten-free doesn’t put the fire out?

A 2008 study, in the Journal of Inflammation, looked at 18 symptom-free Celiac disease (SFCD) patients and found they still had elevated markers of gut inflammation even after 2 years on a gluten-free diet. The authors reported:

“Faeces of both active CD and SFCD (symptom-free 1-2 years on a GFD) patients, representing an imbalanced microbiota, significantly increased TNF-alpha production and CD86 expression in PBMCs, while decreased IL-10 cytokine production and CD4 expression compared with control samples.” ^[6]

In another 2009 study, from the American Journal of Gastroenterology, researchers looked at small intestine biopsies from 45 children with Celiac disease and 18 clinical controls. The authors found an increased presence of T cells (inflammatory marker) in well-treated CD patients:

“The long-lasting presence of high frequencies of T cells in the epithelial compartment in well-treated CD indicates that the epithelium is stressed possibly because of constant attack.” ^[7]

Both of these studies looked at patients that are supposed to be “healed”… supposedly “well-treated.” Even though they appeared to be symptom-free, the medical tests paint a much different picture. These asymptomatic adults and kids still had inflammatory fires raging in their gut… promoting further disease development (like Cancer).

So far this research has only reviewed patients following a gluten-free diet for 1-2 years… but what about long-term? Does the body just need more time to heal and get back to normal?

56% Have Poor Vitamin Status After 10 Years Gluten-Free

A 2002 study, in the Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics Journal, looked at the vitamin status of 30 adults with Celiac disease showing “biopsy-proven remission,” after following a gluten-free diet for 8-12 years. They found that 56% had poor vitamin status, suggesting that proper nutrient uptake is not occurring. The authors concluded that:

“It is generally assumed that coeliac patients adhering to a strict gluten-free diet for years will consume a diet that is nutritionally adequate. This is supported by the demonstration of a normal bone mineral density up to 10 years of dietary treatment. Our results may indicate otherwise. We found signs indicative of a poor vitamin status in 56% of treated adult coeliac patients.” ^[8]

Even after following the conventional Celiac prescription for 10 years, 56% still showed signs of poor nutrient uptake – meaning their digestive system still isn’t working like it’s designed to.

That means after 10 years of being gluten-free, HALF of all Celiacs are likely starving for the critical nutrients required for health and longevity. It’s no wonder we have a 77X increased risk for lymphoma.^[9]

The Gluten-Free Diet Doesn’t Fix Leaky Gut

I’ve written about gliadin and how it initiates leaky gut by increasing the zonulin protein in people with Celiac disease. And later, about how fixing leaky gut is absolutely essential to reversing the damage from Celiac disease…

But the gluten-free diet doesn’t fix leaky gut…

As it turns out, when Celiac disease patients follow a strict gluten-free diet, their zonulin levels do fall (which is good). But research shows that they still have elevated levels of zonulin compared to non-Celiacs. And when the zonulin levels are still high… the Tight Junctions can’t restore normal function and the leaky gut remains.

Chris Masterjohn found the same thing reviewing a study by researcher Allessio Fasano, ^[10]

Remarkably, they found that Celiacs produce 30 times as much zonulin as non-Celiacs, even though the non-Celiacs were not eating gluten-free diets while the Celiacs had been off gluten for over two years!

Here’s a graph of their data:

This is remarkable because even though the point of the study was to show that gluten increases zonulin production, the controls were eating gluten yet had infinitesimal levels of zonulin production, while the Celiacs had not eaten gluten for at least two years yet still had very high levels of zonulin production. This suggests that something besides gluten may be causing zonulin production in Celiacs.

Chris also pointed out the same study looked at Leaky Gut in Celiac disease patients following a gluten-free diet for more than two years:

[NOTE: In the graph below, the smaller the bar, the leakier the gut is]

Here, they measured trans-epithelial electrical resistance (TEER) of intestinal tissue taken from gluten-free Celiacs and gluten-eating controls. TEER is an estimation of the leakiness of the gut, where a lower value indicates a greater level of leakiness or permeability. They found that tissues taken from controls who had been eating gluten had three-fold less leakiness compared to Celiacs who had been off gluten for over two years. This, again, suggests that something besides gluten may be contributing to leaky gut in people with Celiac disease.

So, in summary, Chris pointed out:

• Celiacs produce 30 times as much zonulin as non-Celiacs, even though the celiacs had been off gluten for over two years!
• Intestinal tissues taken from controls who had been eating gluten had three-fold less leakiness compared to Celiacs who had been off gluten for over two years (so Celiacs had a much leakier gut, even while eating gluten-free).

But the evidence doesn’t stop there…

A 2008 study, in the Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research, tested for leaky gut in 22 Celiac disease patients who were on a gluten-free diet for 1 year. They found these patients following a gluten-free diet still had a much leakier gut compared to healthy controls eating gluten (0.013 vs 0.003, P = 0.001). The authors concluded:

“This means that, at some time, complete recovery of intestinal villous may not have occurred and an inflammatory process may have persisted.” ^[11]

This is crazy! All this research shows that removing gluten alone doesn’t heal Celiac disease. In fact, the evidence suggests that in many cases, leaky gut and inflammation remain high for years on the conventional Celiac Disease Diet. This spells bad news for anyone with Celiac disease relying on removing gluten as the only treatment protocol…

It breaks down like this… high inflammation, poor vitamin status, and leaky gut persist on the Celiac Disease Diet, which leads to one thing: untreated Celiac disease…

And Untreated Celiac Disease Will Kill You… Fast

If you don’t completely heal from Celiac disease, you’re going to die much sooner than healthy people. In fact, one of the largest cohort studies on Celiac disease patients and mortality, published in the Journal of The American Medical Association, found that:

• Those with Celiac disease (villous atrophy) had a 2.80-fold increased risk of death the first year after diagnosis and a 39% increased risk of death over the study period

But the authors didn’t stop there… they also looked at people with intestinal inflammation. Remember the two studies on “well-treated” (asymptomatic) patients that still had inflammation? The authors found:

• Those with intestinal inflammation (and not villous atrophy) had a 4.66-fold increased risk of death the first year after diagnosis and a 72% increased risk of death over the study period ^[12]

A 72% increased risk of death! 

In other words, if you’re a symptom-free Celiac and your labs show signs of gut inflammation… you’re going to die much sooner than you think. 

That’s part of the reason I fought for my diagnosis, why I pressed my doctors to get the tests I wanted, and why I followed my Gluten-Free prescription with the strictest adherence.

Yet I still suffered from life threatening symptoms. So much so that I wrote my first will at the age of 24 because I didn’t think I’d live much longer unless they miraculously figured out what else was wrong with me.

Then, I got lucky and found a new doctor with new ideas about what it meant to treat Celiac disease – a new doctor that finally helped me stop my diarrhea for the first time in 6 years.

I’m one of the majority…

One of the 60% that didn’t get better from a Gluten-Free Diet alone…. I needed to do more to treat my Celiac disease.

How to Tell if The Celiac Disease Diet Isn’t Working for You

If you have Celiac disease and you’re following a conventional Gluten-Free Diet… but still experiencing any of these symptoms, the Celiac Disease Diet isn’t working for you either.

(Remember, only 50% of Celiac Disease symptoms actually occur in the digestive system.)

• Recurring bloating and cramping
• Chronic or recurrent diarrhea
• Constipation
• Nausea
• Liver and biliary tract disorders
• Weight loss
• Pale, foul-smelling stool
• Iron-deficiency anemia unresponsive to iron therapy
• Fatigue
• Arthralgia
• Tingling numbness in the legs
• Sores inside the mouth
• Skin rashes/acne
• Tooth discoloration or loss of enamel
• Unexplained infertility or recurrent miscarriage
• Osteopenia or osteoporosis
• Anxiety and/or Depression

Each of these symptoms can present themselves as part of Celiac disease and simply removing gluten can help. Many people even see a disappearance of random symptoms after they go gluten free.

However, if you have Celiac disease, and any of the these symptoms are still present… even after you’ve removed gluten, it’s likely the Celiac Disease Diet isn’t working for you. It might be providing some relief, but it’s not healing the underlying damage in your gut… which dramatically increases your risk for cancer and the other diseases I just mentioned.

That doesn’t mean all hope is lost either….

So, Should Celiacs Eat a Gluten-Free Diet?

Yes… gluten is still the kryptonite in Celiac disease, don’t ever eat it. Following a gluten-free diet is a requirement for treating this autoimmune condition… but you can’t stop there.

This evidence clearly shows that only following a traditional Celiac Disease Diet doesn’t fix leaky gut, gut inflammation, or a damaged gut lining. That means the gluten-free diet isn’t enough to treat Celiac disease patients and anyone using it as the only protocol is at risk for dying much sooner than they should…

Like I almost did.

The conventional Celiac prescription is incomplete and not working. There needs to be more. 

The real solution is fixing leaky gut. Reversing Leaky Gut is a critical step in reversing Celiac disease… and now you know that gluten-free doesn’t cut it.

That means we must fix leaky gut. That’s ground zero… where it all starts… and where medicine MUST look first when treating Celiac disease.

And as I’m writing this, I’m completely confident my Celiac Disease has been reversed because I healed my leaky gut… instead of just staying on the “Celiac Disease Diet.”

What does it mean when I say I believe I’ve reversed my Celiac disease?

I’m not saying someone with Celiac disease can eat gluten again, or that someone with a completely destroyed thyroid can get off medication.

My definition of reversing Celiac disease is this: turning off the immune attack against the body for good, and then repairing the damage it caused so you live a happy symptom-free life.

In some cases, you can’t repair the damage if it’s already gone too far. How long your body has been waging war on its own tissue will determine what “reverse” means to you. If RA goes too far, permanent joint damage can occur. In autoimmune thyroid diseases, the thyroid tissue may be beyond repair. But what if you could stop it before it even got to that point… or before it went too far?

If you or a loved one is struggling with Celiac disease, and the conventional treatment isn’t working, you know how crippling it can be. I know, because I’ve been there, too. 7 years ago, Celiac disease almost killed me.

But what if there was a way to turn off Celiac disease that ACTUALLY worked?

What if there was a way to calm down your immune system and allow it to begin to repair the damage?

Based on the work of Dr. Alessio Fasano, one of the first places to start is your gut… and we’re here to help you.

We’re hosting a free online presentation called, “How to Turn Off Your Autoimmunity — and Restore a Healthy Immune System.”

It’s completely free, and in it we dive deep into your gut health and how to begin to stop the immune system from attacking itself.

You could spend years trying to figure out how to “fix” your immune system and continue suffering on The Celiac Disease Diet… or you could register for this free one-hour webinar and we’ll show you how we did it.

As someone who suffered with Celiac disease for years and almost gave up hope, I know your struggle. I hope you join us for the webinar to learn more about how I turned off my autoimmune response and restored my health.

I’m so grateful to support you in health.

-Jordan

The post The Celiac Disease Diet: Why Gluten-Free Isn’t Working (and What to Do Instead) appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

When I was diagnosed with Celiac disease in 2007, I had no idea what gluten-free food was. I’d never heard of it before and I definitely didn’t know where to buy it.

But at the time, sales of gluten-free food were on the rise and had just reached $1.56 billion in 2008. (1)

In 2013, SPINS, a market research firm that covers the natural product industry, reported a total of $12.4 billion in gluten-free sales during the 52 weeks leading up to August 4, 2012. (2)

(That’s 13.4X growth in 5 years!)

The “gluten-free” food industry is making a TON of money, while conditions like Celiac disease and gluten sensitivity are trending on Twitter and gaining more awareness each year.

TIME labeled the gluten-free movement #2 on its top 10 list of food trends for 2012…

Not only that, Domino’s now serves gluten-free pizza…

Chelsea Clinton had a gluten-free wedding cake…

Gwyneth Paltrow included gluten-free recipes in her new cookbook, and Elisabeth Hasselbeck built her “G-Free Diet” brand…

The list goes on and on.

Today, even the smallest grocery stores across America are beginning to carry gluten-free foods in a “healthy living” section, right next to the green tea.

Gluten-Free foods are becoming ubiquitous and synonymous with living a healthy lifestyle… even for people without Celiac disease.  

But is gluten-free really healthy? Will it make Celiac disease and gluten intolerance a distant memory?

I’m here to tell you no… as Lucretius put in: “What is food to one man may be fierce poison to others.”

If you want to know whether or not Gluten Free food is helping or hurting you, read on…

The Problem: Gluten-Free Food ALONE Isn’t Helping Sick People

There’s no denying the fact that people with Celiac disease or gluten sensitivity should avoid all gluten. Most Doctors tell them they’ll be fine if they follow a strict gluten-free diet. But how effective is the gluten-free diet for the people that need it most?

New research suggests that the small intestines of up to 60% of adults never completely heal from Celiac disease despite following a gluten-free diet. (3)

In one study of 241 Celiac patients, small intestine mucosal recovery 2 years after following a gluten-free diet was 34% and 5 years later was only 66%. (4)

The authors stated:

“Mucosal recovery was absent in a substantial portion of adults with CD after treatment with a GFD.”

