Gluten Intolerance: when wheat is the enemy
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About this ebook
Have you been struggling with recurring symptoms such as gastrointestinal complaints, fatigue, headaches, anemia, anxiety, itchiness, joint pain or allergies for a long time without finding the cause? Gluten might just be the culprit you have been trying to uncover.
Gluten intolerance is a digestive illness which causes an inability to properly digest the gluten found in wheat, oats, rye, barley, spelt and kamut. Without proper nutrient absorption, the body becomes malnourished and vulnerable to other disorders. Gluten is now believed to be a contributing factor in the development of diseases and conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, arthritis, fibromyalgia, depression, multiple sclerosis, autism, endometriosis, infertility, osteoporosis and many more.
This book is the outcome of many years of research through the author’s work in the holistic field with hundreds of clients desperately seeking a cause and solution to their ailments. Gluten intolerance: when wheat is the enemy covers all aspects of gluten-related disorders, explaining all there is to known about gluten sensitivity and celiac disease.
Gisèle Frenette has been living a gluten-free life for more than twenty years. After a career as a nurse, nutritional consultant and phytotherapist, she now dedicates her time and energy to helping others through writing books and articles on various health topics.
Gisèle Frenette
Ayant œuvré dans le domaine de la santé depuis plus de 30 ans comme infirmière, consultante en nutrition, naturothérapeute et phytothérapeute diplômée, Gisèle Frenette continue de partager ses connaissances par le biais de l’écriture. Elle est l’auteure de 7 livres dont «L’intolérance au gluten», «L’endométriose : vaincre la douleur et l’infertilité» et «Les 5 messagers du corps». ******* When I won a prize (a book!) for an essay in Grade 5, I decided there and then that I wanted to be a writer. I also participated in my high school newspaper. Many years later, as a nurse and nutritional consultant, I wrote a bimonthly health column for my town's newspaper. After years of work in the holistic field, I wanted to share my knowledge with as many people as possible. I went on to write 7 books of different health-related subjects (French), of which one was translated to English and another to Italian and Polish. I continue to write articles for my two health blogs. Come and join me on Facebook, Google Plus and Twitter. You can read all about my personal struggle with gluten in my book "Gluten intolerance" and hopefully find answers to all your questions. Happy reading!
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Gluten Intolerance - Gisèle Frenette
Gluten Intolerance: When wheat is the enemy
by Gisèle Frenette
Copyright 2012 Gisèle Frenette
Smashwords Edition
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
The material contained in this book is for informational purposes only. It is not intended to offer medical advice nor be used as a substitute for seeking health care from a licensed professional. Nutritional and herbal supplements can cause side effects, allergic reactions or interact with medication. The author may not be held responsible for any such consequences.
"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food"
Hippocrates (460 - 377 B.C.)
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: An unknown hazard
Chapter 2: Gluten intolerance is real
Chapter 3: Digestion of gluten
Chapter 4: Conditions related to celiac disease
Chapter 5: The diet
Chapter 6: Other sources of gluten
Chapter 7: Recovering our health
Chapter 8: The psychological aspect of the disease
Chapter 9: Testimonials
Conclusion
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Connect with the author
Introduction
This book was written to bring hope to the hundreds of thousands of people coping with a difficult to diagnose health concern. This condition can disguise itself so well it will puzzle even the most conscientious doctors, forcing them to review their findings repeatedly, while individuals suffering from this disease try as best they can to enjoy life. Nowadays, we are well acquainted with autoimmune diseases. We discuss fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue as if they were trivial viruses while allergies are causing havoc for a large percentage of the population, and now, we have celiac disease, the new kid on the block, an affliction considered rare until recently.
What you are reading is the outcome of many years of research through my work in the holistic field with hundreds of clients desperately seeking a cause and solution to their ailments. Celiac disease or gluten intolerance is not discriminatory; it will strike anyone, from infancy to the adult years including the elderly. My goal in writing this book is to elucidate the mystery surrounding this disease, permitting a quick diagnosis, as healing is close at hand for everyone; all that is needed is a bit of patience and a lot of willpower.
