Gluten Causes Brain Disease!

Wonderful site - I would like to be able to post a comment. Or ask a question - please tell me how. I have had celiac test that came back negative. But I have bad reaction to all grains, so would like tell people about this also.

This article is outstanding. I see that the doctor was concluding his first study in 1982. That was when my symptoms first started, how I wish we had this article then. It took me over 20 years to figure it out, you all know how that goes. It is inspiring that there are people like the doctor out there.

Dear Dr. Ford! Thank you so much for this article and all of your work. I am sitting here researching the connection between gluten and mental health issues for a presentation I am giving in February. I am a naturopathic doctor in New York specializing in neurotransmitter imbalances and food sensitivities. I have seen in my practice exactly what you describe, and I am so excited to be sharing the information with more patients and practitioners. Brilliant! I hope to have the chance to meet you one day. Here is to eating gluten-free!

Thank you Dr Ford and others for your welcomed contribution and continued observation and research into gluten toxicity, and for highlighting the toxic effects of gluten to all, and for this article. It took nearly 3 decades or me to be diagnosed with Coeliac Disease (I have what I call 'toxic gluten autoimmune disorder', it effects all my body including by brain not just my gut). I had neurological symptoms, muscle weakness, concentration problems, poor memory, hypertension, tachycardia, exercise intolerance, incoordination, ataxia, dizziness, breathlessness, low immune symptom, skin/bone/eye pain, headaches, blurred vision, pins/needles/numbness, nightmares, insomnia, hypoglycemia, and had anaemia even though I ate plenty of food and took supplements, felt worse after eating food, had bulky stools after eating, I constantly felt nausea, sometimes retched after eating anything and felt bloated, sometimes I was very thin with a pot belly other times I looked overweight - swollen with water retention, dry skin, cold sores, blisters often on skin, red flushing of skin, kidney stones, glomerulonephritis, I was like a zombie, just existing. Doctors claimed I was attention seeking, and that it was all in my head, that there was nothing wrong with me therefore it was in their words chronic fatigue syndrome/ME/hysteria/stress/anxiety, my symptoms were dismissed by ignorant doctors who should know better, who should take their head out of the sand, and stop being ignorant. I was told it wasn't the food I was eating when I said I thought it was the carboydrates (mainly grains), and they told me there was no such thing, and accused me of having illness behaviour, and an eating disorder. I was shocked when I purchased my medical records after many years of fighting for them, to find doctors labelled me as neurotic and they hadn't even put my symptoms down, saying I was hysteric/malingering/chronic fatigue syndrome therefore nothing organic wrong with me, that I was attention seeking with illusionary ideas about my health. It was bad enough living not even half a life, and fighting for a diagnosis without the bullying poor behaviour from so called health professionals. I was thankfully diagnosed with Coeliac Disease due to a doctor writing his thesis on coeliac disease and anaemia, and I just so happen to have had a blood test at the same time that landed on his desk by mistake. Within two weeks on the gluten free diet I was well for the first time in my life, I felt alive for the first time in my life, all my symptoms gone in just 2 weeks. Unfortunately the doctors disbelieve me that gluten is not just confined to the gut, majority do not listen/respect/trust what patients say, they dont believe the effects of gluten on the body, or want to believe, one wonders if there was a pill for gluten toxicity and a financial incentive to diagnose and prescribe a drug for gluten toxicity that we will see a huge surge in acceptance of the condition and an increase in diagnosis, even though the solution is simple - do not eat gluten.

If I eat the smallest amount of gluten my symptoms reappear, and it takes 2 weeks to recover, I ignore food that claim to be gluten free, I make sure everything is naturally gluten free. Unfortunately after two years on the diet I started showing signs of myasthenia gravis, again doctors are saying there is nothing wrong, I purchased my own blood tests for the antibodies for myasthenia gravis, they were negative (but they are not 100%, like alot of conditions, we can't always rely on tests or health professionals), An Ice pack on any muscle including my eyes for just two minutes reverse my muscle weakness for just over a minute - again doctors dismiss this, and say there is no such thing. However I do believe there is a connection to gluten toxicity and people developing other autoimmune disorders, especially if not diagnosed soon enough, and doctors should start listening to patients and keep up to date with the research. Patients health outcomes should be recorded internationally on databases for all to see, objectively to measure health outcomes and raise awareness of the gluten toxicity as well as other conditions, information is power. So many peoples lives are ruined because of the lack of awareness of gluten toxicity, so many misdiagnosed. Thank you for your dedication and enthusiasm into researching and raising awareness of gluten toxicity.