Another study, in 2009, published in The Journal of Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, of 465 Celiac patients after 16 months on a gluten-free diet found that:

“Complete normalization of duodenal lesions is exceptionally rare in adult coeliac patients despite adherence to GFD” (5)

So, in other words, many of these people followed a gluten-free diet for years and it didn’t fix their gut. It doesn’t stop there, though…

The same 2009 study, published in the JAPT, found that 65% still had “persistent intraepithelial lymphocytosis,” a.k.a. inflammation in the gut. (6)

Even after 16 months of eating gluten-free, they still had severe gut inflammation.

A 2008 study, in the Journal of Inflammation, looked at 18 symptom-free Celiac disease (SFCD) patients and found they still had elevated markers of gut inflammation even after 2 years on a gluten-free diet. The authors reported:

“Faeces of both active CD and SFCD (symptom-free 1-2 years on a GFD) patients, representing an imbalanced microbiota, significantly increased TNF-alpha production and CD86 expression in PBMCs, while decreased IL-10 cytokine production and CD4 expression compared with control samples.” (7)

Inflammation damages the intestinal lining in your gut and causes digestive problems. It can also damage the arteries in your heart and cause heart disease, and even damage your joints or cause rheumatoid arthritis. It also leads to just about every chronic disease we know of. So, it’s a pretty big deal that it’s not improving on a gluten-free diet.

What about people without Celiac disease or gluten sensitivity that go gluten-free to lose weight or get more energy?

Well, new research is beginning to suggest a gluten-free diet has harmful impacts to the good bacteria in our gut.

A 2010 study, published in Gut Microbes, revealed that “the changes in the microbiota found in healthy subjects following a GFD were to some extent similar as those detected previously in patients after compliance with a long-term GFD.”

The authors went on to say that:

“…analysis of fecal microbiota and dietary intake indicated that numbers of healthy gut bacteria decreased, while numbers of unhealthy bacteria increased parallel to reductions in the intake of polysaccharides after following the GFD… individuals under a GFD would be more susceptible to overgrowth of harmful bacteria and infections, which might be associated with unpleasant symptoms and increased health risks.” (8)

Not only does the research indicate that going gluten-free doesn’t fix the gut or cool inflammation, but that it alters your gut flora and allows bad bacteria to grow in your gut.

Recent scientific breakthroughs are showing that your gut flora has the ability to communicate directly to your brain, thus affecting your moods, feeding your immune system information on how to act, and helping to control inflammation. (9) (10) (11)

Isn’t this food supposed to be healthy? Isn’t gluten a severely inflammatory toxin we should remove from our diet? Yes…

The Ugly Truth: Most ‘Gluten-Free Food’ is Still Junk Food

Evidence is piling up that high inflammation, poor vitamin status, and leaky gut persist on a gluten-free diet, which leads to one thing: untreated Celiac disease…

But what could possibly be wrong with a gluten-free diet? Doesn’t gluten cause Celiac disease?

Yes, gluten causes Celiac disease and it must be eliminated to treat Celiac disease. In fact, research suggests that even an acute gluten exposure triggers a 70% increase in intestinal permeability (leaky gut) and spikes inflammation for as much as 6 months. (12)

But there’s a laundry list of other foods that drive inflammation and keep the gut leaky. Don’t get me wrong, gluten is the worst offender. But a Celiac’s gut is severely damaged and highly susceptible to poor food choices. If you don’t remove the “other dietary triggers” contributing to the disease, you’re going to end up sick and pissed off like I was. Going gluten-free isn’t enough… and here’s why.

Eating Processed “Gluten-Free Food” Is Usually Toxic

Mainstream literature on Celiac disease tells us that eating gluten-free is a healthy lifestyle choice and doctors regularly explain it as the only way to treat newly diagnosed Celiac disease patients. But the treatment plan is dripping in the same conventional wisdom that created the current Standard American Diet (SAD).

That’s the rub: the average gluten-free diet is built on the same foundation as the SAD… both are low-fat, highly processed diets made up of toxic foods.

The biggest problem with the Gluten-Free Diet is the reliance on processed foods that are low in nutrients and high on toxins.

The standard Gluten-Free Diet typically contains 4 specific food toxins that contribute to leaky gut, inflammation, and poor vitamin status:

• Cereal grains (like corn, rice, and oats)
• Soy (soy milk, soy protein, soy flour, etc.)
• Industrial seed oils (Canola oil, Rapeseed oil, safflower oil, and sunflower oil)
• Sugar (especially high-fructose corn syrup and table sugar)

Even though the worst offending food toxin, gluten, is removed – the Gluten-Free Diet relies heavily on the other four agents of modern disease to create a diet that “looks” very similar to the Standard American Diet. In fact, many types of gluten-free pasta and other packaged foods are loaded with higher concentrations of these 4 food toxins than their original counterparts.

Gluten-Free Cereal Grains Are Waging War on Your Gut

In “How Gluten Causes Celiac Disease,” I explained that the main reason we don’t eat wheat and other gluten-containing grains is that they contain a protein called gliadin, which is a prolamine that increases zonulin production causing leaky gut and inflammation.

And remember when I said that plants carry weapons of mass destruction?

It’s no joke… plants are concerned about their survival just like we are. They don’t want to die, which is why they have defense mechanisms to protect them, like toxic anti-nutrients and proteins that should deter any living being from eating them.

Most cereal grains contain a toxic protein called “prolamines,” which are knurly, tough proteins that humans can’t digest. The research is very clear: we aren’t equipped to “digest” or break down prolamines small enough to absorb any nutrients. (13)

Toxic prolamines give the plant a protection mechanism for their survival (since they can’t get up and run away). These proteins irritate the gut lining and sneak their way past the intestinal wall in humans and animals that eat them.

Gliadin is the prolamine in wheat, but other cereal grains common on the Gluten-Free Diet have similar proteins that also cause problems:

• Zein, the prolamine in corn, has been shown to be problematic for Celiacs (14)
• Avenin, the prolamine in oats, triggers a powerful inflammatory response in Celiacs (15)
• Orzenin, the prolamine in brown rice, can cause inflammation in the gut of children (16)

Prolamines are the big guns defending the plant from being eaten alive… but that’s not the only part of these cereal grains that cause problems. They contain another secret weapon just as powerful…

Plant Lectins in Gluten-Free Cereal Grains Are Toxic Too

If prolamines are weapons of mass destruction, then plant lectins are the plant’s special forces executing individual suicide missions against your gut lining. These toxic sugar-binding proteins don’t get digested either, and they bind to the cells on the gut wall (enterocytes) and prevent them from completing their normal healing processes (causing them to die). Not only that, but research shows they weasel their way past the intestinal wall and cause leaky gut… and trigger our old friend inflammation. (17)

These so-called “healthy, gluten-free grains” are waging war inside your gut because they don’t want you to eat them either… just like gluten. And so far we’ve talked about how these cereal grains promote leaky gut and inflammation…

But remember earlier when I made the point that a gluten-free diet leaves many Celiacs with inflammation, leaky gut, and nutrient deficiencies?

Phytates Steal Vitamins and Minerals Right Under Your Nose

Phytates are not for plant defense – they’re for self-fertilization of the plant. They’re specially designed to keep the plant supplied with the necessary vitamins and minerals it needs to stay alive.

When we eat them, they bind to metal ions inside us, so they can impair the bioavailability of critical minerals like calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc. (18) Not only that, but they inhibit the enzymes we need to properly digest foods and extract nutrients from them.

It’s a 1-2 punch; they tend to steal the minerals we need and then rob us of the ability to properly extract nutrients from the foods we eat.

A diet high in grains may also reduce the body’s ability to process vitamin D (19) and low vitamin D is associated with leaky gut. (20) (If you still think you need grains to be healthy, read this article.)

These toxic assaults all add up… and they begin to paint the picture that the Gluten-Free Diet doesn’t work. Even Quinoa, a frequent staple of the “healthy” gluten-free diet, contains large quantities of Saponins. Saponins are another plant defense chemical that severely damages the gut wall and causes leaky gut. (21)

Soy Disrupts Your Hormones and Your Thyroid

Soy is another food that gets coined as “healthy” in mainstream media. It’s found in many gluten-free foods and is even touted as an alternative to eating animals. The Soy Industry has spent a TON of time and money trying to convince us soy is healthy. The reality is: Soy is filled with toxins. Here are the 4 main problems with soy in regards to Celiac disease:

1. Soy screws up your hormones because of the presence of phytoestrogens. This is important because these phytoestrogens are linked to cancer growth and infertility problems. Your hormones need to be working correctly to recover from illness.
2. Soy messes up your thyroid. We already covered that if you have Celiac disease your chances are extremely high of getting other autoimmune conditions of the thyroid (like Grave’s disease). The same phytoestrogens messing with your hormones are also implicated in hypothyroidism and potentially thyroid cancer. (22)
3. Soy is high in phytates, which means it robs you of valuable minerals like calcium, magnesium, zinc, and iron. (23)
4. Soy increases the need for more vitamin D, which we already know contributes to leaky gut.

For a complete listing of the toxic effects of Soy, check out this PDF from the Weston A. Price Foundation. Just like grains, soy contains toxic chemicals that don’t support recovering from Celiac disease. Simply put, there’s much better quality food to put in your mouth.

Industrial Seed Oils Inflame Your Body

Consumption of industrial seed oils (corn, cottonseed, soybean, safflower, sunflower, etc.) has dramatically increased in the last century and the Gluten-Free Diet is no exception. Many processed foods off the shelf contain these seed oils that are high in omega-6 fatty acids. In fact, you might even think that some of these oils are “healthy.”

Here’s the thing: when Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids are in a balanced ratio, they don’t promote inflammation. But when Omega-6 fatty acid consumption increases without a corresponding increase in Omega-3 fatty acids, the ratio is out of balance and inflammation occurs. It’s common for a gluten-free diet to be high in omega-6 fatty acids from industrial seed oils and low in omega-3 fatty acids. That’s a recipe for an inflammatory cascade…

Our friend Chris Kresser has one of the most detailed explanations of this process in his 9 Steps to Perfect Health series (read it here for the full breakdown). But the short version goes like this:

“It’s likely that the increase in omega-6 consumption has played an equally significant role in the rise of nearly every inflammatory disease. Since it is now known that inflammation is involved in nearly all diseases, including obesity and metabolic syndrome, it’s hard to overstate the negative effects of too much omega-6 fat.” (24)

Bottom line: Industrial seed oils promote inflammation by dramatically affecting your ratio of n-6 to n-3 fatty acids.

Sugar Fuels the Fire Roaring in Your Body

Here’s 141 reasons why sugar ruins your health… but I want to focus on what it feeds.

Carbohydrates and Sugars are the primary food for the bacteria in our gut. Bacteria live on sugar – that’s normal. What isn’t normal is the type of bacteria found overgrowing in the gut of a Celiac patient. Normally there’s a balance between good and bad bacteria.

When the delicate gut flora balance gets upset, opportunistic or pathogenic bacteria can quickly take over and cause “Gut Dysbiosis” or small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). One reason Celiacs frequently have gut dysbiosis is a result of the damage to the villi of the small intestine. During the active stages of Celiac disease, the villi aren’t working properly and carbohydrate malabsportion can occur (meaning there’s suddenly a ton of extra food for the bacteria to feast on).

Here’s where the gluten-free diet fits into all this…

The most common sugar consumed in the standard gluten-free diet is sucrose (or table sugar). Sucrose is made up of one glucose molecule and one fructose molecule bonded together to create a disaccharide (2 sugar molecules). Sucrose gets broken down by the digestive process into monosaccharide molecules to be absorbed by the gut.

Here’s the catch: The main “splitter” for these chemical bonds is the micro-villi, which we just discussed are damaged and not able to do their job. This leaves us with a surplus of sugar molecules hanging around in the intestine feeding bad bacteria (Read this article for in-depth info on the different kinds of sugar).

In general, the standard Gluten-Free Diet is primarily made up of processed carbohydrates and processed sugars, which are mostly di- and polysaccharides that need to be “split” in the gut before they can be absorbed. Having a ton of undigested carbs and sugars hanging out in your gut creates the perfect recipe for digestive problems and SIBO…

SIBO Makes Your Gut Leak

In a previous article I wrote, I pointed to the latest research suggesting that we can’t reverse the damage from Celiac disease without reversing leaky gut. So far, I’ve shown you how toxic defense mechanisms in gluten-free cereal grains create leaky gut and inflammation.

Inflammation and leaky gut are also caused by toxins produced by bad bacteria…

Researchers have identified small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) as the only other stimulus powerful enough to trigger zonulin release and create leaky gut the same way gluten does. (25) In fact, they theorize that the body responds to SIBO by opening up the tight junctions as a defensive immune response intended to flush the bad bacteria from the body. (26)

SIBO is an overgrowth condition that drives leaky gut syndrome and the Gluten-Free Diet is the fuel to feed the overgrowth. In one study, researchers took small intestine biopsies from children with Celiac disease to understand the role bacteria played in the disease. Their results were frightening: they not only found SIBO, but they discovered these children had 42 different rod-shaped bacteria, 30 of which had never been found in the human small intestine before… 18 of which were completely unknown! (27)

Another study looked at adult Celiac patients that weren’t getting better on a gluten-free diet and found that “SIBO affects most Celiacs with persistence of GI symptoms after gluten withdrawal.” (28)

How can SIBO cause so much trouble?