Through this book, the reader will acquire considerable knowledge of celiac disease, giving him the possibility of a quick and accurate diagnosis without useless wandering, therefore minimising damage to his health. The first two chapters will guide you through years of research on celiac disease and will describe its causes and symptoms. Chapter three and four will examine diagnostic methods as well as many conditions associated with the gluten intolerance.
We will then learn where gluten can be found and which foods are permitted in a gluten-free diet. The subsequent chapters will give us useful hints on how to rebuild our health, both physically and psychologically. These will be followed by heartfelt testimonials bringing to light the reality of celiac disease.
This book covers all aspects of gluten-related disorders; it explains everything there is to known about gluten sensitivity and celiac disease. It is meant to be a comforting and valuable aid, filling you with hope and optimism on your way to well-being. This is the missing link I searched for for years in my own struggle to regain my health. It gives me great pleasure to share it with you.
Chapter1: An unknown health hazard
Despite the fact that a large number of people throughout the world suffer from gluten intolerance, it is still relatively unknown to most. This condition masquerades under multiple forms, hindering diagnosis. Of nearly epidemic proportion, its symptoms can vary from a seemingly harmless stomach ache to severe complications implicating the immune system. This disease does not discriminate between ages. Awareness of this condition is the key to controlling the extent of its damage to people’s general health.
What is gluten intolerance?
A long time ago, a human being’s main preoccupation was to survive, making him a food provider before all else. His life depended on surrounding plants and herbs, in addition to animal hunting. About ten thousand years ago, cultivation of cereals such as wheat started. All of the sudden, the human body had to adjust to this drastic change of diet. This brings us to question whether this change was too demanding for the human digestive tract.
Gluten intolerance, also referred to as celiac disease, is a digestive condition brought on by the ingestion of gluten, which is the protein of certain grains. The inability to properly assimilate gluten can often lead to the malabsorption of certain nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, sugars, protein and fat. It is in fact a form of reaction from the immune system which appears in genetically predisposed individuals. We will elaborate on the causes of this disease in the following chapter.
The true origin of the disease has not yet been discovered, but we know that certain elements from the immune system such as antibodies, cytokines and lymphocytes are implicated in the process. The immune system of people suffering from celiac disease does not function as it should. It reacts to the presence of gluten by attacking the inner lining of its small intestine, in a manner very similar to the body’s rejection of an organ transplant (heart, kidney). Since this part of the intestine is of major importance to the absorption of nutrients essential to life, deficiencies accumulate until a proper diagnosis is established and a gluten-free diet is started.
A total avoidance of gluten is the only solution known to date to relieve the symptoms and complications arising from celiac disease, and to promote intestinal recovery. The exclusion of gluten, in all of its forms, is to be considered a lifetime plan.
Definition of gluten
Gluten is the protein portion contained in wheat, oats, rye and barley. The two major constituents of gluten are prolamines and glutenins. The prolamine in gluten is called gliadin and is responsible for celiac disease. Gliadin is the protein fraction of wheat to which the intestine reacts by developing inflammation. Glutenin on its own is inoffensive, but since it is always accompanied by gliadin in cereals, it is automatically eliminated from the diet.
Each grain contains a different amount of gliadin. This is what determines the severity of the body’s reaction. For the individual who is gluten intolerant, the body’s reaction will be directly proportional to the amount of gliadin ingested.
Gliadin has a low molecular weight, which gives products made with cereal grain flours their extensibility and elasticity, in other words, its ability to rise in volume. We will discuss gluten’s utility some more in chapter two.
Gliadin is the specific name given to the prolamine in wheat. Other cereals that are toxic to gluten intolerant individuals are also constituted of prolamines of similar composition, consequently causing the same harmful reactions in the body. Secalin is the prolamine in rye, hordein, that of barley, and avenin, that of oats. All prolamines are detrimental to celiacs and forbidden in a gluten-free diet.
History throughout the years
Gluten intolerance is not a new condition, only its classification as celiac disease is recent. It may be correct to state that one of the consequences of civilization was that a small percentage of the population whom could not tolerate wheat became ill.
