We have recently reported on Lancet (1) a consistent cohort of patients affected by drug-resistant epilepsy with cerebral calcifications, half of which were cured by a gluten-free diet. All had an atrophic jejunal mucosa, which recovered on a gluten free diet. Gluten intolerance is now a recognized cause of brain calcifications and epilepsy, of dementia, of psychiatric disturbances: many researchers believe that, in genetically predisposed subjects, gluten is not healthy for the brain function (2).

This is just too much.

Having had over 25 years of variegated experience with gluten intolerance I find hard to imagine that the single most common food intolerance to the single most diffuse staple food in our environment might provoke such a complexity of severe adverse immune-mediated reactions in any part of the human body and function. The list is endless, but malignancies, adverse pregnancy outcome and impaired brain function are indeed complications above the tolerable threshold of this food intolerance.

On the other end today we know very well that the majority (as many as 9 to 1) of gluten intolerant subjects, identified by familial or population screening, do not manifest any complaint, although they do have a flat intestinal mucosa (3).

In conclusion a sizable proportion of our population (from 0.3 to 1%) is gluten intolerant and reacts with a wide spectrum of symptoms from no apparent reaction to severe life-threatening diseases.

This intolerance is strongly linked to specific genetic markers which have indeed required thousands years to develop and be selected: the 'population genetic' time is of this dimension, while the changes in the environment and in the food we eat, require centuries or less.

http://www.celiac.com/articles/76/1/Why-So...1995/Page1.html

Why So Many Intolerant To Gluten ? - by Luigi Greco, D.C.H., M.Sc.(MCH), M.D., Department of Pediatrics, University of Naples 06/30/1995

Symptoms

Celiac Disease may appear at any time in a person's life. The disease can be triggered for the first time after surgery, viral infection, severe emotional stress, pregnancy or childbirth. CD is a multi-system, multi-symptom disorder. Symptoms are extremely varied and can often mimic other bowel disorders. Infants, toddlers, and children often exhibit growth failure, vomiting, bloated abdomen and behavioral changes.
Classic symptoms may include:

* abdominal cramping, intestinal gas, distention and bloating
* chronic diarrhea or constipation (or both)
* steatorrhea -- fatty stools
* anemia - unexplained, due to folic acid, B12, or iron deficiency (or all)
* weight loss with large appetite, or weight gain

Other symptoms:

* dental enamel defects
* osteopenia, osteoporosis
* bone or joint pain
* fatigue, weakness and lack of energy
* infertility - male/female
* depression
* Aphthous ulcers

Dermatitis Herpetiformis (DH) is skin manifestation of celiac disease characterized by blistering, intensely itchy skin. The rash has a symmetrical distribution and is most frequently found on the face, elbows, knees and buttocks. DH patients can have gastrointestinal damage without perceptible symptoms.

<a href="http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/10/30/124053/69" target="_blank">http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/10/30/124053/69</a>
So I began the full GFCF diet. But, disappointingly, I did not get immediate results. My research (and fellow sufferers) told me that this was to be expected - it took up to 3 (and possibly 6) months for the exorphins to be flushed out of the system. This confused me, as I didn't know how the body would store exorphins for months. (I later learned that they can persist in the CNS for months as the brain can only metabolize native neurotransmitters. But I am still confused about this point.) I was impatient and wanted to feel better now.

So, making an intuitive leap (and because my sleeping patterns were out again), I had another sleep deprivation episode. Amazingly it worked, just as before. It was like all the exorphins had been flushed out of my brain.