Pathogenic bacteria produce toxic byproducts that get released in the gut and the bloodstream (like lipopolysaccharides – LPS). These toxins can severely damage the intestinal cell surface, triggering an inflammatory response as the body attempts to fight off the perceived bacterial threat and cause difficulty digesting and absorbing certain carbohydrates. They can also find their way into the bloodstream and wreak havoc on the liver. (29)

Not only that, but while they happily feed on undigested sugars and other carbohydrates that are supposed to feed you, they release gases like hydrogen and methane. The end result is gas, bloating, and diarrhea or constipation… and perpetually untreated Celiac disease.

The Inflammation-Leaky Gut Cycle

Bottom line: If you have Celiac disease, you have leaky gut and bad gut flora.

We’ve talked about how prolamines and lectins cause inflammation and leaky gut. We’ve talked about how SIBO causes inflammation and leaky gut… and all within the confines of a gluten-free diet.

When your gut flora is out of balance and your gut barrier is damaged, your gut is going to be inflamed. Inflammation triggers leaky gut and leaky gut triggers inflammation. (30) They all feed on one another in a vicious cycle that looks like this:

The only way to begin treating Celiac disease is to break this inflammation-leaky gut cycle… and the first step is to recognize that gluten-free isn’t enough. There’s a better way to eat that can begin to halt this process.

So, What Can We Eat to Feel Better?

The answer: Eat easy-to-digest, low-toxin, real foods – foods that don’’t feed bad bacteria or promote inflammation… but at the same time provide adequate nutrition and improve intestinal permeability.

In other words, the ideal Celiac disease diet:

• Doesn’t contain processed foods filled with added sugars, vegetable oils, additives, or dyes that damage health
• Eliminates disaccharides and polysaccharides to starve out overgrown bad bacteria (SIBO)
• Eliminates the most toxic food groups: cereal grains and soy
• Encourages consumption of low-toxin, whole foods in their natural state
• Encourages plenty of nutrient-dense animal products filled with protein and healthy fats
• Encourages plenty of good bugs (probiotics) through fermented foods or supplements

The Gluten-Free Diet doesn’t fit the bill…

The majority of marketed “healthy gluten free food” is STILL processed junk food.

Simply eliminating cereal grains that promote inflammation and leaky gut is a step in the right direction. But if you remove the other 3 toxic foods I mentioned above (soy, industrial seed oils, and sugar) you’ll be one step closer to recovery. At that point, you’ll be eating a whole food, non-processed diet – which is ideal for optimal health based on what we know.

Is that the same thing as a Paleo or Primal diet?

In our experience, a recovering Celiac does well to graduate to the full paleo/primal diet after focusing on healing the gut first. The recovery process starts by starving out the bad bacteria and helping the gut heal by removing normally healthy food that can be problematic. In general, the best results happened when foods are properly cooked and problematic foods are slowly introduced over time.

Before the discovery of gluten in 1952, Dr Sidney V. Haas proposed the theory of SIBO as the cause of Celiac disease in his book The Management of Celiac Disease because he saw a benefit in treating Celiacs with The Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD).

The SCD diet is a form of low-carb paleo/primal that removes common irritants that are problematic in the Gluten-Free Diet, but it also limits the availability of carbohydrates as a food source for bad bacteria and starves them out over time. As the small intestine improves, Celiacs can begin to properly absorb nutrients again. The volume of sugars that are allowed to ferment in the digestive tract becomes less and the symptoms of bloating, gas, and diarrhea start to go away.

Create a Custom Diet to Heal Your Body

Lastly, the SCD framework starts out with simple foods that are easy to digest. Over time, you end up creating a custom diet that expands with more foods while you heal… eventually allowing foods that might not have been well tolerated earlier (like nightshades, eggs, nuts, or fermented dairy).

The bottom line: SCD was the only thing that finally stopped my Celiac disease symptoms and started to reverse the damage to my body before I could even tolerate a paleo/primal diet. If you’re ready to take control of your Celiac disease, I highly recommend you try SCD for 30 days to see how you feel.

Steve and I wrote our book to make it easy for you to create your custom diet. You can get it here:

–> http://scdlifestylebook.com/

I’m so grateful to support your health,

– Jordan

P.S. – Please share this with friends and family dealing with Celiac disease or gluten intolerance. Thank you.

The post The TRUTH About Gluten-Free Food — Does it Help or Hurt Gut Health? appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

When I was diagnosed with Celiac disease in 2007, I had no idea what gluten-free food was. I’d never heard of it before and I definitely didn’t know where to buy it.

But at the time, sales of gluten-free food were on the rise and had just reached $926 Million.

Fast forward to 2013, where SPINS, a market research firm that covers the natural product industry, reported a total of $12.4 billion in gluten-free sales during the 52 weeks leading up to August 4, 2012. (2)

(That’s 13.4X growth in 5 years!)

The “gluten-free” food industry is making a TON of money, while conditions like Celiac disease and gluten sensitivity are trending on Twitter and gaining more awareness each year.

TIME labeled the gluten-free movement #2 on its top 10 list of food trends for 2012…

Not only that, Domino’s now serves gluten-free pizza…

Chelsea Clinton had a gluten-free wedding cake…

Gwyneth Paltrow included gluten-free recipes in her new cookbook, and Elisabeth Hasselbeck built her “G-Free Diet” brand…

The list goes on and on.

Gluten-Free Food Isn’t Just for Health Food Stores Anymore

With the popularity soaring, the total number of innovations with gluten-free claims jumped from roughly 600 in 2007 to more than 1,600 in 2011. (3 PDF)

The FDA recently issued an official ruling to standardize what “gluten-free” labeling means in the United States, solidifying the term:

“…in order to use the term “gluten-free” on its label, a food must meet all of the requirements of the definition, including that the food must contain less than 20 parts per million of gluten. The rule also requires foods with the claims “no gluten,” “free of gluten,” and “without gluten” to meet the definition for “gluten-free.” (4)

Now, stores like Target and Walmart are carrying these “gluten-free” foods and capitalizing on the growing FAD. SPINS reports one survey indicated the majority of the gluten-free consumers even shopped there for food (see image below). (5 PDF)

They line the shelves with gluten-free cereal, bars, pasta, cookies, chips, sauce, bread, and pizza.

In fact, SPINS also reports the leading sales come from gluten-free chips, cereal, bread, and entrées (see image below). (6 PDF)

There’s no doubt the gluten-free industry is growing incredibly fast, reaching the $12 Billion level with continued growth projected into the future. It’s a far cry from that small section of my grocery store in 2007. On the surface, it seems like a good thing…

Especially because “gluten-free” is commonly touted as “healthy” and “good for you.”

But are gluten-free chips, cereal, bread, and entrées really that healthy?

Here’s the Rub: Gluten-Free Food Isn’t Helping Sick People

There’s no denying the fact that people with Celiac Disease or Gluten Sensitivity should avoid all gluten. Most Doctors tell them they’ll be fine if they follow a strict gluten-free diet. But how effective is the gluten-free diet for the people that need it most?

New research suggests that the small intestines of up to 60% of adults never completely heal from Celiac disease despite following a gluten-free diet. (7)

In one study of 241 Celiac patients, small intestine mucosal recovery 2 years after following a gluten-free diet was 34% and 5 years later was only 66%. (8)

The authors stated:

“Mucosal recovery was absent in a substantial portion of adults with CD after treatment with a GFD.”

Another study in 2009, published in The Journal of Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, of 465 Celiac patients after 16 months on a gluten-free diet found that:

“Complete normalization of duodenal lesions is exceptionally rare in adult coeliac patients despite adherence to GFD” (9)

So in other words, many of these people followed a gluten-free diet for years and it didn’t fix their gut. It doesn’t stop there, though…

The same 2009 study, published in the JAPT, found that 65% still had “persistent intraepithelial lymphocytosis,” a.k.a. inflammation in the gut. (10)

Even after 16 months eating gluten-free, they still had severe gut inflammation.

A 2008 study, in the Journal of Inflammation, looked at 18 symptom-free Celiac disease (SFCD) patients and found they still had elevated markers of gut inflammation even after 2 years on a gluten-free diet. The authors reported:

“Faeces of both active CD and SFCD (symptom-free 1-2 years on a GFD) patients, representing an imbalanced microbiota, significantly increased TNF-alpha production and CD86 expression in PBMCs, while decreased IL-10 cytokine production and CD4 expression compared with control samples.” (11)

Inflammation damages the intestinal lining in your gut and causes digestive problems, it can also damage the arteries in your heart and cause heart disease, and even damage your joints or cause rheumatoid arthritis. It also leads to just about every chronic disease we know of. So, it’s a pretty big deal that it’s not improving on a gluten-free diet.

What about people without Celiac Disease or Gluten Sensitivity that go gluten-free to lose weight or get more energy? 

Well, new research is beginning to suggest a gluten-free diet has harmful impacts to the good bacteria in our gut.

A 2010 study, published in Gut Microbes, revealed that “the changes in the microbiota found in healthy subjects following a GFD were to some extent similar as those detected previously in patients after compliance with a long-term GFD.”

The authors went on to say that:

“…analysis of fecal microbiota and dietary intake indicated that numbers of healthy gut bacteria decreased, while numbers of unhealthy bacteria increased parallel to reductions in the intake of polysaccharides after following the GFD… individuals under a GFD would be more susceptible to overgrowth of harmful bacteria and infections, which might be associated with unpleasant symptoms and increased health risks.” (12)

Not only does the research indicate that going gluten-free doesn’t fix the gut or cool inflammation, but that it alters your gut flora and allows bad bacteria to grow in your gut.

Recent scientific breakthroughs are showing that your gut flora has the ability to communicate directly to your brain, thus affecting your moods, feeding your immune system information on how to act, and helping to control inflammation. (13) (14) (15)

Isn’t this food supposed to be healthy? Isn’t gluten a severely inflammatory toxin we should remove from our diet? Yes…

But Most Gluten-Free Food is Still Junk Food

The growing gluten-free health fad is dangerous because it’s sold as “healthy”… but the truth is most gluten-free food is still highly toxic, processed crap (even without the gluten).

Gluten is a HUGE problem for many people, don’t get me wrong… but simply switching to a gluten-free diet isn’t enough.

Most people are sold the idea that it will help them feel better, yet the research shows it’s not working as advertised. In most cases, people continue to eat the same types of food they were accustomed to eating on the Standard American Diet by simply swapping out the gluten for even more processed junk food (i.e. see my previous chart above indicating most people buy gluten-free chips, cereal, bread, and entrées ).

The problem is most gluten-free foods still contain many toxic and inflammatory ingredients that make you sicker. To sum it all up, there’s a huge difference between healthy and un-healthy gluten-free foods out there.

And to be frank: most gluten-free food isn’t “real food” at all. It’s junk food with healthy clothes on.

It takes more than just removing gluten to turn off autoimmune disease…

What if there was a way to calm down your immune system and allow it to begin to repair the damage?

One that went way behind removing gluten.

Based on the work of Dr. Alessio Fasano, one of the first places to start is leaky gut… and we’re here to help you.

We’re hosting a free online presentation called, “How to Turn Off Your Autoimmunity — and Restore a Healthy Immune System.”

It’s completely free, and in it we dive deep into your gut health and how to begin to stop the immune system from attacking itself. We talk specifically about what you need to be eating (beyond gluten free) as well as the steps I used to heal my gut and turn off my Celiac Disease when going gluten free wasn’t cutting it.

You can register for your seat here: https://healthygut.com/autoimmune-webinar/

You could spend years trying to figure out how to “fix” your immune system on a gluten free diet… or you could register for this free one-hour webinar and we’ll show you how we did it.

If you can’t attend live, we will send you the recording, but you must click here to register to make sure you get the link the next morning.

As someone who suffered with autoimmune disease for years and almost gave up hope, I know your struggle. I hope you join us for the webinar to learn more about how I turned off my autoimmune response and restored my health.

I’m so grateful to support you in health.

-Jordan

P.S. – You can register for our autoimmune presentation here (it’s completely free to attend): https://healthygut.com/autoimmune-webinar/

The post Is the Gluten-Free Fad Dangerous? appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

As we discussed in my previous article in this series, the foundation of an effective Celiac Disease treatment plan starts with a real food diet that goes beyond gluten-free junk food.

Reversing Celiac Disease is a three-headed monster. We’re up against inflammation, leaky gut, and Gut Dysbiosis. To be brutally honest with you: slaying a three-headed monster takes everything we’ve got.

And supplements are a critical part of “everything we’ve got.”

A word of caution… to supplement literally means, “something added to complete a thing, supply a deficiency, or reinforce or extend a whole.”

Supplements are a “supplement” for a reason. They support the whole of a treatment plan. They plug holes and deficiencies to reinforce what we’re already doing.

So, if you’re reading this and treating Celiac Disease with a gluten-free diet, the truth is supplements aren’t going to help much until you take your treatment plan seriously and stop eating processed foods.

If you’ve got diet handled and you’re ready to take your health to the next level, I’m going to share why everyone with Celiac Disease should take vitamin D.

