The Gluten Connection

The Gluten Connection

Gluten is a vegetable protein ‐ most commonly known as wheat protein. It is found primarily in wheat, rye, and barley. Today, grains (even organic) are genetically engineered to have a high gluten content.

With a high gluten content, you can bake wonderful bread that is crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. But gluten has a dark side. Many people are allergic or sensitive to it.

If you are completely allergic to it, the diagnosis is usually Celiac disease. If you are sensitive to it, you will just be chronically sick and disabled. And if you are like most people, you will go through life never knowing the connection; your doctors will never discover the connection; you will endure endless, useless medical treatments; your life will be impaired in one or a myriad of ways; and no one will ever Even if you are lucky enough to find a doctor who tests for gluten, the test will be useless. Medical gluten tests only turn up positive after the intestinal linings have been all but destroyed. And standard medical testing for wheat allergies is also useless. So you will be left out in the cold, chronically ill, and having to think on your own and outside the box.

So, just stop and think for a minute. If medical science can’t help because you’ll never be tested with a useful test, what can you do? The answer is simple and in medical terms, rather old fashioned. It is the Elimination Diet. Simple ‐ just eliminate gluten for a month and see how you feel.

Unfortunately the processed food industry has made this simple test hard. Gluten is now in almost all processed foods. So for 30 days you will have to eat real foods only, with nothing out of a package. You’ll actually have to eat meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds ‐ not exactly starvation. And although it takes some people more than 30 days to overcome the devastating effects of gluten, by the end of this time, you will know if you are on to something.

And how many people suffer from gluten sensitivity? Experts feel that the number is approximately 1 out of 150 to 200. That is a huge number. And because gluten is used in virtually all boxed, packaged, and canned processed foods, and because we live in a processed‐food nation, it is easy to see the If you are gluten sensitive, gluten could be causing a variety of ailments, from allergies to paralysis. If by the end of 30 days you are feeling better when you never could before, simply eliminate gluten from your diet for a year. If you are gluten sensitive, after 6 to 12 months on a gluten‐free diet you will become a new person. And the same goes for your kids and grandkids. How do I know? Well after 30 years and 70,000 patients, I’ve come across my share of gluten sensitive people.

In fact it is so common now, with these genetically engineered grains, that I routinely put every patient, regardless of their symptoms, on a wheat ‐ or gluten‐free diet for at least 30 days. No matter what their medical testing has shown! And what happens? Here is what happens, as told by some of our patients “Dear Dr. West, How can I ever thank you enough for discovering that it is gluten that was my enemy? I have been epileptic for more than 40 years. I suffered through endless prescriptions that controlled my seizures, but left me half a person. Then I came to you for headaches. You told me to eliminate gluten,  and I felt better after just 48 hours. After a month, I still had no headaches. You suggested that gluten may have been playing a role in my epilepsy, so I asked my doctor to slowly cut back the dose of my Dilantin.

Well gluten wasn’t playing a role in my epilepsy, it was causing it! After 6 months I was finally free of that dreadful Dilantin. And now after 2 years, I have remained seizure free. To say I am a new person is an understatement. I am reborn. And to think, I lost almost 50 years of my life because no one told me that gluten could cause epilepsy. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. ”

“Dear Dr. West, Were you ever right about our granddaughter. As you know, by age 7 Sarah had been snoring like a truck driver for several years. She was constantly stuffed up, had chronic colds and bronchitis, and at her young age, had already had more than a dozen doses of antibiotics. She had trouble in school, had skin problems, and seemed to be on the road to asthma. You remember the video I sent you of Sarah snoring so loud that the room shook.

Well now take a look at this video. After you told us to get Sarah off gluten, all her problems disappeared. And as you can see and hear from the video, she sleeps like an angel ‐ no snoring, no nothing. It’s amazing that gluten was causing all of Sarah’s problems (she’s even good in school now).

It’s amazing that none of her doctors told us about this. And it’s amazing that we found you and the cure to Sarah’s problems. Thank you. ”

“Dear Dr. West, I have been shuffling and stumbling around for 15 years. I could only shuffle around slowly, fell easily and all the time, and was an invalid. My doctors told me that I had some kind of neurological disease. When you looked over my tests, you at least told me the truth. You said there was no real reason why I could not walk. You suggested that I see a good chiropractor, and that I might be suffering from gluten ataxia. I was already diagnosed as having ataxia, but I had never heard of gluten ataxia. When I brought it up to my doctors, they ignored me. I followed your advice to eliminate gluten anyway.

I never made it to a chiropractor, but after 10 days off gluten, I could walk better. To make a long story short, I was completely normal after 6 months. Like you said, I never had a disease. My doctors rejected the gluten‐elimination cure. They simply said that I had a spontaneous remission. No matter, we know better. Thank you. ”

Gluten Specifics

If you have any of the following problems, the cause could very possibly be gluten. And if you do have any of the following problems, you owe it to yourself to eliminate gluten for at least 30 (and preferably 90) days. If your problem improves, eliminate gluten for a year. Here is what gluten can cause: dermatitis (all types), lupus, psoriasis, irritable bowel and celiac disease, eczema and acne, asthma, hives, epilepsy, weight loss (or gain), anemia, headaches, autism, giardia, ulcers, multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, heartburn and reflux, arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes, chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia.

 

It is also estimated that close to a quarter million people suffer from ataxia (uncontrolled muscular coordination). Prescription drugs cause much of this but a number of cases are caused by gluten. Gluten‐induced ataxia masquerades as difficulty walking, tremors, slurred speech, uncontrolled leg movements, drooling, and even flashing vision. And gluten can hurt children ‐ with many suffering greatly from gluten sensitivity. In children, many of the gluten‐related problems are neurological. If you have kids or grandkids who can’t perform or concentrate in school, test them. If they have ADD, ADHD, or even autism, test them. If they have epilepsy, seizures, tics, depression, and/or anxiety, test them. Or if they are just plain sick with anything at all, test them. And the test is just to eliminate gluten for 30 days. If they show any sign of improvement, keep them off gluten for 6 to 12 months.

If you want to learn more about the problems that gluten can cause, get a copy of the book, The Gluten Connection, by Shari Lieberman. Please don’t suffer without testing for this problem. And don’t startyour children or grandchildren on a half‐century of suffering like Rose. Test them now. If wheat and gluten are not the cause of problems, you will have done your family a favor anyway ‐ by teaching them that they can live without processed food and junk. And as for grains, they are not an essential food!

HEALTH ALERT August 2007 Vol 24 Issue 8