I'm a little perplexed why it's called a "disease." Celiac, gluten sensitivity, whatever... If a food item is toxic to an individual then it could be completely normal rather than some oddity. Maybe instead there's something wrong with people whose bodies don't react when they should. Most people would die instantly if they drank cyanide, but there may be a few out there who would survive... Therefore do the vast majority of people have a "disease" that prevents them from being able to ingest cyanide?

Crazy.

I can vouch for four generations of undiagnosed gluten sensitivity. Even now, my daughter and I have had severe stomach, eczema, and anxiety/irritation symptoms, but there's nothing in our medical records about that. We quit eating wheat before being tested (and won't go back on it to prove what we know!) None of our pediatricians, dermatologists, or a psychotherapist from Stanford ever suggested we get tested or would comment on gluten sensitivity causing tantrums in my daughter. Yet once we quit gluten, the tantrums disappeared. Parents, my daughter also gets tantrums from food coloring (within 15 minutes of eating them she is pretty belligerent).

Dr. Ford, I have also been researching pesticides and fungicides commonly used on grain products. These list MANY neurological symptoms, since many of them are in fact neurotoxins (malathion, permethrin, etc). It seems chemical sensitivities in general are not validated, and there is no public research on symptoms related to pesticide residues on food. Do you know if there has been any direct research into the possibility that many people are reacting to the pesticides and not the gluten?

Can't thank you enough for supporting all of us!

It's extraordinary how diverse the symptoms for this can be. Me: dry skin, dermatitis herpetiformis (small itchy clear bubbles), constipation, diarrhea, breast (not chest) pains, bloating, then moving on to leg "vibrations" and burning palms, red flushes, cramped hands and "unidentified bright objects" on my Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Got a probable diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, then found out that many gluten-intolerant people have a "neuro dominant" expression or some form of neurological problems. (At least 10% according to one site--search "House episode on celiac disease" and then choose the "wikis" link.)

I read an article in Scientific American about how much of the world's wheat fell to a fungus--rust--that led many of the world's growers in the late 90's to spray with fungicides. Then when that grew expensive, they turned to a Turkish wheat strain that was resistant to rust. AND, the gluten levels in wheat flour have risen from 2% in the 50s to over 20% now. Did you know it is often sprayed onto the flour after grinding to raise the gluten levels?

I first went to spelt and got some relief. Then cut out that. More symptoms went away. Still ate oats. Until I gave up oats (unless certified gluten free) and ALL forms of gluten, had residual symptoms. They still come back, sometimes as small bumps around the edge of my scalp, if I accidentally eat gluten.

Other symptoms: my sister: bloating, especially her face. One niece: absolute moon face even when rail thin. Another niece: heart palpitations, mood alterations, digestive difficulties, etc.

All symptoms resolved on a gluten free diet. Someday folks will look back at us as we look at the Romans who used lead glazes on all their dinnerware and poisoned themselves.

If you're having these symptoms, research the kinds of common foods you wouldn't ordinarily think contain gluten: vinegar, except rice vinegar and apple cider vinegar, malt products of all kinds including worchestire sauce, soy sauce (try wheat-free tamari), maltodextrin, modified food starch (wheat forms), etc. I had to print out a list and then go through all my food supplies and throw out 2/3. But worth it.

Who wants unidentified bright objects showing up in brain scans? (They are also associated with lupus, Alzheimer, multiple sclerosis, other auto-immune diseases) P.S. Blood work inconclusive (I had already given up wheat and they warned me I would need to eat it for a month again first. No way!)

Don't always go by what the doctors say. They are fumbling in the dark on this one, for the most part.

It's extraordinary how diverse the symptoms for this can be. Me: dry skin, dermatitis herpetiformis (small itchy clear bubbles), constipation, diarrhea, breast (not chest) pains, bloating, then moving on to leg "vibrations" and burning palms, red flushes, cramped hands and "unidentified bright objects" on my Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

 

Got a probable diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, then found out that many gluten-intolerant people have a "neuro dominant" expression or some form of neurological problems. (At least 10% according to one site--search "House episode on celiac disease" and then choose the "wikis" link.)

 

I read an article in Scientific American about how much of the world's wheat fell to a fungus--rust--that led many of the world's growers in the late 90's to spray with fungicides. Then when that grew expensive, they turned to a Turkish wheat strain that was resistant to rust. AND, the gluten levels in wheat flour have risen from 2% in the 50s to over 20% now. Did you know it is often sprayed onto the flour after grinding to raise the gluten levels?

 

I first went to spelt and got some relief. Then cut out that. More symptoms went away. Still ate oats. Until I gave up oats (unless certified gluten free) and ALL forms of gluten, had residual symptoms. They still come back, sometimes as small bumps around the edge of my scalp, if I accidentally eat gluten.

