There Are Now More Than 200 Conditions And Symptoms Linked With Gluten Sensitivity

In my previous posts, I discussed some of the signs and symptoms of gluten intolerance specific to women, but a lot of those symptoms are not exclusive to gluten sensitivity and are not supposed to be used as a benchmark for any diagnosis. But I would always recommend that you go to a specialist and be tested if you suspect that you are gluten intolerant before you attempt to start a gluten-free diet.

There's a lot of confusion and inconsistency around the topic of gluten sensitivity and we can blame it all on the lack of adequate research regarding this condition. It can be frustrating to hear a doctor say one thing then hear another doctor say a different thing or some new information that the first doctor doesn't seem to be aware of.

Add to that confusion a few stories of women diagnosed with celiac disease who said they did not improve after many months of maintaining a gluten-free diet. It turns out there are non-gluten substances in some of the foods that we eat that our autoimmune system can mistake for gluten, and only when their doctor realized this did the patients showed some improvement.

In short, gluten sensitivity is a tricky medical condition, and it’s because we’re still in this stage where there’s a lot that we don’t understand.

But what we do know for sure is that this is a relatively new condition caused by the rampant hybridization and genetic modification of grains that's been going on since the 1940's or so. It brought forth high-yield, drought/heat/cold-resistant varieties of wheat and other grains that contributed immensely to our capacity to produce food, but at the same time gave us the unintended consequence of having to deal with issues such as gluten sensitivity.

There are more than 200 medical conditions that have been linked so far with gluten sensitivity. Celiac disease is only one of those conditions, but it is the most prominent because it has the clearest cause-and-effect relationship with gluten.

Many of these conditions are a result of our auto-immune system's response to a type of gluten called gliadin. Gliadin, being the inflammatory protein that it is, can cause inflammation of the gut or the small intestines in gluten-sensitive people. Digestive issues directly result from it, and when the protein leaks through because of the inflammation, that's when our auto-immune system reacts. It then confuses some of the proteins found in other parts of our body (such as the thyroid gland) for gliadin, triggering the autoimmune diseases associated with gluten sensitivity. 

To better understand gluten sensitivity testing, I recommend you watch the video below, which is made by a specialist named Dr. Amy Myers, who has plenty of experience dealing with gluten-intolerant patients.