Celiac Disease Vs. Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity

Gluten is the new public enemy number one among eczema sufferers and those people who suffer a variety of vague autoimmune symptoms that defy diagnosis, and people who suffer mild, unremedied mood swings. While celiac disease is often named when it comes to gluten-sensitivity, the effects of gluten are certainly not just limited to celiac disease. What other non-celiac gluten sensitivities might you not know about?

When a long-suffering patient goes in to see the doctor with a question about the possibility of suffering from some gluten-sensitivity disease, the doctor probably will immediately start looking for symptoms in the patient of a condition called celiac disease. This condition which is also known as celiac sprue as well as gluten-sensitive enteropathy. Celiac disease is a particularly nasty condition among its patients.

What exactly is the different between celiac disease and non celiac gluten sensitvities? Let's take a look.

In people who suffer from celiac disease, the lining of the gut is hypersensitive to a protein in gluten which is known as gliadin. Gluten consists of a number of proteins that can be activated to give bread dough its "stretch," gliadin actually plays a big role in maintaining the enzymes for the growth of yeast.

First, aberrant enzymes process gliadin into a "stripped" protein with a potent, negative electrical charge. This in effect ensures that gliadin "sticks" to the lining of the gut.

Then the immune system recruits T cells to attack the gliadin as if it were a deadly infection. In the process of destroying gliadin, the T cells also destroy the intestinal lining. The immediate result is intense pain. The gut cannot absorb nutrients, but because it becomes "leaky," it admits all kinds of undigested proteins and carbohydrates from food that cause havoc of their own elsewhere in the body. 

Eating a bacon bit or a few drops of soy sauce made with wheat is enough to make celiac sufferers miserable. Eating a slice of bread, or a loaf of bread, can result in agony.

If you have celiac disease, diagnosis is easy. There are spit tests for the immune markers of gluten sensitivity in saliva. Not even a stick for a blood draw is necessary.

So you tell your doctor you think you have celiac disease, he or she orders a simple test, and 2999 times out of 3000, you don't have celiac disease. You're just sick when you eat wheat. What's your next step?

"Celiac" Disease That Doesn't Focus on the Gut

Doctors are becoming increasingly aware that the effects of celiac disease aren't necessarily limited to the lining of the intestines. While classic celiac sprue only affects about 1 person in 3000, gluten-sensitivity issues that primarily manifest themselves elsewhere in the body may affect about 1 in 100, and the problem tends to run in families. But how can you find out if non-celiac gluten sensitivity disease is a problem for you?

Other Health Conditions May Also Be Triggered By Gluten

For the past several years, researchers at the San Antonio Hospital in Tolmezzo, Italy and at the Hospital of Sciacca in Agrigento, Italy have been investigating the possibility that gluten may be the cause of "not-quite-celiac" disease and gluten sensitivity disorders elsewhere in the body.

The researchers at the San Antonio Hospital have found that only about 10% of cases of celiac disease can be diagnosed on the basis of symptoms alone.

The research team at the Hospital of Sciacca theorized that what is typically labeled irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) may be, at least in some cases, a "milder" form of celiac disease. (If you have IBS, however, chances are that "milder" is not a term you would use to describe your symptoms.) Like celiac disease, IBS can cause severe diarrhea, but it can also cause constipation and flatulence. Like celiac disease, IBS can cause severe pain, but it the pain doesn't occur all the time. And like celiac disease, IBS can can be associated with malnutrition, but not as frequently.

The second research team identified 276 patients who had been diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome but who had antibodies to the gliadin from the gluten in wheat. The scientists were able to identify a second kind of immune stimulation, involving a kind of white blood cell known as an eosinophil rather than the T cell associated with celiac disease. While these patients had a "milder" form of gluten sensitivity, the changes in the lining of the gut in their condition more closely resembled changes caused by a devastating gastrointestinal malady known as Crohn's disease, rather than celiac disease.

What about gluten as a cause of eczema?

Doctors have known for a long time that gluten sensitivity can cause an especially devastating skin condition known as dermatitis hepatiformis. This skin problem is enough to make life miserable all on its own, but it also comes with increased risk of intestinal lymphoma, thyroid disease, and skin infections.

 Your doctor is not likely to tell you to try to follow a gluten-free diet if you have eczema and hives, because the truly wheat-free diet needed for controlling celiac disease is very difficult to follow. But in the case of milder symptoms, milder restrictions on gluten in the diet may be enough to get results.

And what about mood swings?

It's been known for a long time that the gliadin in wheat interacts with some of the same receptor sites in the brain that react to endorphins. The mu-opioids in gliadin make wheat a "comfort food." This has an advantage to the plant, of course. If eating wheat makes someone inclined to curl up in an easy chair, then less wheat gets eaten. Gluten is wheat's self-defense mechanism against farmers.

It may make a difference, or it may not, but it is possible that all you need to get out of mild depression is a relatively simple change in diet.

Just don't spend a fortune getting gluten out of your diet. You don't need to buy special gluten-free foods. You just need to eat less bread, pasta, and baked goods. Try cutting down on wheat and see if there's a difference.