Vitamin D is Kind of a Big Deal…

Most vitamins in our body come from outside sources like food, but vitamin D is different. We humans make it ourselves. What’s even more interesting is that it’s not really a vitamin, it’s a secosteroid, a hormonal precursor similar to steroids like cortisol, testosterone, and cholesterol.

When UVB light from the sun hits our skin and interfaces with a form of cholesterol called 7-dehydrocholesterol, vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) is born. But it still has to go through the liver and kidneys to become the activated form of vitamin D we can use, called calcitriol.

Once in the activated form, it can bind to docking stations located in just about every tissue in the body called vitamin D receptors (VDR). In fact, VDR’s are located in the brain, heart, skin, gonads, prostate, breast, and there’s even VDR activation in the intestine, bone, kidney, and parathyroid gland cells.

Why is that important?

It means vitamin D is involved in brain function, cardiovascular health, immune support, bone and joint health, and just about every process critical to keeping us alive.

It’s also considered essential due to a few of these more specific roles:

• Promoting the mineralization and growth of bones
• Activating killer T-cells for defense against infections and bacteria
• Reducing chronic inflammation
• Modulating the expression of genes that regulate cell proliferation, apoptosis, and differentiation, (suggesting a potential connection to cancer when deficient)

But vitamin D is even more important for people with Celiac Disease…

As it turns out, vitamin D deficiency is common in Celiac Disease[1] and occurs in both autoimmune conditions and IBD. [2]

It’s even more important if you’ve been prescribed corticosteroids like Prednisone. Research shows they can interfere with your body’s utilization of vitamin D, contributing to bone loss and osteoporosis. [3] [4]

Here’s why that’s a problem: vitamin D deficiency feeds two heads of the Celiac Disease monster, leaky gut and inflammation. Let’s start by looking at how vitamin D impacts a leaky gut.

Vitamin D Can Stop Your Intestines From Leaking

Research is beginning to show that vitamin D Deficiency leads to a comprised mucosal barrier[5] and we know that reversing leaky gut is critical to reversing Celiac Disease.

What does vitamin D have to do with leaky gut?

The tight junctions in your small intestine contain an adhesion junction around them that helps regulate what gets in and what stays out. Dr. Tom O’Bryan describes it like a “rubber band” wrapped around the tight junctions that can get too stretched out and lose its elasticity (ability to snap back in place).

Vitamin D plays a critical role in the elasticity of those rubber bands and how well they keep the tight junctions operating normally. [6]

So if you’re deficient in vitamin D, the elastic band holding your tight junctions together doesn’t work properly… allowing foreign material to leak into your body and promoting inflammation.

Vitamin D Helps Put the Fire Out

Vitamin D plays a critical role in modulating the immune system and downregulating inflammation when the fire burning inside gets too hot. [7]

Vitamin D can even inhibit the development of autoimmune diseases like IBD, RA, and MS[8] by down-regulating NF-B activity, increasing IL-10 production and decreasing IL-6, IL-12, IFN- and TNF- production… creating a well tuned immune system that’s much less inflammatory.

The immune system relies heavily on vitamin D to calm it down by regulating T cells and cytokines. When you’re deficient, inflammation rages inside you like an out of control freight train.

The bottom line is: vitamin D deficiency in Celiacs could be making leaky gut and inflammation worse… that’s why I believe it’s the number one supplement for everyone with Celiac Disease.

How to Supplement With Vitamin D

1.  Get tested

The first step to supplementing with vitamin D is to see if you actually need it. Start by ordering a vitamin D, 25 Hydroxy blood test to check your serum levels. It’s a common test that most doctors can order, or you can order it yourself here.

What levels are recommended?

Mark Sisson recommends serum levels between 50-60 ng/mL.

Chris Kresser recommends serum levels between 35-50 ng/mL.

The Vitamin D Council recommends serum levels between 40-80 ng/mL.

If you’re low, it’s time to get some vitamin D in your life.

2.  Get outside

The most natural way to get vitamin D is from the sun – so after you’re done reading this, get outside and get some vitamin D the natural, fun way.

Depending on many factors, like where you live, about 20-30 minutes of afternoon sun with your shirt off will produce 10,000 IU’s (this vitamin D Council article lists all the confounding factors). Or you can use this fancy calculator from the Norwegian institute for Air Research to estimate how many IU’s you’ll get from playing outdoors.

If getting outside isn’t ideal for your lifestyle or testing shows an acute deficiency, supplementing with vitamin D3 is probably your best option.

3.  Get supplementing with vitamin D3

The amount of vitamin D each person needs is very individual. It depends on how long you’re exposed to the sun each day, the time of year, and how well you’re absorbing nutrients from food.

One study found severe cases of Celiac Disease with acute vitamin D deficiency should supplement with 50,000 IUs 1-3 times a week until their gut health improved and proper vitamin D levels were restored. [9]

Mark Sisson recommends 4,000 IUs daily to maintain serum levels between 50-60 ng/mL.

Chris Kresser recommends between 2,000 – 5,000 IUs daily to maintain serum levels between 35-50 ng/mL.

The Vitamin D counsel recommends a minimum of 1,000 IU per 25 pounds of body weight, and adults and adolescents take at least 5,000 IUs a day in the absence of sun exposure.

No matter how much you decide to supplement with, it’s important to keep getting your serum blood levels tested regularly to fine tune the amount you’re taking. It will change based on the time of year, what you’re eating, stress level, how well you’re absorbing nutrients, etc.

What form of vitamin D is the best to take?

Research shows supplementing with vitamin D in the form of D2 is bioequivalent to D3 in maintaining 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels over a 6 week period. [10] However, vitamin D3 is the natural precursor that we produce in our skin, and it’s the form the Vitamin D Council recommends for supplementation.

That said, we both trust Life Extension’s D3 or NOW Foods Vitamin D3. If someone you know has Celiac Disease, please share this information with them to help prevent vitamin D deficiency. It could change the outcome of their treatment plan.

Do you test and track your vitamin D levels? Tell me about your experience supplementing.

– Jordan

____________________________

Citations:

1.  Vitamin D deficiency is common in celiac disease, but the actual prevalence of osteomalacia in celiac disease is unknown (level B evidence).

http://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(02)15984-1/fulltext

2.  Vitamin deficiencies in general and vitamin D deficiency in particular have been shown to occur among patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)

http://www.ajcn.org/content/80/6/1717S.long

3.  Osteoporosis is common in patients requiring long-term treatment with glucocorticoids. Careful attention to preventive management may minimize the severity of this serious complication.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2407167?dopt=Abstract

4.  Calcium and vitamin D3 prevented loss of bone mineral density in the lumbar spine and trochanter in patients with rheumatoid arthritis who were treated with low-dose corticosteroids.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8967706?dopt=Abstract

5.  Therefore, vitamin D deficiency may compromise the mucosal barrier, leading to increased susceptibility to mucosal damage and increased risk of IBD.

http://ajpgi.physiology.org/content/294/1/G208.full.pdf

6.  1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D3 [1,25(OH)2D3] markedly enhanced tight junctions formed by Caco-2 monolayers by increasing junction protein expression and TER and preserved the structural integrity of tight junctions in the presence of DSS

http://ajpgi.physiology.org/content/294/1/G208.full.pdf

7. Vitamin D also down-regulates nuclear factor-B (NF-B) activity, increases IL-10 production and decreases IL-6, IL-12, IFN-, and TNF- production, leading to a cytokine profile which favors less inflammation

http://www.nature.com/ki/journal/v68/n5/full/4496342a.html

8. D-hormone [1,25(OH)2 D3] is an important immune system regulator that has been shown to inhibit development of autoimmune diseases including experimental inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), multiple sclerosis (MS), and type 1 diabetes.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16142846

9.  In patients with intestinal malabsorption, very large doses of vitamin D (i.e., 50,000 U 1–3 times weekly) may be needed in the early stages of a gluten-free diet until the malabsorptive process has resolved.

http://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(02)15984-1/fulltext

10.  A 1000 IU dose of vitamin D2 daily was as effective as 1000 IU vitamin D3 in maintaining serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and did not negatively influence serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 levels. Therefore, vitamin D2 is equally as effective as vitamin D3 in maintaining 25-hydroxyvitamin D status.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18089691

The post Why Everyone with Celiac Disease Desperately Needs Vitamin D appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

“What is food to one man may be fierce poison to others.”—Lucretius

Today, even the smallest grocery stores across America are beginning to carry gluten-free foods in a “healthy living” section, right next to the green tea.

Gluten-Free foods are becoming ubiquitous and synonymous with living a healthy lifestyle… even for people without Celiac Disease.

But is gluten-free really healthy? Will it make Celiac Disease a distant memory?

I’m here to tell you no… and there’s a lot to talk about.

The Gluten-Free Diet is the Wrong Prescription for Celiac Disease

In the last part of this series, I showed you that the Gluten-Free Diet isn’t enough to treat Celiac Disease patients and anyone using it as their only treatment protocol is at risk for dying much sooner than they should.

Evidence is piling up that high inflammation, poor vitamin status, and leaky gut persist on a gluten-free diet, which leads to one thing: untreated Celiac Disease…

But what could possibly be wrong with a gluten-free diet?  Doesn’t gluten cause Celiac Disease?

Yes, gluten causes Celiac Disease and it must be eliminated to treat Celiac Disease. In fact, research suggests that even an acute gluten exposure triggers a 70% increase in intestinal permeability (leaky gut) and spikes inflammation for as much as 6 months.^[1]

But there’s a laundry list of other foods that drive inflammation and keep the gut leaky. Don’t get me wrong, gluten is the worst offender. But a Celiac’s gut is severely damaged and highly susceptible to poor food choices. If you don’t remove the “other dietary triggers” contributing to the disease, you’re going to end up sick and pissed off like I was. Going gluten-free isn’t enough… and here’s why.

Eating Gluten-Free is Usually Toxic

Mainstream literature on Celiac Disease tells us that eating gluten-free is a healthy lifestyle choice and doctors regularly explain it as the only way to treat newly diagnosed Celiac Disease patients. But the treatment plan is dripping in the same conventional wisdom that created the current Standard American Diet (SAD).

That’s the rub: the average gluten-free diet is built on the same foundation as the SAD… both are low-fat, highly processed diets made up of toxic foods.

The biggest problem with the Gluten-Free Diet is the reliance on processed foods that are low in nutrients and high on toxins.

The standard Gluten-Free Diet typically contains 4 specific food toxins that contribute to leaky gut, inflammation, and poor vitamin status:

• Cereal grains (like corn, rice, and oats)
• Soy (soy milk, soy protein, soy flour, etc.)
• Industrial seed oils (Canola oil, Rapeseed oil, safflower oil, and sunflower oil)
• Sugar (especially high-fructose corn syrup and table sugar)

Even though the worst offending food toxin, gluten, is removed – the Gluten-Free Diet relies heavily on the other four agents of modern disease to create a diet that “looks” very similar to the Standard American Diet. In fact, many types of gluten-free pasta and other packaged foods are loaded with higher concentrations of these 4 food toxins than their original counterparts.

Gluten-free Cereal Grains Are Waging War on Your Gut

In “How Gluten Causes Celiac Disease,” I explained that the main reason we don’t eat wheat and other gluten-containing grains is that they contain a protein called gliadin, which is a prolamine that increases zonulin production causing leaky gut and inflammation.

And remember when I said that plants carry weapons of mass destruction?

It’s no joke… plants are concerned about their survival just like we are. They don’t want to die, which is why they have defense mechanisms to protect them, like toxic antinutrients and proteins that should deter any living being from eating them.

Most cereal grains contain a toxic protein called “prolamines,” which are knurly, tough proteins that humans can’t digest. The research is very clear: we aren’t equipped to “digest” or break down prolamines small enough to absorb any nutrients.^[2]

Toxic prolamines give the plant a protection mechanism for their survival (since they can’t get up and run away). These proteins irritate the gut lining and sneak their way past the intestinal wall in humans and animals that eat them.

Gliadin is the prolamine in wheat, but other cereal grains common on the gluten-free diet have similar proteins that also cause problems:

• Zein, the prolamine in corn, has been shown to be problematic for Celiacs^[3]
• Avenin, the prolamine in oats, triggers a powerful inflammatory response in Celiacs^[4]
• Orzenin, the prolamine in brown rice, can cause inflammation in the gut of children^[5]

Prolamines are the big guns defending the plant from being eaten alive… but that’s not the only part of these cereal grains that cause problems. They contain another secret weapon just as powerful…

Plant Lectins in Gluten-free Cereal Grains Are Toxic Too

If prolamines are weapons of mass destruction, then plant lectins are the plant’s special forces executing individual suicide missions against your gut lining. These toxic sugar-binding proteins don’t get digested either, and they bind to the cells on the gut wall (enterocytes) and prevent them from completing their normal healing processes (causing them to die). Not only that, but research shows they weasel their way past the intestinal wall and cause leaky gut… and trigger our old friend inflammation.^[6]

These so-called “healthy, gluten-free grains” are waging war inside your gut because they don’t want you to eat them either… just like gluten. And so far we’ve talked about how these cereal grains promote leaky gut and inflammation…

But remember earlier when I made the point that a gluten-free diet leaves many Celiacs with inflammation, leaky gut, and nutrient deficiencies?