As far back as 250 A.D., a Roman physician, by the name of Galen gave the first description of both childhood and adult celiac disease. His writings were edited and translated in 1856. They demonstrated a remarkable knowledge of celiac disease and its symptoms. He utilized the Greek word koiliakos¹ which originally meant suffering from the bowels.
Passing through Latin, k
becomes c
and oi
becomes oe
. If we drop the Greek ending os
, we get the word coeliac that is another spelling of celiac.
In India, as early as 1500 B.C., medical literature written in Sanskrit described intestinal diseases, including what could have been celiac disease. Sanskrit is an ancient Indic language that is the classic literary language of India.
In 1669, a Dutch physician, Vincent Ketelaer described stomatitis aphthous
in a paper on celiac disease then known as spruw.²
In was in 1888, in Britain, that Samuel Gee gave his description of celiac disease and also mentioned the role of diet in its treatment. His account was considered almost prophetic, particularly his quote, to regulate the food is the main part of treatment… the allowance of farinaceaous foods must be small… but if the patient can be cured at all, it must be by means of diet.
³ Other physicians continued to search for a treatment for this disease, often pediatricians, probably because children responded more rapidly to dietary changes than adults. One of the, Christian Herter, wrote about this ailment in 1908. He was such an authority on the subject that the condition was often referred to as Gee-Herter’s disease.
In 1918, Sir Frederick Still, another renowned children’s physician, drew attention to the possible link between certain intestinal diseases and the negative effect of eating bread. Dr. John Howland developed this theme further in 1921 when he recommended the exclusion of bread, cereals and potatoes from the diet of celiac children for a determined length of time. In 1924, Howland’s partner, the pediatrician and researcher Sidney Haas achieved notice with his use of the banana diet. In a later paper, in 1938, he stated that even a minute amount of certain carbohydrate-containing foods (flour) could produce diarrhea even with hardly any fat in the diet. On the other hand, eating a large amount of bananas was well tolerated even when more fat was included.
World War II (1939-1945) brought about a remarkable discovery that led to the advancement of treatment of celiac disease in children and adults alike. In 1950, a Dutch pediatrician, Professor Willem-Karel Dicke suggested that some cereal grains were harmful to children suffering from certain intestinal symptoms. He had noticed a connection between the sickness of a specific group of children and a particular wartime situation. During this war, Holland was under German occupation. The German troops kept all the protein rich grains such as wheat, rye and barley for themselves, forcing the general population to survive on a diet consisting of potatoes and rice. Surprisingly, the sick kids seemed to thrive on this diet, becoming healthier and growing better than ever. As soon as the war ended and wheat was reintroduced into the diet, they suffered a relapse and their intestinal problems returned.⁴
Dr. Charlotte Anderson, a pioneer of pediatric gastroenterology and her colleagues confirmed this discovery when they examined starch and other constituents extracted from wheat flour. They concluded that the resulting gluten mass
was the culprit in celiac disease. Therefore, since 1950, the gluten-free diet has become the basic treatment for celiac disease.
It was in 1954, during a surgery on an adult celiac patient, that Dr. Paulley first described an abnormality of the lining of the small intestine.⁵ This inflammatory change was later verified on several patients and confirmed as the intestinal lesion called villus atrophy. This breakthrough was of great importance and doctors, both in the United States and throughout the world, agreed that the loss of microscopic villi that usually cover the inner lining of the small intestine was the most essential feature on which to base the diagnosis of celiac disease.
At about the same time, a new diagnostic method, what we now call a biopsy, was optimized to reach the lining of the small bowel. A biopsy is a diagnostic procedure in which a tiny sample of tissue or cells is removed from the body to be examined under a microscope. This greatly contributed to the scientific study of celiac disease. In 1956, the small bowel biopsy was perfected and became the standard technique used to diagnose celiac disease. The tube utilized to do the biopsy was innovated until it was completely flexible and this method was soon accepted worldwide.
In 1958, it was demonstrated that celiac disease in children and adults were identical disorders. In the 1960’s, dermatologists discovered a connection between dermatitis herpetiformis (a skin condition) and the small bowel atrophy associated with the celiac condition. They