The existence of non-celiac (or non-cealiac) gluten sensitivity is somewhat controversial. At least to the medical industry. Many sufferers have fond they have a bad response to gluten (with non-celiac gluten sensitivity symptoms such as headaches, a foggy head, diarrhea and tiredness) while standard tests for celiac disease turn out to be negative. To understand what non-celiac gluten sensitivity is, one must first consider what celiac disease is.
What is Celiac Disease?
In brief, celiac disease is caused by your boddy having an autoimmune reaction to the protein gliaden found in gluten. This reaction causes inflammation within the intestine which ultimately destroys the villi (structures on the gut lining) and begins allowing the protiens to enter the blood. It is detected by observing the destruction (or blunting) of the villi, or with a blood test which detects the anti-tGT antibodies the body produces to fight the alien gluten protienes. Celiac disease is known to have a high correlation with bowel cancer and other serious conditions.
So What is Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity?
As I described Celiac Disease above, you can see that it is a symptom – reasonably easily observable and understandable by examination or blood test. The problem is many other people seem to show symptoms which are similar to those of celiac disease and which go away when gluten is cut out of the diet – the medical establishment often fails to recognise these since there has been little research into them (even celiac disease has had remarkably litte research until recently, despite affecting 1 in 100 people… gluten sensitivity is believed to affect many many more, so its an place open to new discoveries)
Recent research has shown that there are different immune responses involved with the body reacting to liadin, which can have different effects, and that these may well explain where gluten sensitivity is coming from. These are still the early stages in the understanding of a disease which has caused many people significan distress (and in some cases additional distress on being told that there is nothing wrong with them), nevertheless it is early days and not fully understood.
