Update on Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity

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Update on Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity

If you’re one of those people who have experienced uncomfortable symptoms after eating gluten containing foods, but don’t have Celiac Disease (CD), take heart!!

People who don’t have a diagnosis of CD, but still experience a range of symptoms after eating “gluten” are often dismissed by the medical community. Some of the symptoms that are reported include: abdominal pain, diarrhea and bloating or even fatigue, cognitive difficulties or mood changes. 

One of the reasons that these seem to be “imagined” symptoms is that there currently are no “biomarkers” or biological measurements that confirm a medical reason for staying away from gluten.   Many people, including some physicians, consider anyone other than a biopsy diagnosed celiac as not really needing to eat a gluten-free diet.  It is now estimated that there may be even more people with gluten-sensitivity than there are with celiac disease.

Most recently a study published in BMJ* (formerly the British Journal of Medicine) an international, peer-reviewed medical journal, are finding results that substantiate your symptoms.

The study from Columbia University, used participants who reported symptoms in response to eating wheat and where CD and or having a wheat allergy were already ruled out.  The findings revealed both intestinal cell damage and overall immune causing inflammation in a significant number of these individuals reporting a sensitivity to wheat in the absence of CD.

The study also noted an improvement or normalization in these subject’s immune system once they excluded gluten from their diet for six months.

This means that now there is a biological basis for these symptoms in people with non-celiac gluten or wheat sensitivity.  The gut damage and immune response were detected through significantly elevated levels of several biomarkers.  Stay strong in your convictions, medicine is slowly catching up to your reality.  This is an important area of research that deserves more attention and continued investigation.