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Researchers Pinpoint Cause of Gluten Allergies
An anonymous reader writes "When patients with celiac disease consume foods containing gluten — a protein present in wheat, barley and rye — their immune systems send out an alarm, triggering a response that can damage their intestines and prevent them from absorbing certain nutrients. Now, scientists have pinpointed the culprits most responsible for this harmful reaction: three small fragments within the gluten protein that spark chaos in the gut."
I've always wondered what was the deal with food allergies. I say peanut allergies because it often provokes such an insane reaction. Is it genetic and those genes were always around but we never made the connection between food and symptons or is it something that developed as we changed or our environment changed?
There's other examples of our change of habitats. Heartburn/gastic reflux/stomach cancer is one I remember just off the top of my head.
In addition to allowing gluten to be made more tolerable to those with Celiac disease, I wonder if the discovery of the proteins responsible will lead to a quick and easy test for immune reaction. Something similar to the TB skin test would be great.
A quick, easy to interpret, cheap test may serve to stem the tide of people self-diagnosing as gluten intolerant. I guess as fads go this one is fairly innocuous, with the only real downside being slightly higher prices to subsidize the "gluten free" versions of foods on menus at restaurants. Of course some sites promote it as a cure for all diseases, but that's always the case with any diet. It must be a godsend to real Celiac sufferers though. All of a sudden the gluten-free products they can eat are much more accessible.
The deal is simple
Over cleanliness, over "fear of germs", soccer moms, etc, etc
let the kids play in dirt and eat stuff, no allergies
how long until
The percentage of people who are harmed by arsenic (100) vs. the percentage of people who are harmed by gluten (small).
You are both right and wrong. It is an autoimmune disease, but it's triggered by an environmental factor. Actually quite a few reactions that are traditionally classified as "allergies" follow the same pattern. Serum sickness is another example. Most medication allergies 9true allergies, not adverse effects) are in the same category.
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Historically, grains were a much poorer source of gluten than they are now. Through selective breeding and through milling processes that refine flour, wheat flour is now 13 to 23% gluten, depending on a number of factors, with whole grain flour being nearer the lower end of that range.
In addition, wheat generally and gluten specifically have become ubiquitous in the foods we eat. For example, soy sauce, which can easily be made gluten free, is often mainly wheat nowadays, especially the Japanese varieties of soy sauce. In the past, a person's gluten exposure was probably comparatively low and, combined with shorter life expectancies, gluten allergies were not as problematic.
Today, with wheat being in all sorts of foodstuffs, gluten allergies are becoming increasingly common, especially among middle-aged and elderly people. Our systems simply become so overwhelmed with gluten that the allergic inflammatory responses become a source of serious illness in some people. When coupled with the malabsoprtion syndrome that accompanies it, since an inflamed, damaged intestinal system absorbs poorly, vitamin deficiencies (especially vitamins E, D and K) gluten allergies cause real illness in many people.
Such illnesses probably remained sub-clinical in people in previous centuries but now, aided by enhanced severity, we better understand what's happening and we are better able to diagnose the trouble.
As for peanuts, just think of how peanuts have become readily available the world over and how they are contained in all sorts of foods, now. Historically, peanuts were a local food that formed a small part of the diet for people in areas near where they were found. In ways similar to what I mentioned above, peanut allergies are much more common and much more severe than ever before.
HTH
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First, this research is great. However I want to point out that celiac disease is not an allergy, it is an autoimmune disorder. Calling celiac an allergy makes people think if they have it they will break out into hives or their face will swell if they eat gluten. This contributes to most with celiac not knowing they have the disease. According to U Chicago's Celiac Disease Center, 97% of those with Celiac are undiagnosed (http://www.celiacdisease.net/assets/pdf/CDCFactSheets%20FactsFigures%20v3.pdf). Examples of symptoms of celiac are fatigue, mental disorders, abdominal pain, joint pain... a full list is here: http://www.celiacdisease.net/assets/pdf/CDCFactSheetsSymptoms2.pdf Also about 1 in 133 americans have celiac, however 41% of adults and 60% of children are asymptomatic.
As a celiac'er myself, I can say that's not true. I ate dirt, played in the mud, my mom was not overprotective, and I still got critical anemia from damage to my gut from gluten. Also, as noted below, celiac/gluten intolerance is not an allergy - it's an autoimmune disorder.
N, it's not so 'simple'. Although there is a tendency towards fewer environmental allergies in people exposed to a larger mix of allergens ('dirt and stuff') it's by no means a binary thing. Allergic reactions are complex and multifactorial. I don't think the driving force behind allergic responses is a Darwinian selection sort of thing (remember, not EVERYTHING is a selection factor). It may well be that the inherent complexity of the challenge - response systems in the immune system leads to 'problems'. Although the immune system is a hugely functional piece of kit (try living without one for a while) it is also responsible for many human diseases when it goes out of whack.
