The Gluten Doctors

I have been in practice for over 20 years.  During that time I have focused much of my time working with patients to discover what foods may be having a deleterious effect on their health.  But one group of foods stands out as the most serious, insidious and most damaging - Gluten.

Gliadin is a protein found in many common foods.  Grains such as wheat, rye, and barley all contain the protein gliadin. Other grains such as oats, spelt, kamut, amaranth and quinoa are also frequently problematic.  

For those patients who are sensitive to gliadin, it causes the small intestine to slowly erode.  What is the consequence of this?  Well, your small intestine is responsible for absorbing all the nutrients in the food you eat.  The only way that your cells get fed and can thereby do their job is by the process of your small intestine efficiently breaking down and absorbing that food.  If the small intestine is no longer able to efficiently provide that function, your ability to absorb the nutrition you consume reduces dramatically.

Because your cells perform their job only when they are receiving adequate fuel (much like your car), you can quickly see to what extent body malfunction would have to arise out of poor small intestine function.

In my 20 years in clinical practice, I can’t think of a symptom I HAVEN’T seen caused by a food reaction.  Everything from high blood pressure, to skin conditions, to sleep trouble to pain – I’ve seen these and many, many more symptoms completely resolved due to the discovery of a hidden food reaction and its removal from the patient’s diet.

The reason I call these food reactions “hidden” is because the symptoms can occur several hours or days after your ingestion of the food. And in the case of gliadin, only 1/3 of those suffering exhibit digestive problems.  2/3 of the patients exhibit symptoms from other parts of their bodies such as skin problems, thyroid dysfunction, arthritis, depression and migraines.

Imagine you ate a bagel Monday morning and Wednesday afternoon you started feeling fatigued, bloated and irritable… Would you think to blame Monday morning’s bagel?  Probably not.  But it has been well documented that the reaction to a food can occur anywhere within 3 – 4 days after eating it.

What about that flat stomach which has been replaced by a round one.  What happened?  It turns out that the destruction which occurs to the small intestine by gliadin also swells and irritates the tissues of the small intestine.  When all those 21 feet of small intestine swell, so does your tummy.  I have a long list of happy patients who got their flat stomachs back after discovering they had a gliadin sensitivity.

While flat tummies may be at the cosmetic end of the spectrum, they are a nice side benefit from discovering a hidden sensitivity which can put you at risk for degenerative diseases including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and neurological disease, to name but a few.

And if osteoporosis runs in your family you definitely want to find out if you have this problem.  Poor mineral absorption is associated with gluten intolerance and it definitely puts you at risk for developing this crippling disease.

It’s relatively easy to find out if you have this problem.  It's incidence is approaching 50% of the population so your odds are close to a flip of a coin. There are simple saliva, blood and stool tests available which help to determine if you are gliadin sensitive.  And sometimes the most accurate results come from eliminating the food from your diet for a period of time and later reintroducing it.  But it is definitely critical to find out if this problem is affecting you due to its wide ranging negative repercussions on your health.

Please let me know if I can assist you in your goal of achieving optimal health!

Yours in health,

Dr Vikki M. Petersen

HealthNOW Medical Center

1309 S. Mary Ave., Suite 100

Sunnyvale, CA 94087

www.healthnowmedical.com