The Effects of Eating Gluten (Studies)

Nowadays, gluten has become a controversial problem. Some people say that is not healthy to eat gluten, while others say that it’s not that bad. In this article, we are going to analyze this issue from a health point of view.

Case study

A 37-year old woman started to have a psychotic crisis while she was trying to get her Ph.D. She became paranoid and started to think that people were gossiping about her. One day, some thieves broke into her house, and she thought that her parents had something to do with it. The doctors affirmed that she suffered from a psychotic disorder, and later on, they diagnosed her with Celiac disease and Hashimoto’s. She didn’t want to go on a gluten-free diet because she believed that the doctors weren’t telling her the truth. She was still paranoid, and ultimately she lost everything (her house, her job). Also, she tried to commit suicide. Finally, she was hospitalized again, and she accepted a gluten-free diet.

She recovered after she followed this diet and the results of biopsy and serology showed that the Celiac disease was remitted. Then, she started to consume gluten again, and all of the problems came back.

What is the link between brain and gluten?

Dr. Alessio Fasano says that a person should start a gluten-free diet after he/she has done an intestinal biopsy. The question is if this procedure should be applied to all the people who are suffering from a neurologic or psychiatric disease or people should go on a trial of this diet without a biopsy. Some people consider that Celiac disease can influence the brain function.

There was a case, in which the specialists have proved on a SPECT scanning that a gluten-free diet can be considered a solution in treating diarrhea, symptoms of psychosis and frontal lobe damage.

“The Gluten Syndrome” refers to the ability of gluten to produce damage at a neurological level, especially if there are immune diseases or cross-reacting antibodies. This can lead to a series of serious problems like headaches, migraines, depression, learning disorders, developmental delay, hypotonia or cerebellar ataxia.

Moreover, the persons who suffer from schizophrenia have a higher risk to develop an immune sensitivity to wheat.

Psychotic medications aren’t that good

The conclusion from 2 studies (Wuderink’s study with 128 patients of 7 years old and Harrow’s study with 200 patients over 15 years old) are surprising. Both specialists have proven that people who stopped taking antipsychotic treatment had improved their health.

Surely we can see the impact of gluten on our brain, and it’s important that all the people are aware of it. Some persons may suffer from a disease without knowing its cause. That’s why it’s essential to understand the effects of gluten on our body and brain. Besides, whether we have such a disease or not, it’s still necessary to know how food affects us.