 

Other symptoms: my sister: bloating, especially her face. One niece: absolute moon face even when rail thin. Another niece: heart palpitations, mood alterations, digestive difficulties, etc.

 

All symptoms resolved on a gluten free diet. Someday folks will look back at us as we look at the Romans who used lead glazes on all their dinnerware and poisoned themselves.

 

If you're having these symptoms, research the kinds of common foods you wouldn't ordinarily think contain gluten: vinegar, except rice vinegar and apple cider vinegar, malt products of all kinds including worchestire sauce, soy sauce (try wheat-free tamari), maltodextrin, modified food starch (wheat forms), etc. I had to print out a list and then go through all my food supplies and throw out 2/3. But worth it.

 

Who wants unidentified bright objects showing up in brain scans? (They are also associated with lupus, Alzheimer, multiple sclerosis, other auto-immune diseases) P.S. Blood work inconclusive (I had already given up wheat and they warned me I would need to eat it for a month again first. No way!)

 

Don't always go by what the doctors say. They are fumbling in the dark on this one, for the most part.

Sounds familiar--Could this be a family member writing this comment on her birthday? Even though I didn't think I was one of the family members to suffer from gluten intolerance--I'm beginning to wonder. I have recently experienced toe joint pain and leg cramps, as well restless leg syndrome in the evening. Could these symptoms come from my exposure to gluten? Hmm...I will try a gluten free diet for a few weeks and see if there is a connection. Thank you for sharing this site.

I'm reading this article and every single comment and I can't be more angry that I've spent my whole life. I'm 53 right now and suffering from celiac disease manifested with all classical complications associated with that. I have lost all my savings trying to get help and find a doctor who could treat me. I ended up with a psychiatrist, who diagnosed me with depressive disorder. My doctor is constantly changing my anti- depressive medications because none of them have been working, and telling my mother I am just a hypochondriac and I have to work more. I forgot to say, none of my family members believed me even when I got so sick, that I could not work any more and went on disability with. Every one of them and even my best friend who is not my friend any more- I'm just lazy and something with my head even when I could not get up or walk. I looked like a skeleton eating and washing everything down with with frequent hypoglycemia attacks. My weight went down to 95lb. Only a holistic doctor helped me, who put me on organic diet with fruits, veggies, fresh juices, meat and brown rice (no wheat bread). But he never mentioned the word gluten. And it never occurred to me any connection between eating my whole life wheat and rye bread, semolina and being sick and getting sicker. After getting better I went on my old diet, eating everything and got sick again and even worse rapidly degrading not understanding why and losing any hope. I just got diagnosed with celiac two months ago by young doctor a new graduate, who didn't ignore any of my symptoms: severe depression, anxiety, very weird and scary feelings in my head when I'm eating bread, blurry vision, peripheral neuropathy, loss of balance, frequent pain in the whole gastric intestinal tract, frequent fatty diarrhea with mucus, geographic ulcerated swollen tongue (which I had all my life thyroid, hypoglycemia episodes, cardiovascular problems like arrhythmia, severe osteoporosis, pain in bones, skin problems which do not respond to treatment and getting worse when I eat bread. And finally asthma and difficulty to breath through the nose from swelling after eating bread, constant debilitating fatigue, problems with memory, concentration, attention, orientation, feeling crazy and demented, sometimes forgetting simple words and tasks and not be able to talk and communicate normally. Wondering how could I finish high school and college with very good grades and be good in math, physic and all this technical stuff, with memory oriented to little details. Did these sound like hypochondriac's complaints. I don't think so. After being on gluten-free diet almost for two months I feel so much better, not 100% yet. I can say 50% for sure. But I am getting there. I don't feel crazy any more, very calm without Lorazepam, no scary crawling sensations in my head. More energy and the rest of the symptoms are not so severe right now. I understand there is some damage to the body that is irreversible and being on the very bottom financially due to inability to work, I'm gonna bring my life back again. Thank you very much. Great article. Every doctor should read it.

Lifetime brain related poor living. Yesterday started gluten free. Thank you.

I am grateful that you are making a connection with gluten and the brain. I just started a gluten free diet 3 days ago. For 12 years I've been suffering with intestinal problems, balance issues, massive confusion, memory issues, joint and neurological issues, and depression. Everything has since been chalked up to depression. I believe gluten is it. I stomach hasn't bloated in the last 3 days.

What isn't mentioned here is the simple fact that we cannot digest any refined carbohydrates without using up our reserves of b vitamins as part of the metabolic process, so the functionality of the fine veins supplying the brain is compromised leading to many mental health problems, doctors generally only look for this in cases of extreme alcoholism, but a high sugar diet is just as bad.

Obviously celiacs with reduced capacity to produce digestive enzymes will be particularly prone to this.