“Non-celiac gluten intolerance” may exist, but no clues to the mechanism were elucidated.”
So says the conclusion of a recent study where people with no coeliac disease were tested to see how they fared gut and symptom-wise on a gluten free and gluten diet.
Here are the results:
…patients were significantly worse with gluten within 1 week for overall symptoms including pain, bloating, satisfaction with stool consistency and tiredness.
Anti-gliadin antibodies were not induced. There were no significant changes in fecal lactoferrin, levels of celiac antibodies, highly sensitive C-reactive protein, or intestinal permeability. There were no differences in any end point in individuals with or without DQ2/DQ8.
In other words, gluten caused gut symptoms but it was not coeliac disease. This shows that some of the population have gluten sensitivity.
Note here they only looked for DQ2/DQ8 rather than any other gene patterns; it would have been interesting to see if those who reacted had the other DQ genes believed to relate to non-coeliac gluten sensitivity. Also, they only used traditional gluten free diet (as in gliadin-free). I wonder what the result might have been if they had done a grain free (truly gluten free) diet. Finally, no evidence of permeability? After 1 week unlikely to show, and I will bet they were using the lactose/mannitol test which I do not find reliable.
Still, it yet again confirms we are not mad, that NCGS does exist even if they can’t find how it happens – mainly because they are looking to see if it’s the same as coeliac disease, which it isn’t clearly. Moving on nicely..
Source: Foodsmatter newsletter, August 12
Yep. That’s me. Not a coeliac, not got a real allergy to wheat or gluten but it can block me up something rotten. I have to keep my wheat intake to the bare minimum but don’t want to cut it out unless I really have to. So I have the odd pitta bread, wholemeal, and I seem to be OK. Oats are fine. Corn is fine. It’s just that wheaty stuff. Sometimes it’s so painful the stomach cramps wake me in the night.
Hi Ruth, I think you mean not an IgE allergy – non IgE are just as ‘real’. I am being flippant but it does get me when people think intolerances are the second cousin. I know you don’t at all, far from it, but I am making the point for others reading 🙂
Did you see my next post about the confirmation of two types of non coeliac wheat sensitivity too – it sounds like you may be the coeliac type? I would also worry slightly about what damage wheat is doing to you when you consume it, even if your symptoms don’t reveal themselves. There’s a reason they call it ‘silent’ coeliac disease… careful.
Hello Glutenaughts,
Miki highlighted the first thing that came to my mind. IgA, IgD, IgE, IgG, IgM and probably a host of others that didn’t make it into the textbooks. When I cracked open the Merck Manual to find that they had 13 bowel diseases listed under the same heading and the only one they knew for sure had a causative agent was Tropical Sprue I just closed the book. You can see in the article the other point that Miki keeps bringing out: they give lipservice to gluten but only check for gliadin antibodies.
No mention of gluten possibly forming a protein-gluten immune complex and provoking its own response.
They always look to human gene coding (as if they put them there) but no mention of microbe overgrowth using the gluten as a food source (based on THEIR gene coding) and putting off endotoxins that mimic an anaphylactic response, which is what I have seen and people report as responses to these immune assaults just like an insect sting. Did you know that a wasp sting has histamine, kinins and a host of other bioidentical substances in it outside of the toxins? This vaccination, if you will, of these host-similar compounds can lead to antibody-antigen formation so that you become autoimmune to your own chemistry. Autoimmune. Good word when you remember the link that shows that wheat mimics thyroid tissue.
Regarding C-reactive protein: that is another test where they have a name and results but ‘we’re not quite sure what causes it’ game, until you mine the Merck Manual to find that C-reactive protein can rise after dental work like teeth cleaning because the bacteria has gotten directly into the bloodstream. Here again: microbes and endotoxins.
The most important quote I have heard was: If you ask the wrong question, it doesn’t matter what the answer is.
I data mine studies for the patterns that are useful but 90% of the controlled information makes it to the rubbish tip. Even the journal Science had to report that one of its contributors faked all of the data.