Intestinal Permeability
The autoimmune process can sometimes be identified with the pattern of intestinal permeability, also known as leaky gut. Beneficial bacteria essentially eat the fibre that you eat, and in exchange, they create a gut barrier that keeps small food proteins from entering your bloodstream and causing an immune response.
Many people with autoimmunity feel better when they remove gluten and dairy. The proteins found in these foods, gliadin and casein, can enter the bloodstream via the holes in the intestinal lining and trigger an autoimmune “storm”.
The difference between celiac, gluten-sensitivity, and wheat allergy
When discussing non-celiac gluten sensitivity in autoimmunity, celiac disease is an unrelated reaction. Celiac is characterized by gluten protein (gliadin) causing the immune system to damage the small intestine. Antibodies attack the small intestine and cause severe reactions, and chronic exposure to gluten in celiac will ultimately cause your body to stop taking in nutrients from food.
These deficiencies lead to a whole host of complications and disorders. Celiac can be maintained by the complete avoidance of gluten, whereas gluten will only represent a portion of other autoimmune diseases.
If you have gluten sensitivity, you may have symptoms like those of celiac disease, such as abdominal pain and tiredness. However, unlike celiac disease, gluten sensitivity does not damage the small intestine.
An allergy to wheat is also different from celiac as wheat allergies do not cause long-term damage to the small intestine. People with a wheat allergy are not necessarily allergic to gluten so they would be able to eat other gluten-containing grains such as barley and rye.
For context, I am discussing non-celiac gluten sensitivity in autoimmunity caused by intestinal permeability. The sensitivity can still be so severe that you would treat it as if you were celiac and completely avoid any cross-contamination.
Testing for Gluten Sensitivity
The GI-MAP measures anti-gliadin which is a gluten antibody. This is a snapshot in time of how you are currently handling gluten exposure and doesn’t necessarily mean you will never be able to eat gluten again. Anti-gliadin is an accurate way of testing for gluten sensitivity but not a way of testing for celiac.
Celiac disease has a complicated and borderline unethical method of testing and many people will never know that they have it. To be properly diagnosed, the patient must eat gluten every day for an extended period of time to ensure that the celiac antibodies appear on a serologic test.
The damage caused by this test can last upwards of 6 months, but for some people that will be worth it to know exactly what is going on.
Gluten in Medication and Supplements
While most medications nowadays are gluten-free, there are a few that still contain gluten to watch out for. For physical pain caused by inflammation, most people feel better taking a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory such as Advil. Advil liquid gels contain gluten. Where caramel colour is used, it is usually extracted from malt barley.
Synthroid, the synthetic thyroid replacement medication, is the number one most prescribed medication in the US. Synthroid contains dairy, genetically modified corn, as well as trace amounts of gluten. Lactose is an ingredient that is added, while the gluten it contains is due to cross-contamination and is considered technically gluten-free as it is less than 3 ppm of gluten. Less than 20 ppm is considered safe for celiac but may still cause damage in some people.
A majority of people taking this medication have autoimmunity and also depend on this medication to get out of bed in the morning which makes this a double-edged sword. Revisit my post about Hashimoto’s to read more on this.
Why is everyone intolerant to gluten all of a sudden?!
Well there isn’t one certain answer yet, perhaps science will give us more clues in the coming years, but there are some theories.
There is a strong case for wheat being one of the most heavily sprayed plants in modern agriculture. It is sprayed with glyphosate which is a notorious herbicide that is used for clear-cutting in forestry. In 1991, farmers found that if they sprayed the wheat crops with glyphosate immediately before harvesting, the crops would dry faster and get into processing sooner.
By doing that, the pesticide is freshly applied to the crop and is not washed away with rain before harvest so the dose of glyphosate in food increases.
Testing for Celiac https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/professionals/clinical-tools-patient-management/digestive-diseases/celiac-disease-health-care-professionals
The Role of Bacteria in Building the gut barrier https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6089582/
Glyphosate for drying wheat: https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/glyphosate-contamination-food-goes-far-beyond-oat-products