So let your kids play out in the back with the horses and hay but don't be surprised if they get celiac disease. That's apples and oranges. Or Yugos and Hummers. (Added to preempt the inevitable request for an automotive analogy.)
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You're right, but the parent was talking about allergies, peanuts, etc not celiac disease :)
still: http://www.boingboing.net/2010/08/04/westerners-gut-micro.html
how long until
You can acquire an allergy via exposure. A good example is powdered latex gloves. The powder, usually corn starch, picks up small amounts of latex protein and rubs it into the pores of your skin. The powder can also get into the air and carry latex into the lungs. As exposure continues, the risk of having a problem rises. This is a large issue for health care workers, and many of them are switching to non-powdered vinyl gloves. ANYONE can get a reaction if they get enough exposure, but it may take 20 years for some people to see an effect. Other people do have a predisposition to develop food or other allergies, there is more information available here.
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Such illnesses probably remained sub-clinical in people in previous centuries but now, aided by enhanced severity, we better understand what's happening and we are better able to diagnose the trouble.
It's still sub-clinical. 97% of Celiacs are going undiagnosed and leading lives of increasing misery because gluten is in e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.
As you so well pointed out, wheat is being used increasingly in heavily processed food because they have have hybridized the wheat kernel so much that they kernels are large and stuffed with gluten and is incredibly cheap to produce. But there is no reason that wheat has to be used other than it helps in making processed foods. The fact is there are other starch sources that easily could take the place of wheat. The fact is, humans are not dependent physiologically on the wheat kernel for anything.
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Hypersensitive and allergic reactions have been understood in medicine in varying degrees since ancient times but as a medical student I can tell you that we still know very little. What we do know? Few if any true allergies are truly genetic. Rather, some genes predispose to gathering many allergies and most allergies are gained well after birth. Any honest researcher in the field will share your wonderment about allergies, because we still have much to learn.
Actually, stomach cancer is MORE common in less urban/developed habitats. Affluence and American diets decrease stomach cancer. No research has explained this but the data is unambiguous: something about eating while not poor means LESS stomach cancer. I know, usually you hear about how bad the western diet is (and it's true, high fat + low fiber => colon cancer). Ulcers and heartburn have likely plagued people since before civilization as we know it.
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Celiac has been around for centuries. Dante Alegheri, poet who composed The Inferno. suffered from it. Peanut allergies have been around as well-it's just that until recently, helicopter parents didn't try and insist that every lunchbag within 5 miles of little Johnny be screened for peanut traces. The increased awareness has fooled you into thinking it's a recent phenomenon-kinda like how fundie churches try to argue that homosexuality didn't exist until the 60's.
I know it's trendy to hate chemicals because they have long scary names, but we value science a little bit more on this website.
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was thought to have a sensitivity to gluten and so we cut it out of her diet for a few months. Thankfully gluten did not turn out to be an issue, but it was only after taking the time to read the ingredients list on the things we would normally buy that you find gluten in damn near everything; it's even in soy sauce. It took some effort to avoid.
Nullius in verba
People forget peanut allergies and celiac's disease were almost nil until the mid-eighties. What happened in the 80's? Genetically modified food was introduced to the market. Today you can't hardly buy grain/fruit/vegetables that aren't GM and both allergies and celiac's are now considered normal. The fact is it's companies like Monsanto and Cargill that are causing this.
Everything above is an outright lie.
(Not to mention bad science post ergo hoc propter hoc is not a valid argument to draw conclusions on, as it is necessarily incomplete and therefore flawed.)
Celiac was not diagnosed because medical universities didn't teach about it, so doctors encountering it were essentially ignorant of the disease.
The percentage of people who are harmed by arsenic (100) vs. the percentage of people who are harmed by gluten (small).
For pure arsenic, that's true. It still has its uses in medicine, such as oncology where it works better than iodine for locating tumors.
Oh, and have you eaten fish lately? You probably consumed a milligram of arsenic. But, since you're reading this, I'll assume you're still alive and well.
Does capsaicin kill you? In order for something to be a poison, the LD50 must be a small enough dose that a reasonable person could accidentally, or intentionally, consume it in a reasonable period of time. "a substance that, when introduced into or absorbed by a living organism, causes death or injury, esp. one that kills by rapid action even in a small quantity" lactose and capsaicin don't fall under that category.