Phytates Steal Vitamins and Minerals Right Under Your Nose

Phytates are not for plant defense – they’re for self-fertilization of the plant. They’re specially designed to keep the plant supplied with the necessary vitamins and minerals it needs to stay alive.

When we eat them, they bind to metal ions inside us, so they can impair the bioavailability of critical minerals like calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc.^[7] Not only that, but they inhibit the enzymes we need to properly digest foods and extract nutrients from them.

It’s a 1-2 punch; they tend to steal the minerals we need and then rob us of the ability to properly extract nutrients from the foods we eat.

A diet high in grains may also reduce the body’s ability to process vitamin D^[8] and low vitamin D is associated with leaky gut.^[9]  (If you still think you need grains to be healthy, read this article.)

These toxic assaults all add up… and they begin to paint the picture that the Gluten-Free Diet doesn’t work. Even Quinoa, a frequent staple of the “healthy” gluten-free diet, contains large quantities of Saponins. Saponins are another plant defense chemical that severely damages the gut wall and causes leaky gut.^[10]

Soy Disrupts Your Hormones and Your Thyroid

Soy is another food that gets coined as “healthy” in mainstream media. It’s found in many gluten-free foods and is even touted as an alternative to eating animals. The Soy Industry has spent a TON of time and money trying to convince us soy is healthy. The reality is: Soy is filled with toxins. Here are the 4 main problems with soy in regards to Celiac Disease:

1. Soy screws up your hormones because of the presence of phytoestrogens. This is important because these phytoestrogens are linked to cancer growth and infertility problems. Your hormones need to be working correctly to recover from illness.
2. Soy messes up your thyroid. We already covered that if you have Celiac Disease you’re chances are extremely high of getting other autoimmune conditions of the thyroid (like Graves Disease). The same phytoestrogens messing with your hormones are also implicated in hypothyroidism and potentially thyroid cancer.^[11]
3. Soy is high in phyates, which means it robs you of valuable minerals like calcium, magnesium, zinc, and iron.^[12]
4. Soy increases the need for more vitamin D, which we already know contributes to leaky gut.

For a complete listing of the toxic effects of Soy, check out this PDF from the Weston A. Price Foundation. Just like grains, soy contains toxic chemicals that don’t support recovering from Celiac Disease. Simply put: there’s much better quality food to put in your mouth.

Industrial Seed Oils Inflame Your Body

Consumption of industrial seed oils (corn, cottonseed, soybean, safflower, sunflower, etc.) has dramatically increased in the last century and the Gluten-Free Diet is no exception. Many processed foods off the shelf contain these seed oils that are high in omega-6 fatty acids. In fact, you might even think that some of these oils are “healthy.”

Here’s the thing: when Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids are in a balanced ratio, they don’t promote inflammation. But when Omega-6 fatty acid consumption increases without a corresponding increase in Omega-3 fatty acids, the ratio is out of balance and inflammation occurs. It’s common for a gluten-free diet to be high in omega-6 fatty acids from industrial seed oils and low in omega-3 fatty acids. That’s a recipe for an inflammatory cascade…

Our friend Chris Kresser has one of the most detailed explanations of this process in his 9 Steps to Perfect Health series, read it here for the full breakdown. But the short version goes like this:

“It’s likely that the increase in omega-6 consumption has played an equally significant role in the rise of nearly every inflammatory disease. Since it is now known that inflammation is involved in nearly all diseases, including obesity and metabolic syndrome, it’s hard to overstate the negative effects of too much omega-6 fat.”^[13]

Bottom line: industrial seed oils promote inflammation by dramatically affecting your ratio of n-6 to n-3 fatty acids.

Sugar Fuels the Fire Roaring in Your Body

Here’s 141 reasons why sugar ruins your health… but I want to focus on what it feeds.

Carbohydrates and Sugars are the primary food for the bacteria in our gut. Bacteria live on sugar – that’s normal. What isn’t normal is the type of bacteria found overgrowing in the gut of a Celiac patient. Normally there’s a balance between good and bad bacteria.

When the delicate gut flora balance gets upset, opportunistic or pathogenic bacteria can quickly take over and cause “Gut Dysbiosis” or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). One reason Celiacs frequently have gut dysbiosis is a result of the damage to the villi of the small intestine. During the active stages of Celiac Disease, the villi aren’t working properly and carbohydrate malabsportion can occur (meaning there’s suddenly a ton of extra food for the bacteria to feast on).

Here’s where the gluten-free diet fits into all this…

The most common sugar consumed in the standard gluten-free diet is sucrose (or table sugar). Sucrose is made-up of one glucose molecule and one fructose molecule bonded together to create a disaccharide (2 sugar molecules). Sucrose gets broken down by the digestive process into monosaccharide molecules to be absorbed by the gut.

Here’s the catch: the main “splitter” for these chemical bonds is the micro-villi, which we just discussed are damaged and not able to do their job. This leaves us with a surplus of sugar molecules hanging around in the intestine feeding bad bacteria (Read this article for in-depth info on the different kinds of sugar).

In general, the standard Gluten-Free Diet is primarily made-up of processed carbohydrates and processed sugars, which are mostly di- and polysaccharides that need to be “split” in the gut before they can be absorbed. Having a ton of undigested carbs and sugars hanging out in your gut creates the perfect recipe for digestive problems and SIBO…

SIBO Makes Your Gut Leak

Earlier in this series I pointed to the latest research suggesting that we can’t reverse the damage from Celiac disease without reversing leaky gut. So far, I’ve shown you how toxic defense mechanisms in gluten-free cereal grains create leaky gut and inflammation.

Inflammation and Leaky gut are also caused by toxins produced by bad bacteria…

Researchers have identified small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) as the only other stimulus powerful enough to trigger zonulin release and create leaky gut the same way gluten does.^[14] In fact, they theorize that the body responds to SIBO by opening up the tight junctions as a defensive immune response intended to flush the bad bacteria from the body.^[15]

SIBO is an overgrowth condition that drives leaky gut syndrome and the Gluten-Free Diet is the fuel to feed the overgrowth. In one study, researchers took small intestinal biopsies from children with Celiac Disease to understand the role bacteria played in the disease. Their results were frightening: they not only found SIBO, but they discovered these children had 42 different rod-shaped bacteria, 30 of which had never been found in the human small intestine before… 18 of which were completely unknown!^[16]

Another study looked at adult Celiac patients that weren’t getting better on a gluten-free diet and found that, “SIBO affects most Celiacs with persistence of GI symptoms after gluten withdrawal.”^[17]

How can SIBO cause so much trouble? 

Pathogenic bacteria produce toxic byproducts that get released in the gut and the bloodstream, (like lipopolysaccharides – LPS). These toxins can severely damage the intestinal cell surface, triggering an inflammatory response as the body attempts to fight off the perceived bacterial threat and cause difficulty digesting and absorbing certain carbohydrates. They can also find their way into the bloodstream and wreak havoc on the liver.^[18]

Not only that, but while they happily feed on undigested sugars and other carbohydrates that are supposed to feed you, they release gases like hydrogen and methane. The end result is gas, bloating, and diarrhea or constipation… and perpetually untreated Celiac Disease.

The Inflammation-Leaky Gut Cycle

The bottom line is: If you have Celiac Disease, you have leaky gut and bad gut flora.

We’ve talked about how prolamines and lectins cause inflammation and leaky gut. We’ve talked about how SIBO causes inflammation and leaky gut… and all within the confines of a gluten-free diet.

When your gut flora is out of balance and your gut barrier is damaged, your gut is going to be inflamed. Inflammation triggers leaky gut and leaky gut triggers inflammation.^[19] They all feed on each other in a vicious cycle that looks like this:

The only way to begin treating Celiac Disease is to break this inflammation-leaky gut cycle… and the first step is to recognize that gluten-free isn’t enough. There’s a better way to eat that can begin to halt this process.

So, What Can a Celiac Eat to Feel Better?

The answer is: eat easy-to-digest, low-toxin, real foods – foods that don’’t feed bad bacteria or promote inflammation… but at the same time provide adequate nutrition and improve intestinal permeability.

In other words the ideal Celiac Disease diet:

• Doesn’t contain processed foods filled with added sugars, vegetable oils, additives, or dyes that damage health
• Eliminates disaccharides and polysaccharides to starve out overgrown bad bacteria (SIBO)
• Eliminates the most toxic food groups: cereal grains and soy
• Encourages consumption of low-toxin whole foods in their natural state
• Encourages plenty of nutrient dense animal products filled with protein and healthy fats
• Encourages plenty of good bugs (probiotics) through fermented foods or supplements

The Gluten-Free Diet doesn’t fit the bill…

Simply eliminating cereal grains that promote inflammation and leaky gut is a step in the right direction. But if you remove the other 3 toxic foods I mentioned above (soy, industrial seed oils, and sugar) you’ll be one step closer to recovery. At that point, you’ll be eating a whole food, non-processed diet – which is ideal for optimal health based on what we know.

Is that the same thing as a Paleo or Primal diet?

In our experience, a recovering Celiac does well to graduate to the full paleo/primal diet after focusing on healing the gut first. The recovery process starts by starving out the bad bacteria and helping the gut heal by removing normally healthy food that can be problematic. In general, the best results happened when foods are properly cooked and problematic foods are slowly introduced over time.

Before the discovery of gluten in 1952, Dr Sidney V. Haas proposed the theory of SIBO as the cause of Celiac Disease in his book The Management of Celiac Disease because he saw a benefit in treating Celiacs with The Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD).

The SCD diet is a form of low-carb paleo/primal that removes common irritants that are problematic in the Gluten-Free Diet, but it also limits the availability of carbohydrates as a food source for bad bacteria and starves them out over time. As the small intestine improves, Celiacs can begin to properly absorb nutrients again. The volume of sugars that are allowed to ferment in the digestive tract becomes less and the symptoms of bloating, gas, and diarrhea start to go away.

Create a Custom Diet to Heal Your Body

Lastly, the SCD framework starts out with simple foods that are easy to digest. Over time you end up creating a custom diet that expands with more foods while you heal… eventually allowing foods that might not have been well tolerated earlier (like nightshades, eggs, nuts, or fermented dairy).

The bottom line: SCD was the only thing that finally stopped my Celiac Disease symptoms and started to reverse the damage to my body before I could even tolerate a paleo/primal diet. If you’re ready to take control of your Celiac Disease I highly recommend you try SCD for 30-days to see how you feel.

We created a free quick start guide to make it easy for you to start SCD. You can get it here:

–> Free SCD quick start guide

Starting a diet like SCD is the first step in reversing the damage from Celiac Disease… but lifestyle and supplement changes are also critical.  In the next part of this series, I’ll explain the necessary lifestyle and supplement changes you need to know about to properly manage Celiac Disease.

Here’s the next part: Why Everyone with Celiac Disease Desperately Needs Vitamin D

– Jordan

P.S. – Please share this with friends and family dealing with Celiac Disease or gluten intolerance. Thank you

The post The Toxic Truth About Gluten-Free Food and Celiac Disease appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

Conventional medicine usually works like this…

I have a problem, the doctor figures out what the problem is, and gives me a conventional prescription generally supported by Doctors, researchers, and the FDA.

This prescription is supposed to be relatively safe and effective in accordance with the laws in the United States and most modern countries.

But what if the conventional prescription doesn’t work?

Like people with Celiac disease that follow a strict gluten-free diet and don’t get better…

Does that Mean the Gluten-Free Diet is the Wrong Prescription for Celiac Disease?

Earlier in this series, I showed you that gluten is the toxic invader that causes Celiac disease. Logically, removing the intruder is the first step towards treatment. That’s why anyone diagnosed with this autoimmune condition gets the conventional Celiac disease prescription: follow a strict gluten-free diet for life. But the latest Celiac disease research is painting a very different picture.

The University of Chicago has one of the leading treatment and research centers for Celiac disease in the U.S., so my jaw dropped when they posted this:

“While healing may take up to 2 years for many older adults, new research shows that the small intestines of up to 60% of adults never completely heal, especially when adherence to the diet is less than optimal.” ^[1]

60% odds are worse than flipping a coin…

It would be easy to read that and think, “So it’s the people that don’t follow a strict gluten-free diet that don’t heal.” But to be honest, I don’t think they said it as strongly as they should have. Here’s a recent study that paints a much darker picture of the Gluten-Free Diet’s success rate.

Only 8% of Adult Patients Healed on a Gluten-Free Diet…

A 2009 study in The Journal of Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics looked at 465 Celiac disease patients and found only 8% of adult patients reached “histological normalization” after following a gluten-free diet for 16 months, meaning their gut tissue completely recovered to that of a healthy person. The authors stated:

“Complete normalization of duodenal lesions is exceptionally rare in adult coeliac patients despite adherence to GFD.” ^[2]

These people followed a strict gluten-free diet for 16 months and most didn’t heal their gut. The success rate of the conventional Celiac disease prescription isn’t working… and the research is exploding the truth.

