Gluten Part 1

I wrote in a previous post that I truly believe I was on the inflammatory pathway towards cognitive decline before I turned my health around.

In that post, I described Dr. Dale Bredesen’s three types of Alzheimer’s disease, which he lays out in his book “The End of Alzheimer’s.” He points to chronic inflammation as a key contributor to Alzheimer’s disease and singles out gluten as one of several foods that almost always cause inflammation. (He also singles out sugar, dairy, trans fats and even grains in general, including the so called “healthy” whole grans, but we’ll save discussion on these for another day.)

Gluten is the sticky protein found in wheat, barley, rye, oats and kamut and is hidden in a plethora of other common foods and everyday items. Celiac.com offers a complete list of “unsafe” ingredients under its “articles” tab, “Unsafe gluten-free food list.” Bredesen explains the human body has not evolved to process gluten (or the other mentioned foods) and as a result it damages the intestines, even in those who do not test positive for celiac.

“Although only 5 percent of the U.S. population has a marked gluten sensitivity, such as that causing celiac disease, gluten can damage the gut lining in most of us, leading to leaky gut and chronic inflammation, among other problems,” he says. (I’ll have more on leaky gut next week.)

I had no knowledge of this doctor’s wise words when I first decided to give up gluten in early 2013. All I knew was my body was crying out for help, and my brother had told me how much better he had felt after giving it up.

Blood tests can determine gluten sensitivity, but Dr. Christiane Northrup, Ob-Gyn, recommends in her two phenomenal books, “Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom” and “The Wisdom of Menopause” to instead simply cut gluten from your diet for two-three weeks, reintroduce it and then see how you feel.

Some people might think the blood test would be the simpler route than suddenly and totally altering their diet. However, I decided the easiest path for me was to follow Northrup’s advice — although I didn’t know I was following it at the time having not yet read her books. I opted to give up gluten for only one week. During that time I noticed an elevation to my overall mood and clearer thinking, but I really wasn’t sure if it was brought on by the lack of gluten or if it was a coincidence. When people would ask during that week how I felt being off gluten, I said “I don’t know. I think it’s helping, but I’m not sure.”

I put gluten to the test at the end of the week by splurging with pizza. My initial reaction wasn’t terrible, just some bloating and lethargy. But the next day made me say, “yep, never having gluten again.”

I need to stress that my reaction was not gastrointestinal-related. It was almost strictly mental. The day after reintroducing gluten, a fog closed over me and I was very muddled. I was very depressed, anxious and lethargic and found it difficult to drag my butt out of bed or off the couch. (Thankfully it was a Sunday, and I was able to make it a lazy day.) I realized for the first time that day that I had been living the previous how many years of my life in this awful fog. And it really was a fog, not being able to see, think or understand things clearly.

When my brain and my body as a whole became free of gluten once again, it was as if the clouds parted and the sun began to shine through for the first time in a very long time. And the incredible thing is I never realized it through all of my prior gluten-laden years. Only hindsight opened my eyes to just how much I had actually suffered.

Amazingly, my willpower held out and I was mostly successful in staying gluten free through all of 2013. I actually very quickly dropped 10 pounds in my first month but didn’t lose any more. Also amazingly, my job as a newspaper reporter, day by day, became easier and less stressful. (Read about how I struggled with my job in my previous post.) My editor stopped showing outward signs of animosity and frustration and actually said to me one day, “Amy, you seem to have really turned a corner. You’re doing a good job.” That was a very good day.

The most frustrating part of being gluten free in those early months were people’s reactions when I would tell them I couldn’t eat it. They would show much interest and immediately ask me what would happen when I ate it. Would I get an upset stomach? Diarrhea, etc.? No, I would reply, nothing digestive. I would try to explain to them what I had experienced, sometimes describing it as a roadblock placed at the front of my brain not allowing information in or out. Everyone’s reaction was the same, a simple “oh.” But their expressions clearly said, “So you don’t really have a gluten intolerance…” I wonder if my expression showed them how much I wanted to kick them in the shins.

Gluten sensitivity is not limited to only digestive issues. Northrup says many people are intolerant and don’t even know it. She lists several ailments that can be caused by it:

“Gluten sensitivity masquerades as a host of other disorders including osteoporosis, constipation, inflammatory bowel disease, anemia, cancer, fatigue, canker sores, rheumatoid arthritis and most other autoimmune disorders, migraines, and even anxiety and depression,” she says in “Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom.”

And according to Bredesen, if left unchecked, it’s a strong contributor to Alzheimer’s disease.

Going 100 percent gluten free is not easy as it’s hidden nearly everywhere, from the mysterious “natural flavors” found in many foods’ ingredient lists to cosmetics to even drywall dust. My sister-in-law, Molly, who has Crohn’s disease — a type of inflammatory bowel disease — and for her is exacerbated by gluten, had a reaction when her workplace was undergoing renovations and she breathed in drywall dust. She had to wear a mask everyday thereafter until the renovations were complete and the dust settled.

“Drywall dust continues to be terrible for me,” She recently told me, “but my alien mask from Home Depot helps when I know I’ll be around it. I ended up with pneumonia when we moved into this house (the house she and my brother recently had built). Glad it’s all out of here now, but (I’m) not sure I’d move into a brand new house again.”

Luckily for me, my intolerance is not that severe. I don’t notice a reaction when I ingest small amounts of gluten, so I don’t have to follow it as strictly as Molly. Unfortunately this proved to be my undoing in 2014. That year was a bad one. For the first time in 12 years, I took a step back from primary caregiving, deciding to move to a new city to live with my boyfriend. A few short months later, my father’s health began to fail, and we lost him on July 12 (read my post on Dad here). I definitely felt a lot of guilt, believing that my leaving him played a role in his decline. I repeated over and over, “if I had only known, I would have delayed my move … Maybe if I hadn’t moved, things would be different.” I craved comfort foods to help deal with my grief, I slowly started allowing myself increasing amounts of gluten while still eating plenty of sugar. That 10 pounds I had lost was regained in the blink of an eye.

My Ob-Gyn at my annual October appointment that year asked about the weight lost and then regained, and I told her my story. She said it sounded like I truly do have a gluten intolerance, and the weight I lost was the result of my body slacking its inflammatory response to it. She said part of the body’s defense mechanism, along with inflammation, is to hold on to fat cells. As inflammation in the body lessens, so do the number of fat cells. She recommended I go off gluten again and this time stick with it.

I promised her I would and also said I knew I would need to take it a step further and try to reign in my skyrocketing sugar addiction. I hoped rather than believed I could and set my sights on 2015. After all, who can overhaul their diet with the holidays just around the corner?

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