[citation needed]. Gluten is wheat protein, right? When I buy flour, the protein content is stated and typically ranges from roughly 10-12% (12% being the "strong", high-protein variety, such as this flour). If you're going to claim twice the protein content in wheat flour, please back those claims up with evidence.
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His numbers are crap, you are closer to the mark.
I know Red Wheats, its what I grew up farming. It ranges from 8 to 16% protein.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat
http://www.eolss.net/ebooks/Sample%20Chapters/C10/E5-21-04-04.pdf
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/crops/00555.html
http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_c587d5a6-a1e0-11df-abc5-001cc4c03286.html
Yes, as mentioned, arsenic is a poison because it's deadly to pretty much everyone (though supposedly you can build a tolerance), and additionally it's not exactly common in the stuff we eat (except where we've poisoning land with heavy metal from discarded electronics).
Gluten, on the other hand, is in pretty much f***'ing everything. Preservatives in canned food, wheat-products, tons of stuff. It also has this tendency to follow family-lines. However, since the full tests usually involve fun things like biopsies, a *lot* of people don't know they have it. However, the numbers of those with gluten-intolerance isn't as small as one might think.
Maybe it's just IMHO, but I think that trying to eliminate a condition which causes a smaller group of people to not be able to eat 80% of the food out there, vs one where it's just "don't eat poison", might not be such a bad thing. Of course the GP is probably a troll, but a lot of people don't seem to realize how serious celiac'ism is.
Utter bullshit. Coeliacs must avoid "ancient" varieties of wheat such as spelt as much as modern varieties. It has nothing to do with GM foods. If anything GM holds the best hope for a cure by producing a strain of wheat whose gluten protein is modified sufficiently that it doesn't trigger an autoimmune reaction.
I saw this stat somewhere but I can't cite it unfortunately. But more precisely, it's 1 out of every 117 caucasian - it's quite a lot, but most people don't get tested or only experience the symptoms after years of gut damage in their middle-age.
Coeliacs have always been around but, one of the reasons why it is a lot more prevalent now is that, since a couple of centuries ago, the type of wheat that is predominant in our diet contains a lot more gluten than before, which probably caused a sharp increase in the number of people who reacted to it.
If you think about it, it makes sense that this wheat become so popular; the gluten content in the foods seems to be closely related to the texture. Try a gluten-free bread and you'll notice that the texture is a lot more grainy and the bread crumbles into tiny bits far too easily.
Of course, it is way easier to detect now that we have genetic and antibody checks and endoscopies. If you check the list of symptoms, it is almost impossible to differentiate from most almost any other digestive problem. That and the fact that it seems to cause other major illnesses as side effects (schizophrenia! cancer!) probably meant that doctors focused on curing these major issues and not the underlying cause.
Actually, no. There is some evidence to support that position. Including both epidemiological and biochemical data. I'm not going to look it up for you, but there was a story on Slashdot a while ago.
I have Celiac's disease and I'd like to comment on wheat substitutes as I have first-hand experience with many. I will say up front, there really is no substitute for wheat. The combination of taste and texture cannot be matched at any cost. The substitution used depends on many factors, and the alternatives may involve adding 4-5 ingredients to replace the wheat.
Gluten is what gives wheat it's spongy/elastic texture. If you tried to make bread from rice or potatoes, it will crumble because these starches lack gluten. Any potato or rice bread you buy in the store or bake will invariably include a flour containing gluten(except those specifically designed to be gluten-free). There are really only two options here:
* Xanthan gum. This is a replacement protein used widely in gluten-free products. It is not cheap nor does it have any flavor.
* Guar gum. Similar to Xanthan but slightly cheaper and is a laxative.
Wheat has a certain taste. There is *NO* substitute that compares here as one cannot get wheat without gluten. The appropriate substitution here depends on the application.
* A common use for wheat flour is dusting so the product doesn't stick. There really isn't anything cheaper then wheat for this application but rice flour is as effective and has a very weak flavor.
* Breads can use a mix of flours based on tapioca, rice, potato or beans. All of these do not taste like wheat. Beans are a laxative and much more expensive. White rice and potato flour are not as nutritious.
Some gluten-containing starches have desired chemical properties.
* Almost all beer is made from barley or wheat and therefore contains gluten.
Wheat has a good shelf-life.
* Anything potato or rice based baked good must be refrigerated and even then only lasts about half as long.
* All the aforementioned flours need to be stored refrigerated whereas wheat flour does not.
Age of first exposure. From Wikipedia:
Women don't breast feed their kids long enough. They put them on formula a week out of the womb, then try to get them to eat solid foods as soon as they can because breast feeding and formula are a hassle. The result is a huge increase in food allergies.