A cursory search of internet research indicates that there are definite links (1 2) between opiod receptors and the sleep controls of the brain. It is my belief that sleep deprivation triggers some kind of neurological mechanism that can strip the glutein/casein exorphins from the opioid receptors. Perhaps it's releases a natural naloxone-like substance. If this is true, this could be very useful for some people as a quick and easy detox from glutein/casein peptide intoxication. But, on the other hand, it could just be my idiosyncratic neurological problems...

http://www.healthboards.com/boards/archive...p/t-199693.html

For Celiacs the inability to digest gluten results in a permeable or leaky gut. This allows things to get into the blood system that do not belong there. It also causes a person to be malnurished because they are not able to absorb the nutrients from their food. Celiac disease can lead to all types of autoimmune disorders such as lupus, MS, and arthritis. In persons with a genetic suceptibility it can also cause symptoms of autism.

For various reasons many people with autism are unable to digest certain proteins found in milk, grains, and soy. The protiens should be broken down into amino acids which are important for every system in the body including the production of neurotransmitters. Instead the protiens are only partially digested into peptides. These peptides leak out of the gut and are able to cross the blood brain barrier. Peptides from casein, gluten, and soy are similar in structure to opiod type drugs and cause alot of the behaviors found in autistic individuals.

By eliminating the offending items from the diet the gut is able to heal and the body is able to absorb essential nutrients from food.

Peptides act like little bullets and can cause the leaky gut. But other things such a yeast can cause a leaky gut.

Most people with celiac disease are not autistic. However, a high percentage of people with autism have a leaky gut. However in combination with genetic suceptibility and other immune system attacks celiac disease will cause some of the physical, psychological, and behavioral problems of autism.

http://www.nature.com/ncpgasthep/journal/v...hep0259_F1.html



I'm going to chime in here. This is the brief bit of my story... I did a GlutenChallenge on my 4 mo old son via glutening my breastmilk. It was a health disaster. He became FTT, lost 10% of his body weight. The tests that were done were negative for Celiac, I took him to Dr. Fasano hoping for the best care and I got lip service. I already know it was gluten, I just wanted proof.

Now my ds is recovering, he is 9 mo old, still dairy intolernant and he was not throwing up dairy bm or formula prior to the gluten challenge. And the biggest most disturbing thing -- he is 9 mo old and not crawling and not sitting on his own. He is moving toward doing so and he does not seem to show any mental imparements for a 9 mo old, but I know I did this to him, me and my desire to prove bf babies can have Celiac Disease. I will not likely know if he will have learning disabilities from this until he is much older and I will kick myself knowing I did this.

His head failed to grow between 3 1/2 mo old and 5 mo old. Shame on me...

As sick as my other son was at 3 1/2 years old, I relied only on the blood tests. He is IgA deficient, so that left just the IGG AGA test which he was off the charts high on. He is also DQ2. He is to me Celiac. We have never done a Gluten Challenge on him for the biopsy because he was so sick.

He was Ethiopian looking, dark circles under his eyes, skinny, frail, and internally he was burning muscle tissue instead of food for energy and survival (Creatinine blood test). He also developed a heart murmur, maybe the muscle of his heart was being burned for fuel for his body. I firmly believe with every ounce of my being, if he had not been dx with Celiac when he was, that he would not have lived to see his 5th birthday.

I have always felt he was living on borrowed time with us. Just some sort of mama thing.

If you have a test that indicated gluten sensitivity and you have positive results on the GF diet, then leave well enough alone in childhood and infancy.

I would like to have a gold standard dx for both my boys. But I know now is not the time. Eventually, the testing methods will become better. I was told as much by Dr. Fasano's Fellow. As soon as their is a drug, the pharmacuetical companies will pay for research for testing methods to improve. I see this is not as far off as I once thought it was. While I would never give my children a drug to eat gluten, I will take them in for less invasive testing that may not require a 3 to 6 month period of eating gluten.



<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Quote:
I took him to Dr. Fasano hoping for the best care and I got lip service. I already know it was gluten, I just wanted proof. - Electra
How disappointing about Dr. Fasano! Would you believe that the "top" pediatric gastroenterologist here in Oregon did not "get" the fact that an IgA deficiency skews at least two of the "celiac marker" tests I doubt there are more than a handful of doctors in this entire country who "get" the fact that gluten can get into breastmilk and cause major damage (Norwegian MD Kalle Reichelt gets it and has written about it). The reason for my baby son's projectile vomiting/diarrhea and subsequent hospitalizations for dehydration was NOT due to "some kinda virus," as the ER doctors speculated. It was a reaction to the gluten I was eating and passing along to my son.

