Oh no. That goes against the grain of most NDs and nutritionists. The old philosophy was: if the gluten is causing the problem, then remove the gluten.
The problem with this kind of reasoning, is that it reflects conventional medicine, ie., if cholesterol is a problem, remove the fats (Unfortunately, cholesterol was never the issue – it was the firemen at the fire; not causing the fire).
The challenge here is that NDs and nutritionists have made a similar mistake when looking at various gut issues and gluten. What they should have been asking is:
1) why is there a gluten issue for this person – when most people don’t have it
2) what is happening in the intestines that would lead to a gluten issue
3) how do we resolve the underlying issue
4) what happens when we remove gluten from the diet
Yolanda Sanz pusblished a study in Gut Microbes: 2010 May-Jun; 1(3): 135-137 addressing this particular issue. Recognizing that diet has a huge impact on the gut microbiota profile, she examined the microbiota of 10 subjects(granted that is a low N). These 10 healthy subjects were around 30 years of age. They were put on a gluten free diet for over one month. (Here we can postulate a question: does the same effect occur with people who are already compromised).
Her results showed a significant decrease in the “good” or “healthy” bacteria and an increase in the “bad” or “unhealthy” bacteria; in addition to a drop in the immune stimulatory effect, ie., certain types of immune cells (TNFa, IFNy and IL-8; IL-10). This suggests one of two possibilities: the gluten free diet led to a generalized reduction of the microbiota that provide cytokine production OR that the diet provoked a reduction in the kinds of microbiota that stimulate us to produce these same cytokines and chemokines. This result leaves the gut system moer vulnerable to the growth of more of the “unhealthy”, “bad” bacteria. Whoops that is not what we wanted.
From this, one might conclude that the gluten free diet (with a significant reduction in polysaccrides for the healthy bacteria to feed on) left the system more compromised than it was before.
So the question comes up: why then do these people with gluten reactions tend to do well initially on the gluten free diet? Why do health practitioners persist in this kind of treatment protocol when they find that these same clients end up with major clinical symptoms, nutritional deficiencies and further health issues down the road.
It is for these reasons, that I have chosen to work with gluten issues in an entirely different way.
Another way to work with gluten intolerance is:
1) use transfer factor to, in effect, re-program the immune system in the gut
2) increase the levels of glutathione, required to establish a good healthy immune system (most of which is in the gut)
3) use herbs to rebalance the pH of the entire gastro-intestinal tract
4) use a variety of probiotics, and in particular ones with transport systems, that get the probiotic to where it is required
5) depending on the severity of the client’s issues, we might also work with hydrocolonics to clean the gut before restoring it
This protocol is far more effective, in that, it does not:
1) leave the client with a polysaccride deficiency
2) leave the client with an even greater microbiota imbalance
3) leave the immune system further depleted and unable to provide protection
4) leave the client with the probability of establishing even greater issues down the road
To give one example: one client, in his late 60′s, had experienced gut issues his whole life. When tested with the ASYRA he had over 140 food allergies, including gluten. Within three months we identified 3 allergies!! No nutrient deficiencies. No other issues coming up.
