Posted on 08/31/2015 1:44:38 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Norwegian scientists have discovered the cause of coeliac disease, the auto-immune disorder which causes gluten intolerance in about one in a hundred people
Professor Ludvig Sollid and his team at the University of Oslo have discovered that coeliac sufferers have one of two defective human leukocyte antigens (HLAs) which cause the immune system to see gluten molecules as dangerous, triggering an immune response which causes severe inflammation and other symptoms.
When a person who has coeliac disease eats gluten, the immune system reacts to gluten as if it were a virus or a bacterium, Sollid told Norways NRK. It attacks the gluten, and part of this attack causes the immune system attacks the body itself.
HLAs are proteins which act as markers, binding to fragments of other proteins, and so telling white blood cells called T-cells how to treat them. The defective HLAs bind to fragments of gluten, fooling the T-cells into thinking they are bacteria or viruses.
We think that this is huge, Sollid said. We understand the immune cells that are activated and why they are activated.
Sollid carried out the research In collaboration with colleagues at the Centre for Immune Regulation at University of Oslo.
Coeliac disease can be a severe disorder, causing debilitating pain, chronic constipation and diarrhoea, stunted growth in children, anaemia and fatigue,
It was first described and named by Aretaeus of Cappadocia, a Greek physician practicing in the 1st century, but it wasnt until the 1940s that it was linked to wheat consumption, and until 1952 that it was specifically linked to gluten.
Is all I know is that if I avoid gluten I dont have the problem that I do otherwise. My Dr said that it can be very difficult to prove exactly what is making the difference, whether it is gluten or something else. Whatever.What I do know is that Im happier not having to worry about the problem.
As it suggests, complex carbohydrates known as FODMAPS may also be a problem. With current medical science, dietary trial and error and close vigilance are essential to figuring out what you can and cannot tolerate. It takes a while, but once you have a reliable list of permitted foods, your tastes slowly reorient themselves and diet becomes a matter of simple habit.
You might also want to take a good vitamin and mineral supplement. GI ailments often cause nutritional deficiencies that compound the primary problem. Deficiencies in fat soluble vitamins like A, D, and E and essential fatty acids and may impair immunity and wound-healing.
What is Betaine HCI and how does it help gut flora? I am gluten sensitive and open to miracles.
Amen.
You just brought back great memories.
I wanted to marry Jacque Pepin’s daughter!
Ping
Betaine HCl is a way of supplementing the available hydrochloric acid for digestive purposes. Most people are deficient of HCl. With adequate HCl the gluten protein should become more completely digested to amino acids that will not attract the attention of your immune system. The leaky gut will also heal and the bacterial flora will become normalized because the stomach acid kills the abnormal bacteria.
Ping...Coeliac disease ping (I know, not infectious, but may be of interest)
Thanks Joe. I do have the genuine disease. And the defective HLA apparently. This will bring a new way of testing to the market.
You’re welcome. Hopefully, some progress will be made.
Thanks. There is hope.
Neat. I was diagnosed over a decade ago. Generally speaking, the further north your ancestors lived, the more likely you are to have Celiac.
You eventually get used to eating gluten-free. I miss the occasional sip of Guinness the most.
Since orange juice is often concentrated and stored, then reconstituted using shared equipment, yes.
Anything over 20 parts per million is not gluten free. Shared equipment would push it far over 20 ppm, so a label that says gluten free actually tells me something I need to know to avoid becoming seriously ill.
I was diagnosed over a decade ago with genetic testing and a scope. I had had symptoms for more than a decade, which corresponded to being pregnant with one of my children.
Being ill, pregnancy, or bodily trauma all seem to be able to trigger the gene to begin working. Hopefully treatment will be able to turn it off someday.
Yes, a person does miss "the occasional sip of Guinness" and "the occasional sip of Beamish", when they have to forego those pleasures for some reason!
It can't hurt you to know that a particular product is "gluten-free", and it can be very helpful to a person who has some kind of problem with gluten. It is similar to a product with no sugar, or low-sugar content, which may mean nothing to most people, but can be extremely helpful for diabetic shoppers (who need to restrict the amount of sugar they consume) to be made aware of the sugar content right there in big bold letters on the label.
While most orange juice on the market may be gluten free, there are some beverages which do contain gluten, as well as many other food products which one might not at first suspect as containing gluten.
One food item which contains gluten, even if you might not suspect that at first, is "Twizzlers" candy, believe it or not.
Gluten can come from rye and barley, as well as wheat. Many foods contain an additive called "maltodextrin", and some types of maltodextrin can contain gluten, while other types of maltodextrin are gluten-free. It is very helpful to know from a simple inclusion of "Gluten Free" on the label that a food item does not contain any of these kinds of gluten.
Here is a web site which lists some food items which you might not at first suspect contain gluten, but which do actually contain it.
Surprising Foods That Contain Gluten
Yes, but I would suspect that someone that really has coeliac disease knows this. My comment was towards those that have jumped on the trendy diet bandwagon, and the marketers that place a label on their product to fool them.
For example, take a peek at the Twizzlers package. Does anyone really think that being “As Always, A Low Fat Candy” is really meant for anyone other than the low information eater?
No, we really would not know. Is ‘malt’ on a label malted rice (fine) or malted barley (gluten)?
Is caramel coloring from a gluten source, or is it okay?
What does ‘starch added’ mean? Corn? Rice? Wheat?
What are ‘natural flavors’?
Were those corn tortillas made on the same equipment as wheat tortillas? Were those rice crackers packaged on the same equipment as graham crackers?
You’d think oats/oatmeal was gluten-free, right? Only if it is processed on dedicated equipment. Otherwise, it is cheaper to process it after wheat on the same machinery. If it says “gluten free”, I know that it is safe.
If it doesn’t say “gluten-free”, how do we know?
When 20 ppm is all it takes to do major damage to our guts, something that says “gluten free” means something. Especially in light of the above. I see those and other phrases all the time and even after looking it up, have no idea what it contains unless I see the GF label.
I have to admit that that surprises me, but clearly you would know, being much closer to it. I was basing my thoughts on the “carb-free”/”low-carb” trend of a few years back, where a bag of frozen broccoli would be labeled as such.
You are 100% totally correct that some people treat it as a fad, and they are doing damage to those who need it.
Also, since you mentioned “low-carb”, there is some evidence that low-carb dieting can help turn on the gene in people with it, which would explain some of the increase in Celiac patients. They don’t know how, exactly, but they suspect that the dormant gene is activated when someone eats no wheat on a low-carb diet and then starts back to a regular diet again.
Repeated Celiac damage to the intestines lead to issues damage being done to receptors in the small intestines. The gluten receptors in the intestines also handle corn and milk, so if they are irreparably damaged, the ability to digest those goes, too. If those are gone, finding stuff to eat is even harder.
Plus, the damage eventually leads to a much higher cancer risk.
I wish I didn’t have this.
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