Good to hear your travails with Dr. Fasano are over - onwards to good health (with or without the doctors)

http://www.neosynthesis.net/forums.php?m=posts&q=295
Gluten-Free Flour Mix
Use this as a substitute for white wheat flour.
Yield: 3 cups GF mix
2 cups white rice flour
1/3 cup tapioca flour
2/3 cup potato starch flour (not plain potato flour)

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Sift the mixture into a large airtight container. Store in a container tightly closed.

Gluten-Free Baking Powder
1/2 cup cream of tartar
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup baking soda
In a food processor or sifter, blend or sift together cream of tartar, cornstarch and baking soda until well blended. Transfer to container with tight-fitting lid; label. Store at room temperature.
Makes 1 1/4 cups.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:
1/2 C. butter - softened
1 C. firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 C Gluten Free Flour (can be a mix of different flours... tapioca, rice, etc. or a store bought blend)
2 Tsp. Baking Powder (Clabber Girl brand is GF)
1/4 Tsp. baking soda
1/2 Tsp. salt
2 Tsp. Pimpkin Pie spice blend
1 C. Mashed cooked pumpkin
1/2 C pecans chopped (optional - I omitted this not knowing if the person i'm making these for is allergic to nuts)

Beat butter until creamy, add brown sugar and eggs (1 at a time) beating after each. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients. Add to butter mixture alternately with pumpkin. Beginning and ending with flour mixture. Spoon into loaf pan (9x5) and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour* or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool on rack and enjoy!

* i have a brand new oven and it took 45 minutes for them to fully cook, but this is also based on me breaking it into three smaller mini loaf pans. The hour time should be right for one full loaf.

Researchers at the University of Maryland have finally found the cause of this curious reaction: a protein in the body called zonulin.
<a href="http://www.celiac.com/articles/64/1/Protei...ease/Page1.html" target="_blank">http://www.celiac.com/articles/64/1/Protei...ease/Page1.html</a>
Zonulin is a human protein that acts like a traffic conductor for the bodys tissues by opening spaces between cells, and allowing certain proteins to pass through, while keeping out toxins and bacteria. People with celiac disease have higher levels of zonulin, which apparently allows gluten to pass through the cells in their intestines, which triggers an autoimmune response in their bodies. Until now, researchers could never understand how a big protein like gluten could pass through the immune system. According to author Alessio Fasano, M.D., people with celiac have an increased level of zonulin, which opens the junctions between the cells. In essence, the gateways are stuck open, allowing gluten and other allergens to pass. Further: I believe that zonulin plays a critical role in the modulation of our immune system...(f)or some reason, the zonulin levels go out of whack, and that leads to autoimmune disease. Ultimately these finding may help doctors understand the causes of other, more severe autoimmune disor ders.

Loosen Up
Bacterial toxin may lead to less painful treatments for diabetes and brain cancer

John Travis
<a href="http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20000422/bob8.asp" target="_blank">http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20000422/bob8.asp</a>
Take the nasty bacterium that causes cholera, delete the gene for its well-studied toxin, and you should end up with a harmless microbe that can immunize people against the real thing. It sounded like a good plan, recalls Alessio Fasano of the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore


The scheme failed, however. A decade ago, when Fasano and his colleagues used a genetically stripped Vibrio cholerae to vaccinate 10 people, half the volunteers developed mild diarrhea. The altered bacterium obviously had some bite left in it.

