The bloating, nausea, the sharp, unrelenting pain in the gut. What could be the cause? For those with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity, the onset of gastrointestinal symptoms brings up the question, “Did I just eat something that contains gluten?” Unintentional gluten exposure is possible and should be considered, but other factors or conditions could cause similar symptoms.
Two of the most common problems that mimic gluten sensitivity are Leaky Gut and Food Intolerance. Let’s take a closer look at both.
Food Intolerance
Food intolerance is an adverse response to a food or food component that does not involve the immune system. Food intolerances are common and can occur due to many different foods or ingredients.
Non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) is a type of food intolerance. Celiac disease, on the other hand, is not an intolerance but an autoimmune disease. Individuals with celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity may have intolerances to foods or ingredients other than gluten, which may cause symptoms similar to those of gluten exposure.
There are two common food intolerances:
- Lactose
- FODMAPS
Lactose intolerance is also a common condition that may be experienced during the early stages of celiac disease. The production of the enzyme lactase is needed to digest lactose, but the presence of this enzyme is reduced when intestinal cells are damaged from undiagnosed and untreated celiac disease. In the case of lactose intolerance related to untreated celiac disease, once a person eliminates gluten from their diet, their intestinal cells can heal, usually allowing them to resume producing the lactase enzyme needed to digest lactose. If those symptoms do not go away, the person may be lactose intolerant in addition to having celiac disease.
Lactose intolerance is quite prevalent in the general population. Not all people who are lactose intolerant have celiac disease.
FODMAP is an acronym for various types of carbohydrates found in multiple foods, including wheat, that could cause a reaction in people with celiac disease.
Research has found that some people who believe they are sensitive to gluten may be sensitive to FODMAPs as well.
Examples of foods containing FODMAPs include:
- Legumes
- Garlic
- Onion
- Yogurt
- Soft Cheeses
- Mangoes
- Blackberries
- Honey.
If you continue to have symptoms after removing gluten from your diet and think you may have a food intolerance, consult with your healthcare team.
Leaky Gut
Over the last few decades, leaky gut syndrome has become a buzzword, mainly because of its controversy in the medical community — where it’s less understood despite the number of people flooding doctor’s offices with symptoms.
But while more research is helping to educate healthcare providers slowly, most still don’t know much about it and consider it a digestive issue associated with mild pain.
And while they aren’t wrong, a leaky gut causes more than just lower abdominal pain.
It can negatively impact your health and worsen over the years, especially if you aren’t able to slow, stop, or reverse the damage that starts in your gut and spreads throughout your entire body.
Your Gut’s Barrier
Inside each of us is an extensive and elaborate intestinal lining that averages 10 to 16 feet long (a typical basketball hoop is 10 feet tall) and covers 4,000 square feet of surface area.
When working correctly, that 4,000 square feet of surface area forms a tight, saran wrap-like barrier that helps control what enters the bloodstream. Like a highly regulated security team, it lets in nutrients so they may be absorbed (90 percent of absorption happens in the small intestine) while keeping out pathogens, toxins, and undigested foods.
But what happens when the gut lining gets damaged?
Over time, the gut barrier eventually weakens, increasing the intestinal permeability, which allows that long list of things that shouldn’t enter your bloodstream to do so. This is known as leaky gut — a condition that may play a role in many chronic illnesses.
How Leaky Gut Attacks The Body
When this happens, inflammation occurs in your small intestine, making it highly irritable along the lower abdominals.
At first, a person suffering from a leaky gut may experience various symptoms, from diarrhea to constipation, bloating, skin problems, joint pain, headaches, and confusion.
However, as the inflammation further wears down the intestinal permeability, it can spread throughout the body, triggering the immune system to respond and attack both the foreign invaders and you.
The result? A wide range of symptoms can drag health down and lead to food allergies, intolerances, and sensitivities, as well as autoimmune conditions. And because the symptoms and these types of conditions are so varied, often mimicking other illnesses, it can take years to get a diagnosis from a physician.
Here are some specific conditions that a leaky gut may cause, influence, or worsen.
Celiac disease: In someone with celiac disease, eating foods containing gluten, a wheat protein, causes inflammation in the gut that leads to intestinal damage and nutritional malabsorption. Researchers believe compounds in gluten damage and increase the permeability of the gut lining. It is thought that exposure to gluten upregulates zonulin, a novel protein known to open usually tight junctions in the gut lining. About 2.5 million Americans are estimated to have undiagnosed celiac disease.
Gluten intolerance: Of conditions related to leaky gut, gluten intolerance or “sensitivity” may be the hardest to diagnose, mainly because many physicians do not believe gluten is a problem outside of celiac disease. But, according to research in the journal Gut, these patients show signs of a weakened intestinal barrier and a body-wide inflammatory response. It is also referred to as non-celiac wheat sensitivity.
Chronic fatigue syndrome: A study from Cornell University separated people into two groups, one with chronic fatigue and the other as the healthy control. After testing their blood and stool samples, researchers found those with chronic fatigue had less diversity and more harmful bacteria in the gut than the healthy controls.
Researchers from another study observed how pathogens that entered the bloodstream through the leaky gut caused inflammation along the brain’s right hemisphere, which is connected to fatigue and impaired cognition. This is an example of the gut/brain axis — the connection between the brain and the gut (also known as the second brain).
To find out if you have gluten intolerance, food insensitivity, or a leaky gut problem, get a FREE Consultation with one of our doctors (D.C) here.
