Wed, Nov-19-08, 20:05
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I've decided
Posts: 16,864
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Plan: LC
Stats: 235/137.6/130
BF:haven't a clue
Progress: 93%
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by veggienft
Celiac disease refers to the autoimmune destruction of the small intestine lining caused by ingested glutenous grains .......wheat, barley, rye, and oats.
Gluten intolerance refers to an autoimmune attack, anywhere in the body, caused by ingested glutenous grains. So celiac disease is a subset of gluten intolerance.
A third important wheat disease term is rapidly gaining prominence, gluten sensitivity. Gluten sensitivity refers to the set of diseases, autoimmune or directly pathogenic, which occur because a person ingests glutenous grains. So gluten sensitivity includes both subsets above.
Besides the above, gluten sensitive diseases include gluten attacking tissue without an immune response, and diseases from antigens which gluten ushers into the bloodstream. The antigens can destroy tissue directly, or illicit an immune response which destroys tissue.
Confused? Track the wheat and the immune reactions. The immune system can be divided into the innate response and the adaptive response. The innate system attacks antigens and compromised tissue based on its memory of antigen protein signatures. The adaptive system identifies new antigens, tests methods of response, and commits the successful methods to innate memory.
When a celiac eats wheat, his/her digestive immune system attacks the wheat and the small intestine lining. Then a strange thing happens among gluten sensitive people. The small intestine, through innate memory, releases the cytokine zonulin. Zonulin opens the "tight junctions" between cells in the intestinal lining. The lining becomes permeable, and passes the intestine's contents into the bloodstream.
Those contents include gluten, other proteins, viruses and bacteria. They attack tissue, and elicit immune responses which attack tissue, throughout the body.
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Thank you very much!
This clears up a lot of things that were confusing me, and I really appreciate your reply here.
I was asking for a few of reasons - first, I'm pretty new at this whole gluten sensitivity thing. Second, I had this longstanding dairy intolerance of some kind, so I quit dairy about a year and a half ago.
Turns out I don't have an issue with casein, (according to Enterolab) so now am wondering about this 'dairy intolerance'. I guess I'm wondering if one has a 'lactose intolerance' caused by a gluten problem - then does this mean it must be of the celiac variety? I suppose too though that one can be lactose intolerant for any particular reason, at any time.
It's just curiosity on my part - I don't eat dairy or gluten anymore anyway...just trying to make sense of things in my own mind, re: dairy intolerance and how it relates to gluten.
Meanwhile, since I ditched gluten - my husband has also gone gluten-free. He doesn't have any of the usual intestinal symptoms. None. But he does have this 'wheat belly' (as he calls it, since he saw that term used on Dr. Davis' Heart Scan blog) and tells me he's had that his whole life. Even at 150lbs, he's had that belly he says. But guess what's happening as a result of my husband going gluten free? His longstanding arthritis is actually getting even better. The thing that confuses me is that he was diagnosed with osteoarthritis (a long time ago), which as far as I know isn't an autoimmune type of arthritis.
You've helped me see that it's not always an 'immune response', and that the only thing that separates 'celiac' from the whole spectrum of gluten sensitivity or intolerance is the fact that it attacks the small intestine lining. And yet, you've also explained that even if not celiac - a gluten sensitive person could end up with that 'leaky gut' thing.
Thanks again. |