The effort to understand what went wrong in that vaccine experiment has shifted the interests of Fasano and his colleagues to topics far from cholera. In 1991, they identified a second V. cholerae toxin that contributes to the diarrhea of the disease. Since then, they've learned that this toxin mimics a protein that the body uses to regulate the permeability of the seams between cells within the intestine, brain, heart, and other tissues.

Fasano sees many uses for this human protein. By helping drugs slip out of the intestine and into the bloodstream, the protein may become a component of an insulin pill that replaces a diabetic person's periodic shots. A similar approach could enable scientists to sneak medications past the formidable blood-brain barrier.

Moreover, the discovery of the way the body normally controls tight junctions, the specialized seams between cells, may help investigators explain why the junctions sometimes aren't tight enough. Leaky junctions occur in disorders including diabetes, celiac disease, and even some brain illnesses.

"It's the typical example of scientific serendipity. We were looking for one thing and came up with something totally different," chuckles Fasano.

Bricks in a wall

If the cells that line the intestine represent bricks in a wall, tight junctions are the mortar that binds them together, or so scientists long thought. More recently, as they've identified some of the proteins that make up a tight junction, investigators have begun to realize that the bricks-and-mortar analogy is misleading. "Our molecular understanding of the junction complex is just exploding now," notes Mark Donowitz of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore.

Tight junctions have proven to be far more flexible and dynamic than mortar. Although the junctions in the intestine usually prevent proteins, water, and other molecules from passing between adjoining cells, they occasionally permit some molecules to slip through. In fact, cells can signal the tight junctions to alter their permeability, says Fasano.

The cholera toxin that his group discovered has now led the researchers to a regulator of the junction. The cholera toxin identified earlier directly increases secretions from the cells lining the intestine, resulting in diarrhea. Fasano's toxin instead opens tight junctions, enabling water and other molecules from blood to seep between the cells and into the intestine.

Drawing on the scientific name for tight junctions, the investigators dubbed the bacterial protein zonula occludens toxin, or Zot. They also identified the protein on intestinal cells to which Zot binds, triggering the loosening of the tight junctions.

Fasano and his colleagues immediately wondered if there was a human protein resembling the bacterial toxin. After all, because of their intimate and long-term association with the organisms they infect, bacteria are among the best cell biologists around. The microbes frequently make proteins that mimic some of the host's molecules.

Sure enough, the investigators found a Zotlike human protein, which they named zonulin. Zonulin, too, makes the intestine "leakier," says Fasano. To confirm that the human intestine produces this protein, the scientists obtained various tissues from a cadaver and screened them for zonulin by using antibodies that latch onto Zot. As expected, intestinal tissue contained the protein, but so did heart, brain, and a few other tissues.

Fasano calls zonulin a key that opens a gate between cells. He notes that the human body actually has several similar keys. Zonulin made in the intestine differs by a few amino acids from the ones produced in the brain or in other tissues. The subtle alterations seem to prevent zonulin meant for one tissue from altering the tight junctions of another.

"It makes sense," says Fasano. "[The body] may have a need to make the intestine leakier but leave the blood-brain barrier unaffected, or vice-versa."

Pardridge expresses skepticism about this approach, however. "If you're going to deliver drugs by disrupting the blood-brain barrier, you're going to let in everything else in the bloodstream," he warns, pointing out that other compounds that disrupt the barrier have induced seizures in animals.

Fasano counters that those compounds irreversibly destroy the barrier, whereas Zot or zonulin would open tight junctions of the blood-brain barrier just long enough to allow transport of a drug across it. Preliminary tests with rodents support this belief, he says.

"If well used, zonulin should not cause any side effects, since the process is quick and reversible within a few minutes," asserts Fasano.

Disorders of the immune system can be debilitating and expensive, and are likely to be much more common than previously realized.

But just how many people have them is not known, because such diseases are not tracked. The National Institutes of Health estimated in a 2005 report that 5% to 8% of Americans, up to 23.5 million, have one or more autoimmune diseases, which occur when the immune system launches an attack on healthy cells within its own body.

