Gluten Allergy, Gluten Sensitivity or Celiac?


Many people are complaining about being sensitive to gluten, yet testing negative for Celiac, or even if people have not gone to the trouble of testing, they've eliminated gluten - and the result?  Symptoms subside and they feel better.  Many doctors discount people complaining about gluten sensitivity when those same people test negative for Celiac disease.  Now, however, new studies are proving that gluten sensitivity is real.  Gluten allergy has very marked symptoms and is hard to ignore.  Gluten sensitivity, however, can mimic other things; many have found eliminating gluten clears worrying symptoms.  For me - my IBS seems to have taken a hike.  For my husband, his blood pressure is almost normal and he has had to reduce his blood pressure meds to the smallest amount possible and still his blood pressure goes too low (for him to feel good) at times.

Here are some very interesting articles in the Wall Street Journal:

New Guide to Who Really Should Not be Eating Gluten

"And in a study published last year, researchers in Australia showed in a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial that subjects with suspected gluten sensitivity had substantially fewer symptoms on a gluten-free diet than control subjects who unknowingly ingested gluten."


Clues to Gluten Sensitivity

"For the first time, we have scientific evidence that indeed, gluten sensitivity not only exists, but is very different from celiac disease," says lead author Alessio Fasano, medical director of the University of Maryland's Center for Celiac Research."


How did Novak Djokovic conquer the tennis world?

"Maybe the answer is as simple as this: Since last year, he's swearing off pasta, pizza, beer, French bread, Corn Flakes, pretzels, empanadas, Mallomars and Twizzlers—anything with gluten."


Deciphering the Ailments Tied to Gluten



"Some experts suspect that genetic changes to raise the protein content of wheat may play a role, as could industrial baking procedures that shorten the time bread is exposed to yeast. Wheat also makes up a larger portion of human diets than in generations past, and wheat consumption is growing in Asia and the Middle East, along with gluten-related disorders. Still another theory holds that the bacteria that inhabit the human body may have evolved to be less hospitable to gluten over time.
Whatever the reason, says Alessio Fasano, director of the University of Maryland’s Center for Celiac Research, “our environment is changing faster than humans can adapt, and some people are paying the price.”

MY CONCLUSION:  Personally, I don't think everyone needs to be on a gluten-free diet.  Many people don't have a problem with gluten and that's a fact.