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Gluten sensitivity is one aspect of a major and chronic health problem often related to allergic reactions to many common foods and food additives such as dairy products, eggs, peanuts, gluten, tree nuts, sulphites, tartrazine and MSG. This list is by no means exhaustive. Other factors can include sesame, soy, chilli, curry, cabbage, chocolate, shellfish, citrus, unripe fruit, animal fur, pollen, dust mites and some plants and plant saps etc. The risk of gluten sensitivity or other allergic reaction is heightened where either one or both parents have suffered from asthma or other chronic conditions.
As more and more people rely upon industrially produced foods into which gluten, with its chewy nature, is being increasingly added the problem appears to be growing worse. The range of foods being consumed seems to have narrowed and this trend, unfortunately, has often also been accompanied by a decline in the consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables.
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| One person in 10 may be affected
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Gluten sensitivity may afflict as many as one person in 10 per head of
population. A person may be considered gluten sensitive if their
symptoms reduce or disappear upon the adoption of a gluten free diet
and flare again if they are re-exposed, either accidentally or
deliberately, to gluten. Coeliac Disease, which is characterised by gut
damage, diarrhoea and malnutrition and affects one person per 100 of
population, is just one aspect of gluten sensitivity.
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The
symptoms of gluten sensitivity are often pervasive and insidious and
may include migraines, headaches, crankiness, depression, irritability,
inability to concentrate, chronic fatigue syndrome, lethargy,
tiredness, aggravated autism, ADD, hyperactivity, aggression, poor
sleep patterns, poor appetite, poor growth, bloating, fluid retention,
irritable bowel and other tummy upsets (often without gut damage),
lactose intolerance, fructose mal-absorption, anaemia, mucus formation
and runny nose, eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis, conjunctivitis, muscular
and skeletal aches and pains without obvious cause.
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| There may
be other symptoms not mentioned here and many people suffer multiple
and overlapping symptoms in varying combinations and ranging in
severity from mild to acute and extremely debilitating. For example,
eczema affects 1 person in 5 per head of population and in the adult
population an adverse reaction to gluten is one of the major factors.
All forms of gluten sensitivity appear to be permanent and to require
complete abstinence. Many people often suffer unnecessarily and
unknowingly for decades due to poor diagnoses and reluctance to
acknowledge the connection between food allergens and intolerances and
the various manifestations of gluten or other food sensitivity.
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