<a href="http://thefooddoc.blogspot.com/2007/01/lea...en-even-in.html" target="_blank">http://thefooddoc.blogspot.com/2007/01/lea...en-even-in.html</a>
Leaky gut may occur from gluten even in absence of celiac disease
Zonulin levels are increased in celiac disease. However, chronic gluten (gliadin) exposure also affects zonulin in non-celiac intestine. The result is an increased gut permeability (or leaky gut). Just published in Gut is an article reporting abnormal claudin proteins result in patchy loss of barrier function or tight junctions (leaky gut) in active Crohn’s disease. Drago et al published a report in the Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology in April 2006 that transient zonulin release could be triggered by exposure to gliadin even in normal intestine. An increase in intestinal permeability was noted in normal intestine though it was not as pronounced as in celiac disease patients. Intestinal tissue from celiac patients, even those in remission, exposed to gliadin demonstated a sustained increase in zonulin release resulting in significant and sustained increased intestinal permeability.

Zonulin affects expression of the proteins claudin and occludin that constitute the cytoskeleton between intestinal epithelial cells that maintain the tight junctions or zonula occludens. There is increasing scientific research indicating that an altered intestinal barrier with increased intestinal permeability is important in the development of celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and possibly even irritable bowel syndrome.

Research is also revealing that altered gut permeability or leaky gut may be present in “normal” people and/or when the intestinal biopsy appears normal. Gluten can trigger this in the intestine of normal people and early celiac disease. When altered gut microflora or dysbiosis (bacteria and/or yeast) in a genetically predisposed person during altered immune states such as during pregnancy, post-pregnancy, surgery, puberty or periods of severe stress, may activate latent celiac disease or trigger inflammatory bowel disease. In some new onset or more severe IBS may develop, especially after a bowel infection such as viral gastroenteritis or dysentery.

Altered gut flora from antibiotics, including those in provided to animals from which we get meat, milk or eggs are also likely contributing as well as our cleaner environment. This effect is becoming known as the hygiene effect that is theorized as possible cause for increasing incidence of Crohn's disease and autoimmune disorders occurring in well developed countries. Co-existing gut injury from non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) like ibuprofen, motrin, or advil also appears to be a risk factor. The use of acid blockers, recently reported to increase the risk of osteoporosis, may also adversely impair breakdown of food proteins and predispose to abnormal gut bacterial or yeast levels increasing the risk of gut injury resulting in the leaky gut.

http://members.cox.net/harold.kraus/gluten.htm

My Goals

How can one, in a single conversation, hope to discuss the scope of gluten intolerance, gliadin sensitivity, and Celiac Sprue? How can one picture the world’s most heavily consumed food, a veritable symbol of health and plenty, as the world’s least tolerated grain?

There are three main points I hope to communicate with my gluten web pages and links:

First, Gluten Intolerance has been assumed by doctors to be rare, but it has been recently proven to be common. This fact significantly changes what we thought we knew about the relationships between gluten and many common chronic health problems.

Second, Gluten Intolerance does have many symptoms, most of which don’t obviously involve the gut. Gluten is likely to cause noticeable symptoms in other parts of the body first, often the brain and nervous system. Sometimes, such injury can go on for a long time before it becomes very noticeable.

Third, if you are truly reacting to gluten, conventional serum tests and biopsies can be more likely wrong than right, especially earlier in your life before you have strong symptoms and real damage is done.

The pill camera is increasingly being used to evaluate celiac disease especially since it is covered by more insurance plans now for this indication. Rondonatti et al. report a multicenter study in the August 2007 issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology that confirms video capsule endoscopy has good sensitivity and excellent specificity for the detection of villous atrophy in patients with suspected celiac disease. Capsule endoscopy offers the ability to see the entire length of the small intestine, far beyond the reach of the standard endoscope. Unfortunately, though capsule endoscopy is ideal for evaluating celiac disease, until just recently, most insurance companies have not been covering the test for this indication alone.



