Category: Educational

This is just my own personal opinion.  I am not a medical professional and this is not medical advice.   It may sound extreme for anyone with any autoimmune condition to avoid gluten.  But this article list some reasons and references as to why.

If not avoid gluten, then at least get screened for gluten sensitivity.  The article Reversing Autoimmune Disease is a Real Possibility writes and I quote …

“If there is any autoimmune disease in your family immediately get tested for gluten intolerance. This is not just a celiac test but also a test for gluten sensitivity.”

It is true that autoimmune conditions can be caused by many other factors besides gluten.  However, gluten is of the things that can contribute to or exacerbate autoimmune conditions in gluten sensitive people.   There are ample evidence that many people with autoimmune conditions also have gluten sensitivity.

While there are tests that test for gluten sensitivities, false negatives are common — meaning that the test says you do not have sensitivity to gluten, yet you really are.  The test only tests a subset of antibodies and a subset of the type of gluten that people may be sensitive to.  It does not catch everything.   Also a antibodies blood test will come out negative even if you are gluten sensitive if you happen to not be eating gluten at the time of the test.

Since there is no way to know for sure if you are gluten sensitive or not, it is best to avoid gluten as there is a plausible mechanism for which gluten causes autoimmunity.

For gluten sensitive people who continue to consume gluten, gluten causes openings in the tight junctions in the gut.  This is known as a leaky gut, or increased intestinal permeability.   This means that partially digested proteins and foodstuff may leak into the bloodstream where they normal would not.

Your immune system see these as foreign invaders and initiates an inflammatory response.  Over time, one experience chronic systemic inflammation and eventual dysregulation of the immune system, which is what autoimmune conditions are.

In the same line of reasoning, even healthy individuals with no autoimmune symptoms may choose to avoid gluten as a preventative measure against autoimmune disease.

The short of it is that we know that autoimmune disease is characterized by an leaky and inflamed gut.  And gluten is one of the things that can inflame the gut.  Therefore, gluten can simply do no good.  And it is not like avoiding gluten is that terrible.  Our ancestors in the Paleolithic era didn’t eat gluten.   The Paleo diet and the “Gluten-Free Casein-free” diet some example ways of eating that does not include gluten.

Autoimmune diseases is when the immune system attacks own self.

• Rheumatoid arthritis is when immune system attacks the joint.
• Celiac disease is when immune system attacks the small intestines.
• Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (hypothyroidism) and Graves’ disease (hyperthyroidism) is when immune system attacks that thyroid.
• Type 1 diabetes is when immune system attacks the beta cells in the pancreas.
• Lupus is when the immune system attacks the skin
• Multiple sclerosis is when the immune system attacks the myelin sheaths of nerves

Some people consider autism an autoimmune condition (see New York Times piece) and autistic children have inflamed gut.  Many people treating autism are putting them on gluten-free (and sometimes casein free) diet.

More References:

• Peter Osborne in YouTube video explains why blood test for gluten sensitivity may not be accurate.  Why gluten-free may not be free of gluten.  When other grains which is so called “gluten free” may still trigger same problems of gluten sensitivity in some people.
• Dr. Lo Radio explains how gluten can affect thyroid.  She says that if you have a thyroid problem, 80% to 90% that you have an autoimmune condition.  She says “Gluten is the devil” and is one of the first things she takes out of her patients diet when they have thyroid issue.
• Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride on YouTube talks about how she cured her son of autism via diet and nutrition.  She explains how gluten and the gut affects autism.
• Article by Dr. Vikki Petersen Is Gluten Intolerance the Cause of Autoimmune Disease? says “A study from Italy showed that the longer gluten sensitive people eat gluten, the more likely they are to develop autoimmune diseases.“
• Dr. Rhea Parsons writes in Why I Eat a (Mostly) Gluten-Free Diet: “More and more research is showing a link between inflammation, autoimmune diseases and gluten sensitivity.”
• Book: Thinking Outside the Pill Box writes “Most patients I see with chronic fatique syndrome, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and various other autoimmune disease issues have gluten sensitivity as part of their problems.”
• Book: Digestive Wellness for Children writes “The incidence of celiac disease is high in people with autoimmune disease including lupus, insulin-dependent diabetes, liver disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and Sjogren’s syndrome.”
• Dr. Alessio Fasano says on the Chris Kresser podcast: “We don’t know what makes people sick with diabetes or MS, but it’s indisputable gluten, this strange protein contained in many grains, including wheat, rye, and barley, to be the culprit that leads to autoimmunity on that specific genetic background.”
• HealthNowMedical.com: “research reveals that perhaps a vast number of autoimmune diseases may also involve an immune response to dietary gluten.“
• Book: Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms When My Lab Tests are Normal?  says “As is the case with most, if not all, Hashimoto’s victims, eating wheat and other gluten-containing foods only makes Hashimoto’s worse.”  Hashimoto is the most common autoimmune disease characterized by low-thyroid function.
• Dr Susan Blum in her book The Immune Recovery Plan writes “if you have any autoimmune disease — not necessarily celiac disease — it is good to do the tests above, but if they are negative, you should still remove gluten from your diet, based on research showing a connection between gluten and many other autoimmune diseases.” [page 26]

