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Is gluten intolerance on the rise?

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I have lactose intolerance.
Two cups of milk are ok.
Maybe over 1000ml,I will get stomach-ache,and have loose bowels.
 
Last endocrinologist I saw was saying I need to get checked for celiacs since I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis (apparently the two work off the same gene) and vitamen D deficiency (a sign of celiacs). I really hope I don't. It would suck so bad not being able to eat 99.6% of food in the US : (
 
This is mainly a result of hybridized grains that are bred for high yield. The ancient grains are much more tolerable to people according to a study I read sometime back. My sister in law has this issue.
 
I've got a friend with gluten intolerance... All I know is she can't eat bread or something, so buying cake for things like birthdays is "difficult".
 
I took my autistic son off of casein and gluten. Half of the studies show positive results from a milk-protean (not lactose, the but casein) and gluten free diet. He's three and had one word a month ago, he's gained about six words in the last month since we've done this.

Apparently not only could someone be intolerant alergy-ish wise; but for a small portion of the population gluent or casein leads to nural-receptors being triggered causing the individual to experience psychotropic outcomes.

I usual dismiss this sort of thing as hippy nonsense, but my wife was reading a journal article on the theory for her masters-class in working with autistic children. The nerological theory was sound, so we went for it and there's been a correlation.

I'll probably take him off the diet in a year and see if he reverts or slows his advancement.

OH, and there are pechuli stink hippies on the internet that'll tell you that EVERYTHING has gluten in it unless it says "gluten free". This is false; you probably don't even truly have to worry about gluten as you have to consume large amounts for all but the most sensitive bodies to be impacted.

Sixguns said:
My mother in law right here. Claims to have everything under the sun wrong with her. This past summer she had to have surgery to fix something, dont know dont care. Doctors told her that whatever it was had been the issue all along. She was good for awhile but didnt like people no longer waiting on her hand and foot so now she has every illness in the world again.
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Same; but she's got an attachment disorder and needs her enabling husband to stop that and put her in a psych home.
 
destrekor said:
Also, do consider the fact that one can have gluten intolerance and NOT have Celiac disease or even a food allergy to gluten.
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Yes, this is even more difficult to diagnose and is even less understood even though it may be more prevalent. Some of what I've read indicates that most non-Celiacs could tolerate some level of gluten, but most gluten-containing grains have been selectively bred to increase gluten content more than 100 times that of the plants our ancestors grew up with. At some point, many peoples' bodies just don't like it any more at those concentrations. This idea has been reinforced by some studies showing a threshold concentration of gluten below which even Celiacs will not exhibit a response (IIRC, it was around 25 ppm, but it's been a while).
 
Saint Nick said:
Pretty much this. My g/f thinks she is sick/hurt all of the time...lol I just laugh and tell her to suck it up
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You learned that in medical school no doubt. The joke will be on you if you end up marrying her only to find out that she is infertile and will die young because of a chronic illness you thought was hypochondria.
 
DixyCrat said:
I took my autistic son off of casein and gluten. Half of the studies show positive results from a milk-protean (not lactose, the but casein) and gluten free diet. He's three and had one word a month ago, he's gained about six words in the last month since we've done this.

Apparently not only could someone be intolerant alergy-ish wise; but for a small portion of the population gluent or casein leads to nural-receptors being triggered causing the individual to experience psychotropic outcomes.

I usual dismiss this sort of thing as hippy nonsense, but my wife was reading a journal article on the theory for her masters-class in working with autistic children. The nerological theory was sound, so we went for it and there's been a correlation.
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A good friend of mine and his wife are both pediatric specialist MD's and they have triplets that are 4 years old. Two of the trips are girls and have very classic autism signs. The boy has some signs, but not as much as his sisters.

They did some homework on the gluten free diet, liked the data they saw and adopted that in their household. They reported similar results as you. The girls developmental skills were much better and they had much less of the social anxiety than they did before.

They are very "research based" trained being recent MD/Fellowship graduates so it's not a hippy science fad I don't think.
 
My wife has a friend who is "severely allergic to gluten" makes a big deal about it at restaurants and when eating at our house.

Strangely, she has no problem drinking my beer....the beer I make with 10+ pounds of barley....

My wife swore she was allergic to mushrooms the entire time I knew her. She always ate the soup at olive garden. It was hilarious to hear that waiter tell her they use a mushroom stock base for all their soups and all their pasta sauces contain mushrooms.
 