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It's like what is discussed later on - arsenic kills you because of direct effect of arsenic on the body. OTOH, gluten does nothing to the body, It is the body's reaction to the substance (AKA hypersensitivity reaction; AKA autoimmune disease) that causes the disease. So arsenic directly causes damage -> poison. The body reacts aberrantly to a substance and cause an immune reaction against it -> disease.
Whenever in an argument, remember this.
"When coupled with the malabsoprtion syndrome that accompanies it, since an inflamed, damaged intestinal system absorbs poorly, vitamin deficiencies (especially vitamins E, D and K) gluten allergies cause real illness in many people."
There are some far reaching implications of this. Nerotransmitters are made in the gut, some of these (ie, GABA) regulate mood. If the gut is compromised enough so few are made that mental problems can be the result. Some parents of autistic children have found that withholding gluten can cause a cessation of symptoms. You may also notice too that people that you know with mental problems often gave gut problems or eat a lot of sugar (which promotes candida growth which compromises the villi in the gut thus again preventing absorption of nutrients).
One of the standard nutritional medicine protocols is to stop sugar, push yourt to repopulate the gut and take large doses of supplements so the inefficient gut actually absorbs enough to actually do the body some good.
The lack of, say B3 can induce schizophrenia. google "pellagra"; this is the reason all white flour is enriched - to prevent insanity.
Abram Hoffer asserted that 80% of schizophrenics could be cured with vitamins and diet based on his empirical observations over 50 years.
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Is that what makes their hair look rusty?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
In Australia the labeling is heaps better than it used to be so it's actually not that hard to avoid gluten here compared to 5 years ago. And maybe because of the labeling there are products that you'd think would have wheat or other gluten grains in it but don't, presumably just to expand their market a little bit - sticking 'gluten free' on the front of the packaging makes it an easy choice. But yeah, any substitute for gluten in a product that depends on it's properties is a poor substitute.
Wheat flour is incredibly versatile, from the same basic product you can make all sorts of things with very little modification except maybe that a finer flour is better for bread. With gluten free flours you need to pick a flour based on what you are making, and while the various gums can help a bit, any bread you make is basically just a savoury cake that you really need to eat straight away after you cook it or it goes stale. Any gluten free bread you buy at the supermarket probably is packed full of preservatives as it's normally a fairly slow moving line and is very expensive.
I have no problems with my gluten but one of my kids has Coeliac disease and while my wife and another kid have been tested (blood test and biopsy) and come back negative, they find they feel much better by excluding wheat (and possibly other gluten-containing grains too but with one Coeliac in the family it doesn't come up). The excluding wheat thing appears to be fairly common too, even with a negative diagnosis of Coeliac disease, but we've found that once you excluded it you tend to become even more sensitive to it which is a problem if you ever want to get a biopsy done as it means you need to have wheat again for a bit...
An alergy is simply something that causes you little to no direct threat (it doesn't destroy tissue or organs or block neural pathways etc) BUT your body misrecognises it as something that does, and triggers for example an immuno-response like closing your airways to stop the threat. The problem is the response, not the substance.
Things aren't "a poison" or "not a poison", things are "poisonous" at different amounts... some things are more "poisonous" than other things. I don't think there has to be a line.
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There is some differentiation here as to gluten reactions. Celiac as described in the lit is an auto-immune reaction which causes damage to the lining of the gut. There are some other indications that there is, for some people, a lack of ability for the gut to properly break down gluten before it enters the blood stream. Theory goes that the gut allows the gluten fragments to enter the bloodstream where they act like a toxin. Other proteins in this category are casein and soy.
People with gluten sensitivities just get glommed together as celiac even though there may different underlying causes.
Another confounding factor is gut ecology with some more theory and anecdotal support for yeast colonization causing a number of negative effects.
Unfortunately, there is not much incentive for drug-company funded research to get involved. No money in it. All these stories, theories, factors vectoring in on the gut and digestive processes as fundamental to some of the most puzzling and difficult to treat diseases and syndromes yet the research being done is limited. No obvious profit outcome if the treatment is not eating gluten or taking a daily dose of a cheap drug like nystatin.
A really tangled knot: hard to study either directly or indirectly, and there are a lot of individual factors (apparently).
Finally: at least anecdotally (and there are a LOT of stories supporting this), celiac/leaky gut seems to be a factor for a large number of people in the autistic spectrum (Asperger's, Tourette's, etc etc). So, if you have an autistic child, at least trial removel of gluten, casein and soy from the diet. Kicker is that even if a celiac test comes up negative, removal of gluten and the others from the diet may show a very positive effect.