the cause(s) of gluten sensitivity (was: antibiotics?)

[Guest guest]

> RE: antibiotics?

>

>

>At 06:25 PM 7/14/2005, you wrote:

>>Heidi,

>>

>>Have you considered that this might be what led to your gluten

>sensitivity?

>>I'm reading an excellent book now re the connection between dysbiosis,

>>yeast, immune deficiency, gluten sensitivity and autism by a Shaw,

>>Ph.D.

>http://www.noamalgam.com/biologicaltreatments.html#frontcover (A MUST

>>read for any parent of an autistic child!) There seems to be some sort of

>>connection between yeast overgrowth and gluten sensitivity. Many autistic

>>kids, before they became autistic IIRC, were on long-term

>antibiotics, often

>>due to ear infections. Many of them had an accompanying yeast infection.

>>Some of them went into remission of their autism after anti-fungal

>>treatment! This is such a great book, filling in many gaps

>between seemingly

>>unrelated health issues such as food allergies, yeast infections, immune

>>deficiency and vaccines, FWIW.

>>

>>

>>Suze Fisher

>

>OK, but why in the world does there have to be a CAUSE for

>gluten sensitivity, other than gluten?

Because millions of people eat gluten and aren't sensitive to it? If it were

gluten alone causing gluten sensitivity then everyone who eats gluten would

be sensitive to it, which is not the case. So there has to be some other

factor at play. Further, even among those with the GS genes, 1 out of 4

aren't sensitive to it (according to Dr. Fine's research). So that rules out

1) gluten being the sole cause of gluten sensitivity

2) gluten AND having the GS genes together being the sole cause of gluten

sensitivity

Let's just be sure we're on the same page when we refer to gluten

sensitivity so that we know we're discussing the same thing. When I refer to

GS I mean an IgA reaction to gliadin. I assume you mean the same thing?

I mean, if I told you I was

>sensitive to mercury, you'd say, " get rid of the mercury: it's toxic " .

>Gluten is somewhat toxic, so the immune system reacts to it.

Mercury is toxic *per se*, gluten is not, in that, not everyone who eats

gluten has an IgA reaction to it. 2/3 of Americans do NOT have an IgA

reaction to gluten, again, according to Dr. Fine. I doubt there are any

similar figures for Hg exposure since it's universally accepted in the

scientific community that Hg is toxic to everyone.

Now, if you're talking about gluten glomming onto villi, that to my

knowledge, does not cause an immune reaction. Does it? Or perhaps there's

some other mechanism whereby gluten causes ain immune reaction in_everyone

that I've never heard of? Please specify what you mean by " so the immune

system reacts to it " . In what way? IgA? Other?

>

>When they test babies for gluten intolerance, a lot of them

>are in fact gluten intolerant, though they don't show symptoms

>for years.

And others aren't. So, for those that develop GS later in life (I seem to be

one of them) something ELSE besides gluten causes the GS genes to express

themselves thus causing an IgA reaction to gluten.

Gluten intolerant kids get a LOT of infections. So therefore

>they will be on antibiotics. Without the antibiotics, they would likely

>die. But unless you test for gluten intolerance BEFORE and AFTER

>the antibiotics, you can't show that the antibiotics triggered the

>intolerance.

Right, but that doesn't mean the antibiotic treatment can't lead to GS. I'll

go back and read that section of the Shaw book cuz I don't recall off the

top of my head the mechanism whereby this might be possible or perhaps I

mixed it up with something else. There are so many interralations between

the gut microflora, the immune system and allergies!

Ditto for vaccines, mercury, sugar, fungi, or any of the other

>various " triggers " people keep coming up with. The common element

>in ALL the cases is gluten

Not JUST gluten though, but gluten and a GS gene that has *expressed*.

Without the expressed gene one doesn't get GS, as I understand it. So the

other common denominator is a trigger - something that causes the gene to

express itself. Now, perhaps in the case of *some* folks that could be

simply too much gluten? I don't know. But I find it interesting that my GS

genes seemed to have expressed at a time when I was consuming a lot LESS

gluten than I previously had and at around age 40.

In any case, there are any number of things that cause genes to express or

not express including nutrition, which is a biggie.

.... wherever it gets introduced, people have

>problems. Wherever it is removed, people stop having problems.

>A gluten intolerant person who eats gluten will have problems with

>all *kinds* of other environmental issues. For my family, I just

>removed the gluten, and the other environmental issues are all ok.

But you said you have sinus problems, right? Even so, once the gene is

*expressed* then certainly removing gluten will have a major positive impact

on one's health. That still doesn't mean gluten itself is the only causal

factor.

>

>Anyway, there is ample evidence, from the food aid sent to

>other countries, that gluten all by itself can cause gluten

>intolerance.

I don't think you can draw that conclusion based on the food aid situation.

Food aid is sent to people who don't have enough food, who are

undernourished, malnourished, experiencing wars, drought, and/or famine.

Since it has been established that our nutritional status can cause genes to

express differently, this is a variable that must be taken into account when

looking at the food aid situation. Thus, I don't think we can

automatically assume that gluten alone is the sole cause of GS in the food

aid recipient population, at minimum, since their nutritional status does

not represent that of the entire rest of the world, and may be causing their

genes to express in a particular way.

And since this seemed to be true in Price's time

>too (prior to antibiotics) and it seems to be true in studies on

>gluten sensitive dogs,

From the research I've seen on dogs, gluten sensitivity is known to be a

problem in Irish Setters. I haven't heard of it being a problem with any

other breed, but that doesn't mean it's not. So, it seems that Irish Setters

tend to have a GS gene. As with most or all dogs at the time of the research

(several years ago) they were likely on a kibble diet. This is a sub-optimal

diet for dogs and certainly could potentially cause problems that might lead

to GS gene expression. But I'm not sure the research has gone very far in

this area in relation to dogs. I'd love to see a study of Irish Setters on a

doggie WAP diet (raw meat/bones/organs) versus Irish Setters on kibble

comparing the prevalance of GS between the two groups.

there is no reason to think an additional

>trigger is needed.

Except for the fact that not everyone exposed to gluten is gluten sensitive

and that it seems to require an *expressed* GS gene in order to be GS.

If they can prove it with before and after

>tests though, it would prove me wrong!

I think that would be a very informative test. Along with " before and after

candida overgrowth " , " before and after vaccines " etc! Something, something,

something is causing these GS genes to express in different people at

different stages in their lives. It seems to me that there's more than one

potential trigger. But it also seems to me that a trigger is almost always

involved, or at least, *often* involved. Maybe, due to the pregnant mother's

diet, or the infant's diet, an infant's GS genes will be expressed from

birth, or shortly thereafter. But for others, this just doesn't seem to be

the case, aside from whether or not they have symptoms.

Suze Fisher

Lapdog Design, Inc.

Web Design & Development

http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3shjg

Weston A. Price Foundation Chapter Leader, Mid Coast Maine

http://www.westonaprice.org

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