Another 2010 study in the American Journal of Gastroenterology looked at 381 adults with biopsy-proven Celiac disease. The authors found small intestine mucosal recovery occurred in only 34% of participants following a gluten-free diet for 2 years. They concluded:

“Mucosal recovery was absent in a substantial portion of adults with CD after treatment with a GFD.” ^[3]

The Conventional Merck Manual definition for diagnosing Celiac disease provides that: “The diagnosis is confirmed by an initial microscopic examination of a biopsy specimen revealing flattened villi of the small intestine and by a subsequent improvement in the lining after the person stops eating foods containing gluten.”

These studies clearly show that when a Celiac stops eating foods containing gluten, the intestinal lining isn’t healing. But that’s only scratching the surface of what’s going on…

65% of Gluten-Free Celiacs Still Have a Raging Fire in Their Gut

The same 2009 study in The Journal of Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics of 465 Celiac disease patients 16 months gluten-free found that 65% still had “persistent intraepithelial lymphocytosis,” a.k.a. inflammation in the gut. ^[4]

Their intestines are on fire with inflammation even after 16 months gluten-free. Why is that important?

We know gut inflammation is associated with a laundry list of health issues, including cancer and early death. That’s bad news for the conventional Celiac prescription and even worse news for the people not getting better on a gluten-free diet. Want more evidence gluten-free doesn’t put the fire out?

A 2008 study in the Journal of Inflammation looked at 18 symptom-free Celiac disease (SFCD) patients and found they still had elevated markers of gut inflammation even after 2 years on a gluten-free diet. The authors reported:

“Faeces of both active CD and SFCD (symptom-free 1-2 years on a GFD) patients, representing an imbalanced microbiota, significantly increased TNF-alpha production and CD86 expression in PBMCs, while decreased IL-10 cytokine production and CD4 expression compared with control samples.” ^[5]

In another 2009 study from the American Journal of Gastroenterology, researchers looked at small intestine biopsies from 45 children with Celiac disease and 18 clinical controls. The authors found an increased presence of T cells (inflammatory marker) in well-treated CD patients:

“The long-lasting presence of high frequencies of T cells in the epithelial compartment in well-treated CD indicates that the epithelium is stressed possibly because of constant attack.” ^[6]

Both of these studies looked at patients that are supposed to be “healed”… supposedly “well-treated.” Even though they appeared to be symptom-free, the medical tests paint a much different picture. These asymptomatic adults and kids still had inflammatory fires raging in their gut… promoting further disease development (like Cancer).

So far this research has only reviewed patients following a gluten-free diet for 1-2 years… but what about long-term? Does the body just need more time to heal and get back to normal?

56% Have Poor Vitamin Status After 10 Years Gluten-Free

A 2002 study in the of Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics looked at the vitamin status of 30 adults with Celiac disease showing “biopsy-proven remission,” after following a gluten-free diet for 8-12 years. They found that 56% had poor vitamin status, suggesting that proper nutrient uptake is not occurring. The authors concluded that:

“It is generally assumed that coeliac patients adhering to a strict gluten-free diet for years will consume a diet that is nutritionally adequate. This is supported by the demonstration of a normal bone mineral density up to 10 years of dietary treatment. Our results may indicate otherwise. We found signs indicative of a poor vitamin status in 56% of treated adult coeliac patients.” ^[7]

Even after following the conventional Celiac prescription for 10 years, 56% still showed signs of poor nutrient uptake – meaning their digestive system still isn’t working like it’s designed to.

That means after 10 years of being gluten-free, HALF of all Celiacs are likely starving for the critical nutrients required for health and longevity. It’s no wonder we have a 77X increased risk for lymphoma. ^[8]

The Gluten-Free Diet Doesn’t Fix Leaky Gut

Earlier in this series, we discovered that gliadin initiates leaky gut by increasing the zonulin protein in people with Celiac disease. And later, we learned that fixing leaky gut is absolutely essential to reversing the damage from Celiac disease…

But the gluten-free diet doesn’t fix leaky gut…

As it turns out, when Celiac disease patients follow a strict gluten-free diet, their zonulin levels do fall (which is good). But research shows that they still have elevated levels of zonulin compared to non-Celiacs. And when the zonulin levels are still high… the Tight Junctions can’t restore normal function and the leaky gut remains.

Chris Masterjohn found the same thing reviewing a study by researcher Allessio Fasano,^[9]

Remarkably, they found that celiacs produce 30 times as much zonulin as non-celiacs, even though the non-celiacs were not eating gluten-free diets while the celiacs had been off gluten for over two years!

Here’s a graph of their data:

This is remarkable because even though the point of the study was to show that gluten increases zonulin production, the controls were eating gluten yet had infinitesimal levels of zonulin production, while the celiacs had not eaten gluten for at least two years yet still had very high levels of zonulin production. This suggests that something besides gluten may be causing zonulin production in celiacs.

Chris also pointed out the same study looked at Leaky Gut in Celiac disease patients following a gluten-free diet for more than two years:

[NOTE: in the graph below, the smaller the bar, the leakier the gut is]

Here they measured trans-epithelial electrical resistance (TEER) of intestinal tissue taken from gluten-free celiacs and gluten-eating controls. TEER is an estimation of the leakiness of the gut, where a lower value indicates a greater level of leakiness or permeability. They found that tissues taken from controls who had been eating gluten had three-fold less leakiness compared to celiacs who had been off gluten for over two years. This, again, suggests that something besides gluten may be contributing to leaky gut in people with celiac.

So, in summary Chris pointed out:

• Celiacs produce 30 times as much zonulin as non-celiacs, even though the celiacs had been off gluten for over two years!
• Intestinal tissues taken from controls who had been eating gluten had three-fold less leakiness compared to Celiacs who had been off gluten for over two years (so Celiacs had a much leakier gut, even while eating gluten-free).

But the evidence doesn’t stop there…

A 2008 study in the Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research tested for leaky gut in 22 Celiac disease patients who were on a gluten-free diet for 1 year. They found these patients following a gluten-free diet still had a much leakier gut compared to healthy controls eating gluten (0.013 vs 0.003, P = 0.001). The authors concluded:

“This means that, at some time, complete recovery of intestinal villous may not have occurred and an inflammatory process may have persisted.” ^[10]

This is crazy! All this research shows the gluten-free diet doesn’t heal Celiac disease. In fact, the evidence suggests that in many cases, leaky gut and inflammation remain high for years on a gluten-free diet. This spells bad news for anyone with Celiac disease relying on a gluten-free diet as the only treatment protocol…

It breaks down like this… high inflammation, poor vitamin status, and leaky gut persist on a gluten-free diet which leads to one thing: untreated Celiac disease…

And Untreated Celiac Disease Will Kill You… Fast

If you don’t completely heal from Celiac disease, you’re going to die much sooner than healthy people. In fact, one of the largest cohort studies on Celiac disease patients and mortality published in the Journal of The American Medical Association found that:

• Those with Celiac disease (villous atrophy) had a 2.80-fold increased risk of death the first year after diagnosis and a 39% increased risk of death over the study period

But the authors didn’t stop there… they also looked at people with intestinal inflammation. Remember the two studies on “well-treated” (asymptomatic) patients that still had inflammation? The authors found:

• Those with intestinal inflammation (and not villous atrophy) had a 4.66-fold increased risk of death the first year after diagnosis and a 72% increased risk of death over the study period. ^[11]

A 72% increased risk of death! 

In other words, if you’re a symptom-free Celiac and your labs show signs of gut inflammation… you’re going to die much sooner than you think. 

So, Should Celiacs Eat a Gluten-Free Diet?

Yes… gluten is still the kryptonite in Celiac disease, don’t ever eat it. Following a gluten-free diet is a requirement for treating this autoimmune condition… but you can’t stop there.

This evidence clearly shows that only following a gluten-free diet doesn’t fix leaky gut, gut inflammation, or a damaged gut lining. That means the gluten-free diet isn’t enough to treat Celiac disease patients and anyone using it as the only protocol is at risk for dying much sooner than they should…

Like I almost did.

The conventional Celiac prescription is incomplete and not working. There needs to be more. 

The real solution is fixing leaky gut.

Reversing Leaky Gut is a critical step in reversing Celiac disease… and now you know that gluten-free doesn’t cut it.

So, fixing leaky gut is ground zero… where it all starts… and where medicine MUST look first when treating Celiac disease.

See, I’m completely confident my Celiac disease has been reversed because I healed my leaky gut… instead of just staying on the “Celiac Disease Diet.”

What does it mean when I say I believe I’ve reversed my Celiac disease?

I’m not saying someone with Celiac disease can eat gluten again, or that someone with a completely destroyed thyroid can get off medication.

My definition of reversing Celiac disease is turning off the immune attack against the body for good, and then repairing the damage it caused so you live a happy symptom-free life.

In some cases, the damage has gone too far and can’t be repaired. How long your body has been waging war on its own tissue will determine what “reverse” means to you. If RA goes too far, permanent joint damage can occur. In autoimmune thyroid diseases, the thyroid tissue may be beyond repair. But what if you could stop it before it even got to that point… or before it went too far?

If you or a loved one is struggling with Celiac disease, and the conventional treatment isn’t working, you know how crippling it can be. I know, because I’ve been there, too. 7 years ago, Celiac disease almost killed me.

But what if there was a way to turn off Celiac disease that ACTUALLY worked?

What if there was a way to calm down your immune system and allow it to begin to repair the damage?

Based on the work of Dr. Alessio Fasano, one of the first places to start is your gut… and we’re here to help you.

We created an online presentation called, “How to Turn Off Your Autoimmunity — and Restore a Healthy Immune System.”

It’s completely free, and we dive deep into your gut health and how to begin to stop the immune system from attacking itself.

You could spend years trying to figure out how to “fix” your immune system and continue suffering on The Celiac Disease Diet… or you could register for this free one-hour webinar and we’ll show you how we did it.

As someone who suffered with Celiac disease for years and almost gave up hope, I know your struggle. I hope you join us for the webinar to learn more about how I turned off my autoimmune response and restored my health.

I’m so grateful to support you in health.

-Jordan

P.S. – In the last post, I showed you that fixing leaky gut is a critical step in reversing Celiac disease… and now you know that gluten-free doesn’t cut it. In the next part of this series, I’ll explore the Leaky Gut-Celiac connection and what to do about it.

Here’s the next post: “The Toxic Truth About Gluten-Free Food and Celiac Disease“

The post The Gluten-Free Lie: Why Most Celiacs Are Slowly Dying appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

Until a few thousand years ago, we thought the world was flat.

Around 240 B.C., Eratosthenes broke new ground when he came up with an initial estimate of the Earth’s circumference… later supported in physical theory around 330 B.C. by Aristotle.

Since then, we’ve traveled to the moon and recorded beautiful footage of our round planet…

But there are still people that believe the world is flat (… Google “Flat Earth Society”).

As new ideas present themselves, we’re given the rare opportunity to grow into the next higher level of thinking. Medical research is a constantly evolving frontier and it’s our responsibility to take a step back to review our beliefs whenever new discoveries come to light.

Every evolution of medical research gives us a new lens to look at what we already know…

And Until Recently, We Thought Autoimmune Disease Wasn’t Reversible

We’re just beginning to understand why the immune system would attack healthy tissue… and in the beginning, we used to think that autoimmune diseases couldn’t be reversed once the immune condition “turned on.” (Big thanks to our show with Chris Kresser for helping me understand this in better detail.)

Here’s my crack at explaining how it relates to Celiac Disease…

Back when autoimmune conditions were first recognized over a hundred years ago, we thought it had everything to do with non-self antigens (like virus or bacterial infections). In fact, the condition was originally thought to be an infectious disease explained by the “Molecular Mimicry” theory, in which outside bacteria and viruses invade our body and look so similar to our own healthy tissue that the immune system wages war on both.^[1]

It was thought to be the worst kind of mistaken identity…

The “Molecular Mimicry” theory goes something like this:

1. A non-self antigen enters the body
2. The immune system mounts an attack against it, producing antibodies
3. The non-self antigen looks so similar to specific proteins in the body that it causes a cross-reaction to healthy tissue
4. The immune system attacks the non-self antigen AND its own tissue from that point forward

It’s important to point out that in this model, even if the non-self antigen (bacteria or virus) triggering the attack is removed, the autoimmunity never turns off. So, the body continues to produce antibodies and attack healthy tissue even though the initial trigger is gone.

In the case of Celiac Disease, gluten is the non-self antigen and the “Molecular Mimicry” autoimmune process might look something like this:

Here’s what new research is revealing…

Molecular mimicry has been shown in animal autoimmune models to INITIATE the autoimmunity. In other words, it’s a part of the development of autoimmune disease in animals.  However, recent human studies have shown that molecular mimicry is actually an EFFECT of human autoimmune disease, and not a cause of the autoimmunity.^[2]

Why is that important?

It tells us that molecular mimicry is definitely a factor in the progression of pre-existing conditions that trigger autoimmune disease, but something else is responsible for triggering it in the first place.

In Celiac Disease, we know that gluten is a non-self antigen that finds its way inside the body and causes cross-reaction… but this evolution in thinking shows this to be only an effect of other pre-existing conditions.

So, What Else Could Be Confusing the Immune System?

Another theory suggests that non-self antigens come into our body and damage healthy tissues during active infection, exposing it to the immune system. The body sees these newly exposed areas as “non-self,” leading to the development of immune attacks against that tissue.