A huge portion of "allergies" that people claim they have are bullshit. Celiac disease is a real condition that can be definitively diagnosed, but most of these other allergies and "sensitivities" are hypochondriac nonsense.
 
It's really more of a fad, IMO. (Although I am sure there are some who are genuinely allergic to gluten)

Wife's kids are all on the Gluten-Free kick, just to be "cool".

Doctors are going with it as it is yet another easy income generator.
 
CycloWizard said:
You learned that in medical school no doubt. The joke will be on you if you end up marrying her only to find out that she is infertile and will die young because of a chronic illness you thought was hypochondria.
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I think the real problem isn't specifically gluten, but diets rich in gluten are also rich in a wide variety of bad stuff, which causes the immune system to panic and GI inflammation. So when people build this up they end up with an immediate reaction when ingesting gluten.
 
Mark R said:
There are a number of factors to this:

1. Celiac disease - this is quite a serious condition which has vague symptoms, but is a serious form of gluten sensitivity. There is better recognition of this, and better testing available (it can now be tested for in blood with high reliability - whereas even 10 years ago, it could only be diagnosed by endoscopy [actually 2 endoscopies, but many doctors would be prepared to make a diagnosis on just one]).

2. Increasing fad/pseudoscience dietary advice. There is a large market in fad diets, self-help books, web-sites, etc. There is also a growing market for "food intolerance" testing. There has been a big advance in testing technology and labs can now measure all sorts of stuff; the vast majority, however, of what is tested for in these "food intolerance" tests does not seem to correlate to any kind of disorder or intolerance. Similarly, a lot of the advice given in these books is of debatable scientific quality.

There has been a particularly big push in the "gluten intolerance" camp, but the scientific basis for their claims is dubious, at best.

3. Increasing hypochondria in the population generally. In part, heavily promoted by the fad/pseudoscience pedlars in 2.
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4. Also, increasing awareness. However, I believe that the vast majority are due to it being a fad. People apparently love spending extra money on food that they feel they can claim is "healthier." I've dealt with "gluten intolerant" people at my house by feeding them "gluten free" food. Apparently, hearing that there's gluten in the food is what they're intolerant of. Ironically, the pizza I made with *high*-gluten flour was "the best pizza I've had in a long time" - and incurred no intolerance problems.
 
I have a friend who was sick for years, went to see many doctors. Eventually, they figured out that it was Celiac's. She's been gluten free for a couple years now and feeling great. She can tell if something had gluten in it, because it really messes her up.

I have a sister-in-law who just up and claimed she was gluten intolerant one day. Since my friend actually has Celiac's, we know quite a bit more about what has gluten in it. My SiL still eats a lot of gluten, she just doesn't know it. She claims she feels much better now she's gone "gluten free," and I don't to bother to tell her she's wrong - it's in definitely all in her head, but correcting her would only make her come up with something else.

Also, gluten free stuff is quite spendy. It would suck to have to actually buy that stuff on a regular basis.
 
DrPizza said:
4. Also, increasing awareness. However, I believe that the vast majority are due to it being a fad. People apparently love spending extra money on food that they feel they can claim is "healthier." I've dealt with "gluten intolerant" people at my house by feeding them "gluten free" food. Apparently, hearing that there's gluten in the food is what they're intolerant of. Ironically, the pizza I made with *high*-gluten flour was "the best pizza I've had in a long time" - and incurred no intolerance problems.
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Doing that to someone who does have Celiac's would mess them up pretty badly. Whether or not you think it's in their heads, that's a dick move because of the potential damage you could do if it's not in their heads.
 
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I know someone who has celiac disease. Took forever to get diagnosed. She was apparently sick a lot before she figured this out. And if she accidentally consumes something with gluten in it, she knows within minutes. Sucks for sure.
 
GotIssues said:
Doing that to someone who does have Celiac's would mess them up pretty badly. Whether or not you think it's in their heads, that's a dick move because of the potential damage you could do if it's not in their heads.
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I already knew that it wasn't Celiac's disease, else I wouldn't have done it. It was a "I used to always eat regular bread, and figured out that I'm gluten intolerant, so I eat much better bread than you guys, and I pay more money for it. But, it tastes a lot better, and I feel better after eating it" person.
 
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