Check to your hands for signs that you could be genetically predisposed to gluten intollerance

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