This mechanism usually goes by the name “Bystander Effect.” ^[3]

The “Bystander Effect” theory goes something like this:

1. A non-self antigen enters the body
2. The non-self antigen damages healthy tissue in the body
3. The damage exposes parts of the healthy tissue that shouldn’t be exposed
4. The body attacks the newly exposed areas as if they are not self

Again, with this model, even if the bacteria, virus, or gluten that damaged the tissue is removed, the autoimmunity never turns off. So, the body continues to produce antibodies and attack the exposed tissue even though the initial trigger that damaged it is gone.

In the case of Celiac Disease, gluten is the non-self antigen damaging healthy tissue and the “Bystander Effect” autoimmune process might look something like this:

New research into these theories isn’t making this any more clear. Both the “Bystander Effect” and “Molecular Mimicry” don’t explain the pre-existing conditions that lead to the autoimmune process…

But Both Theories Do Suggest Once Autoimmunity Turns on, There’s No Stopping It

However, the latest evolution in autoimmune research indicates there might be another way…

Researcher Alessio Fasano, M.D., has been on the forefront of recent autoimmune and Celiac Disease research. In 2011, he published a paper titled “Leaky Gut and Autoimmune Diseases” introducing a new theory that suggests prevention and reversal of autoimmune disease is possible.

He presents the idea that three pre-existing conditions must all exist together in order for autoimmune diseases to develop.^[4] They are:

1. A genetic predisposition to autoimmunity (In the case of Celiac Disease that’s the HLA DQ2/DQ8 genes)
2. An exposure to the environmental trigger (in Celiac Disease – that’s gluten)
3. Increased Intestinal Permeability (Leaky Gut)

Fasano’s theory is part of the new evolution of research implicating leaky gut as the key element to autoimmune disease. Applying Fasano’s “Leaky Gut” theory of autoimmunity to Celiac Disease boils down to this…

People with the genetics for Celiac Disease that have a leaky gut and eat gluten will develop autoimmunity and subsequent intestinal damage. The increased intestinal permeability allows the environmental trigger (gluten) to become exposed to the body and trigger the genetic predisposition.

Combined with what we learned in my last article in this series, it might look something like this:

Fasano’s new theory suggests that autoimmunity can be stopped and even reversed by removing the environmental/genetic trigger interaction and fixing leaky gut. This is groundbreaking in that it’s the first theory to present a pathway for autoimmune reversal…

But when I say autoimmune reversal, I don’t mean, “someone with Celiac Disease can eat gluten again.” To me, autoimmune reversal means that the tissues in the body go back to the way they were before the autoimmune process “turned on” in the first place, and normal health is restored.

So for Celiacs, that means the gut tissue heals, intestinal permeability is restored, and the finger-like villi become fully functioning again.

So, Removing Gluten Should Reverse Celiac Disease, Right?

The new research tells us this: if you have Celiac Disease, you have leaky gut. Even more explicit than that, you can’t develop Celiac Disease at all without having excessive permeability of the small intestine…

But what isn’t so clear is how the conventional Celiac Disease treatment plan fits into it…

According to this theory, here’s how a Gluten-Free Diet should help Celiac Disease:

1. Remove 100% of gluten from the diet
2. Zonulin levels decrease
3. The Tight Junction’s restore normal function
4. Leaky gut stops
5. The autoimmune antibodies drop
6. The autoimmune response shuts off
7. Intestinal damage heals

But it Doesn’t Exactly Work that Way…

In the first post of this series, I pointed to new research suggesting the small intestines of up to 60% of adults never completely heal from Celiac Disease despite following a Gluten-Free Diet. ^[5] And another study found that only 8% of adult Celiac Disease patients eating a Gluten-Free Diet reached histological “normalization,” meaning their gut tissue completely recovered to that of a healthy person. ^[6]

So, what’s the missing piece of this equation?

Whether the latest evolution of research stands the test of time is irrelevant, what is relevant is that Fasano’s theory of autoimmunity opened the door to understanding where the Gluten-Free Diet fails to fully treat Celiac Disease and what needs to be resolved to reverse it.

In the next post of this series, I reveal which step of the process is broken and why the Gluten-Free Diet fails to reverse Celiac Disease.

The post Is Celiac Disease Reversible? appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

When I was a kid, I was afraid of Ghosts.

I used to lay in bed paralyzed with fear, thinking they were hiding in every dark corner of my room. I eventually got over it by sleeping with the lights on.

We humans fear what we don’t know… and I was mostly just afraid of the dark.

Things weren’t much different when I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in 2007. I knew I needed to make a drastic gluten-free change in my life but I felt paralyzed with fear. It was time to face my disease… or let it stay hidden in the dark.

I chose to turn the lights on by learning how gluten caused my disease.

And in this article, I’m going to share it with you…

Celiac Disease Triggers a War Inside Your Body

Celiac Disease is an autoimmune disease. Autoimmune diseases “arise from inappropriate immune response of the body against substances and tissues normally present in the body.”^[1]

I really like that word “inappropriate“… I agree it’s inappropriate that my immune system, which is supposed to protect me from the outside world, is actually mistaking some part of my body as an evil pathogen and attacking my healthy tissue.

Under normal conditions, the immune system is designed to protect us from bad guys (called antigens) like toxins, bacteria, viruses, cancer cells, etc. When these antigens come in contact with our body the immune system is equipped to wage war and defend our home territory.

In people with autoimmune disease, the immune system gets “confused” about what’s an antigen and what’s our own healthy body tissue, recognizing it as a threat and destroying it… it’s a tragic case of mistaken identity.

So, when people with Celiac Disease eat foods that contain gluten, their immune system is uniquely programmed to recognize it as a threat and react by damaging the tissue lining the small intestine, called villi. That’s when things get “inappropriate.” The immune system thinks it’s doing a good job keeping us safe, but it’s destroying our healthy gut lining in an all-out nuclear war.

Tiny villi lining the gut take the brunt of the attack. During normal operation, these tiny villi are responsible for absorbing nutrients from our food. But over time, these long finger-like structures get destroyed to the point of flattened out stubs.

The villi destruction looks like this:

Image source: “Celiac disease: diagnostic criteria in progress”

Do these flattened out stubs look like they can absorb nutrients and “good stuff” very well?  What about protecting you from the bad guys?

Because as it Turns Out, You’re Hollow on the Inside

That’s right… from the mouth to the anus – we humans have one long hollow tube that our body considers to be part of the “outside environment.” And when we eat food, it’s actually passing through our body on the outside, while we absorb all the good stuff and let the bad stuff pass out the other end.

The gut actually plays a critical role in protecting our body from the outside environment. It’s literally functioning similar to our skin… but on the inside of the body. As food breaks down through the process of digestion in the gut, the small intestinal barrier villi absorb the good nutrients through the cells (transcellular) and protect us from undigested food, toxins, and other bad junk from getting inside. It’s just like how our skin takes in ultraviolet light from the sun while still protecting us from the outside environment.

The absorption process is supposed to look like this:

Image Source: “Surprises from Celiac Disease”

But Celiac Disease isn’t normal circumstances. And gluten is the main reason things start to unravel with this disease…

What’s so Bad About Gluten?

Plants are so much more diabolical than I ever imagined. Did you know they carry weapons of mass destruction?

I’m serious… plants are concerned about their survival just like we are. They don’t want to die, which is why they have defense mechanisms to protect them, like toxic chemicals that should deter any living being from eating them.

Virtually all cereal grains contain toxic “prolamines,” which are proteins that are extremely tough for humans to digest. The human gut is not equipped to break down prolamines small enough to absorb any nutrients from them. These toxic prolamines give the plant a protection mechanism for their survival (since they can’t get up and run away).

Wheat contains the protein gluten, which harbors one of the worst prolamine offenders called gliadin. Researchers are finding many different parts of gluten are problematic, but gliadin has the most powerful toxic effects on the intestinal barrier and severely damages the gut lining… even in healthy people. As it turns out, these toxic effects are exponentially worse for people with the genetics for gluten sensitivity and Celiac Disease^[2].

Let’s take a closer look at how gliadin tricks the body into declaring war on itself…

Gliadin Causes Gut Inflammation

As I said, gluten proteins are really hard for healthy humans (and many other animals) to digest. It’s the Celiac genetic predisposition that creates the conditions necessary for an all-out war in the gut. Let’s say you eat your favorite bagel for breakfast and it travels down into your stomach. Your stomach will reduce the size and structure of the food, turning it into chyme, and send it along to the small intestine to break it down further and harvest the nutrients.

In the case of gluten proteins (like gliadin), they need to be broken down by the body before they’re useful, which is difficult for us humans. As these gliadin particles bounce around in the small intestine, they start causing damage (remember, they’re toxic).

Simply having undigested gliadin particles in the small intestine causes a release of IL-8, triggering the initial gut inflammation.^[3] These are the first shots fired in this war on the gut tissue…

IL-8 activates the Th1 part of the immune system (also called the “Innate Immune System”) and it’s the first layer of defense. It provides an immediate “first responder” attack on invading antigens by stimulating inflammation.

I like to think of it as the body sending ground soldiers to engage in battle and establish a perimeter against the invading enemy. The process of battling back with inflammation begins to damage the cells lining the small intestine (enterocytes).

But what happens next is the kicker…

Gliadin Sneaks Past the Intestinal Barrier

If it’s not enough that gliadin causes gut inflammation, gliadin also finds a way to get past our defenses and slip behind enemy lines. Remember that the gut is lined with cells designed to let the good guys in and keep the bad guys out. In Celiac Disease, a major breakdown happens in this defense system when gliadin starts tricking its way through the wall.

Think of your gut lining like a mesh wall, with special doors to walk through if you have the secret code. The good nutrients and other smaller particles can slip right through the mesh in the wall without a problem. But larger undigested proteins like gliadin (and other bad guys) can’t get through the wall at all.

The doors along the mesh wall are called Tight Junctions, and they’re the gateway between the gut cells (enterocytes). Tight Junctions are controlled by an intricate process of signals keeping the protective balance intact and anything passing through these doors is said to be passing between the cells (paracellular). Researchers have identified a protein called zonulin in humans. Zonulin is one of those delicate signals that control the opening and closing of the tight junctions and it’s largely responsible for preventing paracellular absorption of antigens.^[4]  

How do gliadin and zonulin interact?

As it turns out, gliadin is programmed with a secret code that causes zonulin levels to increase in people with the genetic pre-disposition to Celiac Disease.^[5] As zonulin levels go up, the Tight Junctions protecting the integrity of the small intestinal barrier begin to function abnormally, opening up wider… loosening the protective barrier of the gut wall. Now the gut lining starts to allow large particles into the body that aren’t supposed to be there.

And gliadin can sneak its way right through…

Here’s what that looks like on the surface of the small intestine:

Image Source: “Surprises from Celiac Disease”

When someone with Celiac Disease eats gluten, gliadin not only triggers gut inflammation, but it has a secret code that stimulates zonulin to open up the gut wall, allowing it to sneak through the doors and start infiltrating the body. At this point, gliadin can start to accumulate underneath the gut wall, assembling its forces behind enemy lines.

Gliadin Causes Leaky Gut

Remember that the immune system has already been battling gliadin outside the gut wall with an initial inflammatory process. Now, gliadin is accumulating underneath the gut wall, causing the enterocytes to release IL-15, triggering worsening inflammation inside the gut wall.

I like to think of the release of IL-15 like calling in the immune system Special Forces… sending Intraepithelial Lymphocytes (IEL’s) to the scene. These powerful IEL’s begin to damage the enterocyte cells through a more severe degree of inflammation and the war continues to get bloodier.^[6]

But that’s not all…

The IEL’s can’t match the accumulation of gliadin behind enemy lines and the inflammatory process continues to get worse. The immune system sends elite soldiers with even bigger guns called “inflammatory mediators” such as TNF and IFN that contribute to more enterocyte damage.^[7]

The more severely those cells are damaged, the worse the intestinal permeability gets… and soon you’re left with full-blown leaky gut syndrome.

Now gliadin (and everything else), can freely pass through the gut wall and do as it pleases…

The process looks something like this:

Image Source: “Surprises from Celiac Disease”

Leaky Gut Causes Autoimmunity

So far the immune system has been fighting gliadin with Th1 or “innate” immune system weapons. As gliadin continues to accumulate behind the gut wall, it will begin to cross-link with an enzyme called Tissue Transglutaminase (tTG) that gets released to repair damaged enterocyte cells. The cross-linking triggers a cascade of Th2 cross-reaction that wages all-out war on the enterocyte cells.

The presence of the new gliadin/tTG cross-linked compound in the body turns on the Th2 or “adaptive immune system,” which I think of like calling in secret agent snipers good at tracking, finding, and destroying the enemy.

The adaptive immune system is a powerful immune response that has the ability to coordinate much more sophisticated attacks using antibodies. Antibodies can recognize and remember specific pathogens to mount stronger attacks each time it encounters them.

Celiac Disease morphs into full-blown autoimmunity once the gut becomes leaky.^[9] The more the gut leaks, the more cross-linked gliadin/tTG becomes present,  and the stronger the immune cross-reaction becomes. Autoimmunity happens when the sniper gliadin/tTG antibodies mistakenly attack the enterocyte cells, where the tTG is produced.^[10]

So, in a nutshell: the ground soldiers are fighting gliadin outside the gut wall with inflammation, the special and elite forces are fighting gliadin inside the gut wall with inflammation, and the sniper antibodies are seeking out the gliadin/tTG antigens with inflammation… all three processes leading to the destruction of the enterocyte cells lining the gut wall in their own special way. Over time, these attacks get bad enough that they completely destroy the microvilli of the intestinal lining, like a war-torn city laid to waste.

The whole process leaves those finger-like villi completely flat…

In an attempt to keep it simple, gluten causes Celiac Disease like this:

Your Body is on Fire

Celiac Disease becomes a vicious autoimmune cycle when gluten remains in the diet, the gut remains leaky, and gliadin lights the body on fire with inflammation.

And the worst part?

The immune system is on red alert, waging all-out nuclear war with every weapon it has. This can cause untreated Celiac Disease to lead to the onset of even more autoimmune diseases.^[11]

On the surface, the process points the finger at gluten, or more specifically gliadin. It would make sense that a strict Gluten-free diet could end the entire process and break the cycle of autoimmunity. But remember, in the last article I pointed to recent research showing only about 40% of Celiac patients fully heal on a Gluten-Free Diet?

I learned that lesson the hard way…

Following a Gluten-Free Diet isn’t the whole story… and getting rid of gluten alone doesn’t put the fire out.

In the next post of this series, I look more closely at why Celiac Disease can’t be reversed successfully without addressing the leaky gut component, and why the conventional treatment of Celiac Disease is destined to fail.

The post How Gluten Causes Celiac Disease appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.

On June 10^th 2005, my mom died from Cancer at the age of 52… and I miss her every single day.

I was devastated.

It tore me apart.

It didn’t make sense.

It wasn’t fair.

How could this happen?

But looking back, the signs leading up to her cancer revealed a pattern:

• Lifelong “nervous stomach” (diarrhea, gas, and bloating)
• Fertility problems
• Graves’ disease
• Endometriosis
• Migraines
• Fatigue
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Frequent illness
• Gallbladder cancer
• Bile duct cancer
• Liver cancer

And my own Celiac Disease diagnosis in 2007 affirmed my suspicions.

Lifelong untreated Celiac Disease killed my mom…

Celiac Disease is an Exploding Epidemic

The latest research estimates 1% of the western population has Celiac Disease (1 in every 133 people)^[1] with nearly 3 million people suffering in the United States. That’s A LOT of people… but what’s worse is the University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center estimates 97% of those with Celiac Disease remain undiagnosed.

So why are so many people unaware they have Celiac Disease?

The diagnosis itself can be expensive, time-consuming, and misunderstood. The “gold standard” Celiac diagnosis looks for a positive antibody blood test confirmed by an intestinal biopsy. The biopsy is typically ordered by a Gastroenterologist and gathered in a hospital setting during a procedure called an Endoscopy, costing anywhere from $2,000 – $5,000. For some people, that’s just not an option.

It isn’t necessarily a lack of tests that’s the problem… it’s the lack of doing tests in the first place.

But I’ll get to that in a moment…

I used to think the Celiac Disease epidemic was there all along… that this meteoric rise in the disease was the result of new medical technology and the growing awareness in mainstream media.

But I was wrong… well sort of.

We are getting better at finding it… but recent studies provide solid evidence that a Celiac Disease “explosion” is happening because more people are developing the disease, not just because of better testing. In fact, one study performed at the Mayo Clinic suggests the incidence of Celiac Disease in men has increased 4X since 1948! ^[2]

If that’s not enough to convince you that there’s a tidal wave of Celiac Disease headed for us, let’s follow the money. Private Industry has taken notice of the rising population of gluten-free dieters (not all of which have Celiac Disease). Look at this data:

Gluten-free foods and beverages, once considered specialty items, had a compound annual growth rate of 30% in the U.S. between 2006 and 2010… $2.64 billion in total sales in 2010. ^[3]  

New reports estimate it will be a $5.5 Billion market by 2012! ^[4]

Corporations wouldn’t be pumping millions of dollars into a market if they thought it could shrink or slow down anytime soon. Not only that, but pharmaceutical companies are racing to develop several drug treatments for Celiac Disease.

The worst part of this story isn’t just the growing epidemic…

You Could Have Celiac Disease and Not Even Know It

Celiac Disease is an autoimmune condition of the gastrointestinal system triggered by gluten, the protein found in wheat. When people with Celiac Disease are exposed to Gluten it stimulates the immune system to attack and damage the intestinal lining, waging war against its own intestinal tissue (villi). The challenge with Gluten is that it’s virtually ubiquitous in today’s world, found in just about everything… from cereal to lipstick.

And because Gluten is in just about everything we eat, drink, and bathe with – it can be tough to avoid. We could conceivably consume Gluten in every aspect of our daily lives.

Lately, public awareness has been growing for the digestive symptoms related to Celiac Disease like diarrhea, gas, cramping, and bloating. It’s a good sign, but one problem lies in the fact that only ½ the people with Celiac Disease actually have significant diarrhea as the primary symptom.^[5]

Additionally, the disease has been linked to over 300 different symptoms, many of them subtle and seemingly unrelated to digestive problems. Other symptoms include fatigue, unexplained weight loss, depression, anxiety, joint pain, seizures, muscle cramps and many more.

That’s the problem with undiagnosed Celiac Disease… 

It’s not a lack of available testing … but a lack of recognizing the need to test for it in the first place. The disease is like a chameleon, sometimes manifesting into symptoms that don’t exactly scream out, “Hey Doc, I’m Celiac Disease.” Couple that with an average family physician 10-20 years out of medical school that’s not current on the latest Celiac Disease research and it’s a losing equation for everyone involved.

That’s what my story was like. After losing my mom in 2005 I started having diarrhea more and more every day… sometimes 10 or more gut-wrenching sessions. I was losing weight and malnourished. And even though I had some “classic” Celiac Disease symptoms, I also had a history of depression, anxiety, “nervous stomach”, chronic fatigue, and low iron.

Over the next year, I continued to go to the doctor with worsening diarrhea and received a different diagnosis each visit. First I got sent home with Fiber, then drugs for IBS, and then a colonoscopy looking for Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn’s Disease. It was only because of my emotional pleas the gastroenterologist agreed to take a small intestinal biopsy for Celiac Disease.

The bottom line is this: you could have Celiac Disease and not even know it… and your Doctor might not realize it either.

What Happens in Untreated Celiac Disease?

If Celiac Disease goes untreated… it’s not good. Here’s just a few of the increased risk factors from various studies:

• 30% increased risk for GI cancer ^[6]
• 40X increased risk for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma of the small intestine ^[7]
• 77X increased risk for lymphoma ^[8]

Then there’s the percentage of people with Celiac Disease that have the following associated conditions that aren’t going to go away if the Celiac Disease isn’t treated ^[9]…

• Anemia (3-6%)
• Arthritis (20%)
• Ataxia (40%)
• Cows Milk Intolerance (24%)
• Dermatitis (5%)
• Diabetes-Type 1 (12%)
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome (20%)
• Liver Disease (42%)
• Migraine Headaches (4%)
• Nerve Disease and/or Peripheral Neuropathy (51%)
• Obesity (30-40%)
• Osteoporosis (4.5%)
• Low Bone Density (70%)
• Pancreatic & Thyroid Disorders (5-14%)

The important message here is this: it’s a good idea to rule out Celiac Disease if you have any of these problems… and it’s a REALLY good idea to treat Celiac Disease if you do get diagnosed.

A diagnosis isn’t the end of the world… as you can see, it could save your life.

The Gluten-Free Diet will save your life (maybe)…

It’s widely accepted that the first step in treating Celiac Disease is removing gluten from the diet with 100% strictness. In fact, this is the treatment plan copied right from the National Library of Medicine and typical of most doctor-patient conversations after a diagnosis: ^[10]

Celiac disease cannot be cured. However, your symptoms will go away and the villi in the lining of the intestines will heal if you follow a lifelong gluten-free diet. Do not eat foods, beverages, and medications that contain wheat, barley, rye, and possibly oats.

You must read food and medication labels carefully to look for hidden sources of these grains and ingredients related to them. Because wheat and barley grains are common in the American diet, sticking with this diet is challenging. With education and planning, you will heal.

While removing gluten exposure is critical to the treatment of the disease… it isn’t THE only treatment. It’s just part of it. The danger lies in the promise that people with Celiac Disease who follow a strict gluten-free diet for life will fully heal.

I followed a strict Gluten-Free diet for two years with only minor symptom-relief. And it turns out I’m not alone….

The Gluten Free Diet Isn’t Enough…

New research suggests that the small intestines of up to 60% of adults never completely heal from Celiac Disease despite following a Gluten-Free Diet.^[11]

In one study of 241 Celiac Patients – small intestine mucosal recovery 2 years after following a Gluten-Gree Diet was 34% and 5 years later was only 66%.^[12]

The authors stated :

“Mucosal recovery was absent in a substantial portion of adults with CD after treatment with a GFD.”

Another study of 465 Celiac patients after 16 months on a Gluten-Free Diet found that:

“Complete normalization of duodenal lesions is exceptionally rare in adult coeliac patients despite adherence to GFD.”^[13]

So in other words, many of these people followed a gluten-free diet for years without completely healing the intestinal damage caused by the disease. If the intestinal damage never heals, it’s no wonder Celiac Disease patients are more likely to experience cancer or some other debilitating disease.

That’s incredibly depressing for people with Celiac Disease… especially if their Celiac Disease diagnosis went anything like mine:

I’d finally convinced my Gastroenterologist to order an endoscopy after years of horrible diarrhea, fatigue, and depression. A few weeks after the procedure I got a pamphlet in the mail from her called “Living Gluten-Free” with a hand-written note that said:

“Jordan, Tests showed you have Celiac Disease. Follow a Gluten-Free Diet and you’ll be just fine.”

Ummm, what? What’s Celiac Disease and what’s gluten?!? How could gluten be causing all these problems in my life? I’ll really be just fine if I change my diet?

I can’t help but wonder how many people around the world get the same prescription I did and feel desperate when the Gluten-Free Diet doesn’t work.

But here’s what I do know: when I followed a strict Gluten-Free diet for 2 years believing I would be “just fine” and STILL had diarrhea 5-10 times a day, I came face-to-face with insanity.

In fact, things got a little scary when I was absolutely convinced I was getting “gluten contamination” from everything (like the dishwasher, cooking pans, silverware, water, air, kissing, breathing, whatever). It reached the lowest point when I thought I couldn’t eat anywhere but my own kitchen without getting “glutened.” But the reality is: it wasn’t gluten contamination at all.

The Gluten-Free Diet wasn’t working for me…

How to Tell if The Gluten-Free Diet Isn’t Working for You

If you have Celiac Disease and you’re following a Gluten-Free Diet… but still experiencing any of these symptoms, the Gluten-Free Diet isn’t working for you either.

(Remember: Celiac Disease symptoms may or may not occur in the digestive system.)

• Recurring bloating and cramping
• Chronic or recurrent diarrhea
• Constipation
• Nausea
• Liver and biliary tract disorders
• Weight loss
• Pale, foul-smelling stool
• Iron-deficiency anemia unresponsive to iron therapy
• Fatigue
• Arthralgia
• Tingling numbness in the legs
• Sores inside the mouth
• Skin rashes/acne
• Tooth discoloration or loss of enamel
• Unexplained infertility or recurrent miscarriage
• Osteopenia or osteoporosis
• Anxiety and/or Depression

Each of these symptoms can present themselves as part of Celiac Disease and simply removing gluten can help. Many people even see a disappearance of random symptoms after they go gluten free.

However, if you have Celiac Disease and any of the these symptoms are still present… even on a Gluten-Free Diet, it’s likely gluten-free isn’t working for you. It might be providing some relief, but it’s not healing the underlying damage in your gut… which dramatically increases your risk for cancer and the other diseases I just mentioned.

That doesn’t mean all hope is lost either….

Why My Mom’s Story Matters to You

My mom is a prime example of what can happen when Celiac Disease goes undiagnosed and untreated. She suffered through stomach pain, an irradiated thyroid, rounds of chemotherapy, and an early medical retirement from her career. Above all – we lost her too early.

That’s part of the reason I fought for my diagnosis, why I pressed my doctors to get the tests I wanted, and why I followed my Gluten-Free prescription with the strictest adherence.

Yet I still suffered from life threatening symptoms. So much so that I wrote my first will at the age of 24 because I didn’t think I’d live much longer unless they miraculously figured out what else was wrong with me.

Then I got lucky and found a new doctor with new ideas about what it meant to treat Celiac Disease. A new doctor that finally helped me stop my diarrhea for the first time in 6 years.

I’m one of the majority…

One of the 60% that didn’t get better from a Gluten-Free Diet alone…. I needed to do more to treat my Celiac Disease.

And in this series, I’m going to reveal why the Gluten-Free Diet isn’t enough to stop the symptoms of Celiac Disease and propose a step-by-step process you can follow to reverse the damage.

The next post: “How Gluten Causes Celiac Disease”

The post The Celiac Disease Epidemic: Why Gluten Free Isn’t Enough appeared first on Healthy Gut Company.