EXPERIENCE WITH PILL CAMERA IN DIAGNOSIS OF CELIAC DISEASE
In my own experience, several patients with suspected celiac disease but “normal” upper endoscopy and/or biopsies have had characteristic villous atrophy in a patchy manner, sometimes further down the small bowel. A few of these patients went on to have a repeat upper endoscopy with a longer scope and biopsies directed at known areas of abnormality seen on capsule endoscopy that confirmed their diagnosis. In others who have positive blood tests we mutually agreed to accept their diagnosis of celiac disease.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Celiac-Disease-a...n&id=399309

Previous studies have found negative celiac blood tests in patients with gluten ataxia suggesting that they may not have celiac though they had a gluten related disease. In light of a new report that blood test negative celiac disease can have intestinal tTG and advanced intestinal damage it is curious to wonder if the gluten ataxia patients with blood tests negative are seronegative celiacs. It is increasingly appearing that there is a very broad spectrum of gluten related disease and there are non-celiac gluten related symptoms that include the brain, skin, musculoskeletal system as well as the gut.

Many patients I have seen with gluten sensitivity describe symptoms of balance difficulty, concentration problems or “brain fog”, headaches, and neuropathy and a few report symptoms such as “bug crawling” sensations and strange muscle twitches. These symptoms commonly improve with a gluten-free diet and return with intentional or accidental gluten exposure. For some, intestinal symptoms or skin rashes occur but not all. The concept of gluten as a cause of brain symptoms is still not one widely known or accepted by many doctors, especially in the United States. However in Europe, especially England, Germany and Scandinavian countries, as well as Australia and New Zealand the gluten brain-gut connection is more accepted.

Casein causing brain symptoms is also not commonly accepted by doctors in the U.S. though many lay public organizations and support groups have found a casein-free diet to be associated with improvement of brain function as well as helping autism.

What is needed is more openness of U.S. doctors to the role of diet and foods in such symptoms and diseases and much more scientific research. I ask you to join me on the journey of the food, bacteria, gut-brain-joint-skin connection to disease and health.

http://www.glutenfreeforum.com/index.php?s...36&st=20520


QUOTE(miamia @ Jul 17 2007, 04:10 AM) *
Heavy metals such as mercury, cadmium, platinum, arsenic and lead in our environment collect in our cells and when present in elevated concentrations, suppress our cell's normal ability to utilize oxygen. Reduction of cellular respiration often triggers increased yeast proliferation to compensate for this reduction in energy production. Yeast overgrowth in bodies challenged by high toxic metal levels, can be understood as the body's desperate attempt to protect itself against the ravaging effects of heavy metal poisoning. In such cases, the heavy metal load on the system must be reduced to free the system of long-term yeast overgrowth. Individuals with high levels of heavy metals are likely to suffer if attempting to clear yeast / fungal overgrowth, before first addressing their elevated heavy metal levels effectively. When yeast is attacked in such cases, the underlying heavy metal toxicity may cause symptoms of considerable unwellness. Such symptoms and signs are most often misinterpreted as yeast die-off reactions.

this could definitly explain why i always felt I was having die off yet i still had the candida

Ok thats my scientific contribution for the day


Excellent scientificness Mia!! biggrin.gif

This is what I strongly believe as well....that when we're killing off the bugs we are at the same time releasing the metals into our system.

Thats what Klinghardts theory is all about. That the yeast are actually absorbing the metals and protecting us from a lethal environment of heavy metal toxicity. So yeah...then when we kill off the yeast....we're feeling bad because we've released a bunch of metals into our system. ohmy.gif

The other bugs also can bind with metals but...like you posted....different types of bugs bind better with certain metals. Its interesting about the bacteria binding with aluminum and the viruses binding with the other metals.

It definately looks like the key to getting rid of infections is getting rid of the metals. It makes more and more sense to me everyday.