Article published in September 2012 reports on a study that showed eating smaller meals more frequently provides a more stable blood sugar and reduces any sudden spike of fatty acid, resulting in lower cholesterol.

There are many different possible causes of autism.  The possible connection between vaccines and autism is a controversial topic no doubt.  A part of it involves the mercury containing preservative thimerosal that is found in some vaccines.   Insist that your doctor uses only mercury-free vaccines. Another part is that too many vaccines too soon may overwhelm the immune system of a small percentage of susceptible individuals.

Although vaccines are probably safe for the majority of the population; however, there may be an very small percentage of the population that have a combination of genetic susceptibility and nutritional deficiency that sets them up for sub-optimal detoxification of mercury and/or decreased immune function that may allow vaccines to affect their brain and/or immune system.

In the below video Dr. Andrew Wakefield tells his story about the MMR vaccine.  It is shocking and jaw-dropping in regards to some of the things he mention.  He is not against vaccination.  But he is for safety-first in vaccines.  And some vaccines are not sufficiently tested and not safe in susceptible individuals.  Anyone who is interested in vaccines and its relation to autism and in particular about the MMR vaccine needs to watch this.

Note: this article was written September 2012 and is only opinion at the time of writing.  I am not a medical professional and information was based primarily from Internet web search.  As with any web search performed by a human, it is biased.   Because a human  will tend to self-select search results that is predominantly on one side of the argument.

Here are some information for you to look through…

• The great thimerosal cover-up: Mercury, vaccines, autism and your child’s health – NaturalNews.com
• Book: Health and Nutrition Secrets by Russell Blaylock MD: “the biggest problem with today’s immunization programs is that too many vaccines are being given too close together.” [page 168]
• Why Current Thinking About Autism is Completely Wrong by Dr. Mark Hyman.  Article talks about an 2.5 year old boy who had just been diagnosed with autism: “He received diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles, mumps and rubella, chicken pox, hepatitis A and B, influenza, pneumonia, hemophilous, and meningitis vaccines — all before he was 2 years old. Then something changed. Vaccines may affect susceptible children through different mechanisms. In some it is overwhelming of an already taxed immune system with over 2 dozen vaccinations at a very young age, for some it is the thimerosal (ethylmercury) used as a preservative until recently in most vaccines (although it is still present in most flu vaccines).”
• Autism and Mercury Toxicity by Dr. Mark Hyman: “But sometimes, as in the case of autistic children, their weakened immune systems can’t handle this “inactivated” live virus, and can’t fight it off. So the live virus hangs around in the body creating inflammation on a low-grade level — both in the gut and the brain.”
• CoQ10, Vaccination, and Natural Treatment for Migraines by Chris Kresser: “there are studies that have shown vaccine injuries and particularly vaccines that contain mercury in them, and then there’s a lot of, like I said, correlations and plausible mechanisms and other data that point to the distinct possibility that vaccines cause immune dysregulation and can increase the risk of autoimmunity as kids get older.”
• Vaccines and autism: a  new scientific review – CBSNews.com
• Vaccine bombshell: Baby monkeys develop autism after routine CDC vaccinations – InfoWars.com
• Book: The UltraMind Solution by Dr. Mark Hyman: “Large-scale population studies show no connection between MMR or measles vaccine and autism.  That’s because in such large populations the effect on children susceptible to MMR is “washed out.” If you study large groups of people, you won’t pick up small effects on genetically or bio-chemically unique individuals. … The vaccine probably affects only a few genetically susceptible children who are biochemical and immunological train wrecks because of toxic overload.” [page 210]
• Dr. Tenpenny says in Dr. Lo Radio podcast that vaccines can cause a spectrum of ill effects, with autism at the worst end of the spectrum.

The other side:

• MMR vaccine controversy – Wikipedia
• Vaccines & Autism: Controversy Persists, But Why? – HuffingtonPost.com
• Vaccine Cleared Again as Autism Culprit – NYTimes.com
• The end of the autism/vaccine debate? – CNN Health
• Vaccines and Autism: A Tale of Shifting Hypotheses – Oxford Journals