Question:
Can anyone tell me what the symptoms are for intolerance to wheat?
Is it dose related?
Answer:
I have never heard of a wheat intolerance, but there is a gluten
intolerance, and wheat has a lot more of it than any other grain. Yes. Pasta and bread have the most gluten. Cake flour has less. Spelt,
being a type of wheat, is high in gluten. Other grains with less are: rye,
barley, oats, triticale, kamut and bulgur. Below is a letter on gluten intolerance. It describes just some of the
myriad symptoms that can result from a deficiency in any of vitamins or
minerals that we consume (usually the fat soluble ones). Symptoms can also
result from increased antibodies being produced and/or a leaky gut. See the
FAQ and web pages, noted below, for more possible symptom lists.
Celiac disease (or coeliac) is the medical name for intolerance to gluten,
a protein that is found in all wheat and some other grains (listed above);
and all foodstuffs containing one of these grains, including many food
chemicals like HVP.
Intolerance to gluten is a common condition (at least 1:300 among people of
European descent), however, it is only taught to gastroenterologists (at
least here in the States). The other specialists are taught that celiac
disease is rare and some will refuse to test for it!
An undiagnosed gluten intolerant person is at increased risk for dozens of
secondary conditions, a couple fatal (like intestinal lymphomas), but most
related to the damage to the villi that line the small intestine, and the
subsequent malabsorption of fat soluble minerals and vitamins. Weight loss
is common but not a prerequisite, as some are overweight due to a resultant
compulsive eating disorder.
Iron is fat soluble and undiagnosed celiacs can be anemic and fatigued.
Body pain, a mild form of rickets, can come from a deficiency of vitamin D
and calcium.
In a "classic" case of celiac disease the patient will get steatorrhea
after gluten consumption. Steatorrhea is the passage of fatty stools that
are pale, bulky, frothy, greasy, malodorous and always float. These may be
liquid or semi formed. And smelly gas is usually present. However,
steatorrhea is rarely present in the teen years, and some undiagnosed
celiacs are constipated. Any diagnosis of IBS is suspect.
Lactose intolerance frequently appears as a secondary intolerance to gluten
intolerance as the lactase enzyme is produced in the brush border of the
intestine's microvilli. This becomes evident when the diagnosed celiac goes
through recovery and the villi, then the microvilli, grow back.
Regarding mental aspects I selected two quotes:
(1) The following is taken from the "Celiac Sprue" flyer from CSA/USA (Box
31700, Omaha, NE 68131 402-558-0600): "...; personality changes (especially
common in children with sprue; they become unable to concentrate, are
irritable, cranky, and have difficulties with mental alertness and memory
function); can also occur in adults; ..."
(2) From Coeliac Disease, by Dr. Michael Marsh, Blackwell Scientific
Publications, November 1992. - Chapter 3 - on CD in adults, written by
Peter Howdle and Monty S. Losowsky. p. 55 - "Psychological changes have
also been widely investigated, but are difficult to quantify. Many
patients appear to be depressed, while others are irritable, morose or
difficult to relate to... Nevertheless, in some case reports, treatment
with a gluten-free diet has resulted in spectacular improvements in mental
function."
Additionally, in undiagnosed celiac patients, the intestinal wall is
excessively porous; not only are nutrients improperly absorbed, but large
molecules which should be contained by the gut wall are not, and improperly
digested peptides could pass into the bloodstream and then cross the
blood-brain barrier.
In some adults, symptoms of celiac disease have been observed to appear
after severe emotional stress, a pregnancy, an operation, or a viral
infection.
Celiac disease can be screened for with a combination of antigliadin (IgA &
IgG) and endomysial antibody testing of the blood. It is definitively
tested for by a small bowel biopsy of the mucosa which can be obtained by
an endoscopist in the distal duodenum. The patient must be consuming gluten
at the time of the tests. However, many patients have high antigliadin
antibodies without showing visible mucosal damage (or high endomysial
antibodies). The medical community doesn't consider them to be gluten
intolerant, though their bodies are obviously reacting to gliadin/gluten.
After going 100% gluten-free the patient should recover 100% (over a year
or two) and enjoy perfect health. The 100% GF diet must be maintained for
life.
There is a gluten-free mailing list at with
1000+ subscribers. To join, send a message to the listserv with the
following in the body: SUB CELIAC your name. The FAQ can be obtained by
putting GET CELIAC FAQ in the body of a message to the list server. Even
more info is available if GET NEWCEL PACKAGE is included. Log files and
other documents also exist, send GET CELIAC FILELIST.
This web site has a page that will lead to all others:
http://www.hooked.net/users/sadams/
I also have a Canadian survey of symptoms which I can send. Sneezing is a histamine reaction, an allergy. Celiac disease is *not* an
allergy. There is much on wheat and arthritis. It is another of the possible
symptoms of undiagnosed celiac disease. I can send you articles, abstracts,
and anecdotes. What makes you think wheat is a healthy food? It is a relative newcomer to
the human diet (10-15,000 years). And those parts of the world that don't
eat wheat, don't get celiac disease. The bible bit about it being "the
staff of life" was one of the ways the church motivated the people to go
out and till the fields. What you observed is a very common effect. It is discussed a lot on the
celiac list. As a celiac goes gluten-free the intestinal villi will begin
to recover. It will then become more sensitive to small amounts of gluten.
Those of us that are very sensitive look upon this as a benefit. We are
able to find all the hidden sources of gluten. The others aren't, and are
possibly getting small amounts which would be doing silent damage. The main
reason for a celiac to go GF is to avoid the 7% probability of getting
intestinal lymphoma. Not all celiacs get the runs. Some have no digestive symptoms and only
present with anemia. 20% of undiagnosed celiacs are constipated. Getting
steatorrhea after ingesting gluten is the sign of a "classic" celiac. The only thing that reverses celiac disease is the gluten-free diet. 100%
recovery is possible if the diet is 100%.
