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Proactively Determining Your Risk
By Dr. James Braly M.D., and Ron Hoggan, M.A.
Gluten grains are a leading cause of many ailments. Avoiding gluten prevents and often reverses these diseases. Should you passively wait for the signs and symptoms of disease to arrive before taking action? There are many cases of apparently healthy individuals who seem to suddenly succumb to celiac associated cancers, autoimmune diseases, or other serious celiac-associated ailments, although there is little prior indication of the underlying disease.
Fortunately, there are rational alternatives. With the help of simple, affordable blood tests that are available to all health consumers, you can now determine your genetic makeup and the presence or absence of antibodies indicating gluten sensitization and celiac disease. In addition, armed with the information in this book, you can examine your own family and medical history for evidence of a gluten problem.
None of these sources can conclusively diagnose celiac disease or gluten sensitivity. However, the patterns formed by an orderly examination of information drawn from all of these areas will reveal your own unique risk of developing one or more gluten-induced ailments.
Information on relevant testing and when to eliminate gluten from one's diet will follow in later chapters. Understanding what signs indicate risk and how to evaluate your own unique pattern of risk is the most important first step toward preventing, arresting, and/or reversing gluteninduced illness. The cause of many symptoms and complaints often becomes obvious in hindsight, yet it remains obscure to those of us who still consider wheat to be the staff of life.
The relationship between mucus and diet is not a new theory. In 1912, Dr. Arnold Ehret released a book called, The Mucusless Diet and Healing System. He discusses in great detail, the mucus-forming effect of various foods. Ehret theorized that all disease is caused by a clogging of the tube and membrane structures within the body due to a build-up of restrictive mucus.
Foods that form mucus have a glue-like bond, tightly holding their molecules together. In milk, it is casein, in wheat, rye, oats and barley, the glue-like substance is gluten. The dictionary defines gluten as a tough, sticky mixture of plant proteins, obtained by washing out the starch from wheat or other cereal flour and used as an adhesive and thickener. These glue-like bonds require strong stomach acids for digestion.
Lack of chewing and poor food combinations make it impossible for the stomach acids to properly dissolve the bond between these molecules. After digestion, many food particles are still too large to be used by the body. In a short time, the oversized, partly-digested food particles start to putrefy and are coated with mucus to prevent further putrefaction while still in the intestine.
Please visit this page for detailed info about mucus (gluten) and what to do about it.
Self-Examination
In your search for clues and warning signs, the first place to look is within. You know your own moods better than anyone. You know your cravings or addictions. You know your own habits. You are probably more aware of your appearance and stature, too. Who could know your sleep requirements and energy levels better than you? And what about your perceptions, minor pains, abdominal bloating, and your susceptibility to colds or the flu? Each of us is our own best expert when it comes to ourselves.
Questions to Ask Yourself Now, Rather than Later
1. Is there anyone in your immediate family who is a proven celiac or is gluten sensitive?
Yes
no
If yes, you are at high risk of having or developing gluten problems.
2. Are you or is any member of your immediate family a victim of an autoimmune disease such as insulin-dependent diabetes, autoimmune thyroid disease, or Addison's (adrenal) disease?
Yes
no
All of these conditions are commonly found in celiacs and their family members.
3. What are your eating habits? Do you have food cravings?
Yes
no
if so, what foods do you crave? if dairy products or foods with high levels of gluten are on your list, we suggest that you seek testing for celiac disease and food allergies. Because some of the partial proteins from gluten and dairy products can be highly addictive, if they are regularly absorbed into the circulation, cravings for these foods are cause for concern.
4. After meals, do you often feel bloated and uncomfortable? Do you have to loosen your belt? Is breathing more difficult? Is the bloating often associated with an inexplicable gain of two to five pounds within a twenty-four-hour period?
Yes
no
5. Have you ever had one or more bouts of severe abdominal cramping?
Yes
no
If you have celiac disease or gluten sensitivity, such cramping can sometimes be so severe that it leads to shock. In such cases there is always a gluten-induced potassium deficiency, often accompanied by magnesium and/or calcium deficiency.
6. Do you have strange or addictive reactions to alcohol?
Yes
no
Either may also signal gluten sensitivity. We know that alcohol causes and aggravates a leaky gut; many authorities believe that a leaky gut is a common cause as well as a consequence of food allergies and gluten sensitivity.
7. Are you a smoker?
Yes
no
A powerful tobacco addiction can also signal gluten sensitivity. Smoking can amount to a form of neurochemical "self-medication" for those who have problems with gluten. Smoking delays diagnosis and allows the progression of the disease. Such addictions are very difficult to break because quitting means more than simply dealing with the fleeting experience of withdrawal. It will bring about a reduction in general health and, in many former smokers, major depression-which will persist until the underlying problem with gluten is diagnosed and treated.
8. Do you struggle with anxiety and/or depression?
Yes
no
These are common signs of gluten sensitivity.
9. What about your visual perceptions? Have you ever been sitting quietly, staring into the distance when things appeared much more distant than is possible? Or maybe they were distorted?
Yes
no
If you have had such sensations, you may well have a problem with gluten.
10. What about your sleep habits? Do you usually have difficulty getting to sleep?
Yes
no
11. Do you have an excessive need for sleep?
Yes
no
12. Are you disoriented and confused when you awaken?
Yes
no
13. Do you have to get up frequently during the night to urinate?
Yes
no
14. Are you, or have you ever been, a bed wetter?
Yes
no
Such patterns suggest a problem with gluten, dairy proteins, or both.
15. Do you often have difficulty finding the energy for life's daily demands?
Yes
no
Your body may be giving you an early warning. Lethargy of unknown cause is another common sign.
Important sign of a problem with gluten
Several physical features, including your height and weight, can identify significant risk factors. People of below normal height, and especially children in the lowest 10th percentile, should, in the absence of a solid medical explanation for their stature, consider testing. Because susceptibility to the hazards of gluten is largely genetic, even where short stature appears to be a family trait, the possibility that gluten is an underlying cause in all family members should not be ignored.
Short stature and growth retardation can provide important warnings. Just as reduced stature was part of our ancestors' transition to agriculture, growth stunting continues to be a factor in celiac disease. In fact, half of all young celiacs over the age of two years are short compared to their peers.
There are many reports of short stature in connection with undiagnosed celiac disease. Some groups report rates of undiagnosed celiac disease in about one quarter of the subjects studied. Others report that as many as half of the individuals of short stature, when the cause of their short stature was unknown, have been diagnosed with celiac disease when tested. Little wonder that these researchers repeatedly urge testing all people of short stature for celiac disease. Even where growth hormone abnormalities are found, celiac testing is warranted because gluten can suppress growth hormone release.
Obese Celiacs No Longer A Contradiction
Obesity is another warning sign that gluten may be at the root of your difficulties. Despite the long-standing perception that celiac disease leads to frail, wasting, undernourished individuals, there are more obese and overweight celiacs than underweight. This is revealed through random testing for celiac disease.
Recommended: book from Dr. James Braly "Dangerous Grains"
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