Are you gluten intolerant?
What is gluten
intolerance; tests and treatment, Braly’s sign
Gluten
intolerance is caused by genetic predisposition combined with gluten
consumption and triggering factors like stressful events. People with Braly’s sign,
where the little finger is much shorter than the last joint of the ring finger,
are much more likely to be gluten intolerant than the general population.
Figure 1 Positive Braly's sign
Gluten
is a protein compound found in some grains (highest in Wheat). Gluten is what makes dough “sticky” and
pliable, giving bread its chewy consistency.
Extra gluten is often added to shop bought wheat breads to make them
even softer and chewier than if only plain wheat flour is used. Although wheat contains the highest concentration of gluten
of all the grains, it is also present in Barley, Rye, Oats and Spelt.
The mucous membrane lining of the intestines become inflamed
in people that are gluten intolerant when gluten is consumed. This constant inflammation may eventually
damage the intestinal lining to a point that absorption of nutrients is
negatively affected.
Celiac
disease is diagnosed if gluten intolerance is bad enough to cause
atrophy (thinning) of the intestinal lining with severe nutrient depletion.
The most
commonly experienced symptoms of gluten intolerance are abdominal
bloating and cramps, flatulence,
diarrhoea and/ or constipation, with a whole range of less common
symptoms e.g. eczema, sinusitis, weight
gain, swelling, fatigue and low iron levels.
Testing for
gluten intolerance by blood tests will only be positive if there is
severe digestive inflammation and gluten is still consumed (blood
anti-transaminase, anti-myelysin and anti-gliadin). Genetic tests can also highlight a tendency
to gluten intolerance (the markers of HLA-DQ2 or HLA-DQ8 haplotype) but are
extremely expensive and only shows a predisposition to gluten intolerance and
not that the disease is present. An
anti-gliadin stool test can be performed if the patient is currently eating
gluten , and bioresonance tests e.g. BIORES or BEST tests can be preformed
(which are cost effective).
Treatment of
gluten intolerance is complete or partial avoidance of gluten, depending
on the severity of the symptoms. In
people that are highly gluten intolerant as little as a knifepoint (1g) of
gluten can cause intestinal damage.
L-glutamine (an amino acid that is only related to gluten by name) is
highly effective in repairing intestinal lining damage.
References:
Braly, J and Hoggan, R; Dangerous grains 2009
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluten
