Meet ATI, The New "Gluten". New Wheat Protein Found to Aggravate Chronic Health Issues, New Study!

Another wheat protein has been found that causes gastrointestinal problems and problems in other parts of the body like inflammation of the brain, lymph nodes, kidneys, spleen and other organs. It is called ATI or amylase trypsin inhibitor. ATIs make up no more that 4% of wheat proteins, but can trigger powerful immune reactions in the gut that can spread to other tissues in the body. The implications are massive.

Evidence suggests that ATIs can worsen the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, asthma, lupus and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, as well as inflammatory bowel disease.
That explains why some people eating wheat but don't have non celiac gluten sensitivity nor wheat allergy nor celiac are getting sick. 

This is another reason for the success of the GAPS or Paleo (without specific carbohydrates, legumes or chocolate) in resolving many health issues. 

More research has to be done to see if ATI is also found in other grains or cereals. According to Dr. Schuppan lead researcher of the study:

Wheat amylase-trypsin inhibitors (ATIs) have been identified as the most likely triggers of NCWS [Non Celiac Wheat Sensitivity]. They are highly protease resistant and activate the toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) complex in monocytes, macrophages and dendritic cells of the intestinal mucosa. Non-gluten containing cereals or staples display no or little TLR4 stimulating activity. Wheat ATIs are a family of up to 17 similar proteins of molecular weights around 15 kD and represent 2-4% of the wheat protein. With oral ingestion they co-stimulate antigen presenting cells and promote T cell activation in celiac disease, but also in other immune-mediated diseases within and outside the GI tract.

Read the news report from WorldHealth.net  entitled -Wheat Protein Linked to Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity.  

Read the press release from United European Gastroenterology. from October 17th, 2016.



References:

1. Zevallos V, Weinmann-Menke J, Meineck M et al. Alpha-amylase/trypsin inhibitors (ATIs) accelerate murine systemic lupus erythematosus. Poster presentation at the 16th International Coeliac Disease Symposium, 21-24 June 2015, Prague, Czech Republic. Poster P168.

2. Zevallos V, Yogev N, Nikolaev A et al. Consumption of wheat alpha-amylase/trypsin inhibitors (ATIs) enhances experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis in mice. Oral presentation at the 16th International Coeliac Disease Symposium, 21-24 June 2015, Prague, Czech Republic.

3. Junker Y, Zeissig S, Kim S-J et al. Wheat amylase trypsin inhibitors drive intestinal inflammation via activation of toll-like receptor 4. J Exp Med 2012;209(13):2395-408.

4. Fasano A, Sapone A, Zevallos V et al. Nonceliac gluten and wheat sensitivity. Gastroenterology 2015;148(6):1195-204.

5.Schuppan D, Pickert G, Ashfaq-Khan M et al. Non-celiac wheat sensitivity: Differential diagnosis, triggers and implications. Best Pract Res Clin Gastroenterol 2015;29(3):469-76.
To Your Health
Dr. Barbara (TM)

CeliacBrain (TM) is the trademark and copyright of Dr. Barbara Powell. The right of Dr. Barbara Powell to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Patent and Designs Act 1988.

Weakened Intestinal Barrier, Systemic Immune Activation Explains Symptoms in People with GS Without Celiac Disease- Columbia Researchers

Yes, I am talking about non celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS). If someone with NCGS eats gluten they get leaky gut and total body inflammation. That's what researchers found as the cause of the multiple illnesses that are provoked in sensitive individual with eating gluten even though they have negative bowel biopsies and negative blood tests. The syndrome has been recognized for decades, previously called latent celiac and the Oslo Conference  in 2013, put out a statement saying that non-celiac gluten sensitivity is a real identity. Dr. A. Fasano writes about it here. However there are still many physicians who don't believe it exists.

This understanding that there are people who are not celiac who get ill, sometimes very ill from eating gluten even in tiny amounts, and feel better if they abstain from any amounts of gluten is very important. Why? Because it is very, very common, especially in those who have chronic illness. I believe in starting with a diet, because that is what treats the cause. First, do no harm. I have personally observed people getting better or improving from symptoms of schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, mood issues, memory issues, eczema, ADD and ADHD, substance abuse, psoriasis, migraines, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, low nutrients, fatigue, carpal tunnel syndrome, joint pains including back pains, kidney failure, chronic pain syndromes like fibromyalgia, autoimmune diseases, balance issues, and osteoporosis when they have eliminated all gluten from their diet.

But here we have good news in getting closer to understanding NCGS. Dr. Peter Green and researchers at the Columbia University Medical Center, Celiac Disease Center have found that people with NCGS have more leaky gut than those without it. And body wide inflammation.

Dr. Umberto Volta MD and co-author of this study states:The study involved an international collaboration between researchers at CUMC and the University of Bologna in Italy. “These results shift the paradigm in our recognition and understanding of non-celiac wheat sensitivity and will likely have important implications for diagnosis and treatment. Considering the large number of people affected by the condition and its significant negative health impact on patients, this is an important area of research that deserves much more attention and funding.”

The study can be found here;

Read a good article on the subject here from Science Daily. 

And here: http://newsroom.cumc.columbia.edu/blog/2016/07/26/columbia-researchers-find-biological-explanation-wheat-sensitivity-2.

To Your Health
Dr. Barbara (TM)
CeliacBrain (TM)

Dr. Perlmutter's Brain Health Program in Grain Brain includes a Grain Free, GAPS Style Diet

I don't know anyone who doesn't want to age in good 

health and avoid Alzheimer's. 

We get a lot of information about how to do this, but does this information have to be updated from the 30's and 40's when most of these principles were established? There is a large movement to update classical teachings and Dr. Perlmutter, a neurologist in practice has put up-to-date research and recommendations into a book called "Grain Brain". 

Dr. David Perlmutter says in this interview: the first step is to stop gluten! (My bold):

Research suggests gluten can play a damaging role by the changes it imparts on your microbiome, the bacteria in your gut. But gluten can also wreak havoc with your neurological health via the inflammation it causes. Non-celiac gluten sensitivity may involve 30 to 40 percent of the population and according to work done at Harvard by Dr. Alessio Fasano, it may even affect every single human being.

The reason for this is because gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye, has significant effects on your gut cells, which leads to the production of a chemical called zonulin. Zonulin enhances inflammation and tends to make your gut porous and leaky (i.e. leaky gut syndrome). But that's not all. Dr. Fasano discovered that it can also make your blood-brain barrier leaky, allowing foreign proteins to migrate into your brain, where they clearly do not belong.

Listen to the full interview to pick up some brain saving tips.

Let's talk about those foreign proteins mentioned above. These proteins that migrate into the brain are recognized as "foreign invaders" mimicking a life threatening microorganism invasion, like "swine flu" or encephalitis, which then triggers a life saving reaction by the immune system. The reaction however, can go wrong with the confusion of the system when it thinks our own tissues look like gliadin proteins. Dr. Fraser Scott showed that celiac subjects had tissues that look like gliadin back in 2002, but other researchers have shown the same thing in other organs' connective tissues!!! 

This starts a reaction to one's own tissues with the production of anti deamidated gliadin, anti gliadin,  and  anti tissue transglutaminase antibodies (Tg2,3,and 6), especially worrisome is Tg6 but also Tg2, which attack the brain tissues and the tissues around the blood vessels blocking the "blood brain barrier".  Tg6's attack on the brain causes dozens of neurological disorders especially cerebellar ataxia, cerebral calcifications, peripheral neuropathy, epilepsy, migraines and possibly MS. 

Dr. Hadjivassiliou has written an extensive article  "Gluten Sensitivity; From Gut to Brain" on these neurological diseases and the good news is he has shown these conditions improve on a gluten free diet. If you want to see what the blood brain barrier thickened up with Tg6 looks like, go to page nine, and look at the picture labelled "A". The circle in the middle is the lumen of a blood vessel and around it is a cuff of thickness imbedded with Tg6 antibodies. This is very abnormal as the area around the blood vessel is rarely bigger than 1/5th of the diameter of the blood vessel. With one look at the diseased brain tissue's blood vessel you can tell there is something horribly wrong.

This abnormal attack on our own tissues also leads to psychiatric conditions. Here is a case of severe psychiatric symptoms, at one point requiring hospital admission, who improved with GAPS diet and B12 shots.

If your aim is good brain health, the first step is to stop eating gluten. 
You will want to get rid of all grains, though, because of the cross reactive and toxic proteins in them that promote leaky gut and inflammation just like gluten, which is the mechanism for the damage to the brain. 

There is more to do, of course, like remove chemical exposure especially to pesticides, proper dental care by a biological dentist, keeping your vitamin D levels good, keeping your blood sugar levels low and stable, keep your uric acid levels low by limiting your ingestion of fructose to 25 grams a day or less, monitor your B12 levels with a Homocysteine test, supplement with lots of folate (not folic acid, the chemical) probiotics and zinc, exercise moderately and keep your stress levels manageable.

To Your "Brain" Health

Dr. Barbara

GI's Announce: Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity: The New Frontier of Gluten Related Disorders

This blog is to inform people of the high rate of Gluten sensitivity a condition that causes severe conditions not just in the bowel, from eating gluten whether they have celiac disease or not. It causes a 400% increased risk of dying before age 65 while eating gluten, There was a time, until very recently that gastroenterologists argued that the only condition caused by gluten was celiac disease.
Now, in a review published in Nutrition in September 2013, by 23 world experts in Gastroenterology, including Dr. Fasano, they report on Non Celiac Gluten Sensitivity and it's links to irritable bowel syndrome, and neuropsychiatric conditions like autism, ALS, ataxia and schizophrenia.

What is particularly interesting is their discussion that specific carbohydrates found in food contribute to the symptoms of IBS. They validating the work of Dr. Haas and Elaine Gottschall, who since the '50's have treated people with a diet eliminating these carbohydrates and Dr. Campbell- McBride has updated it and called it Gut and Psychology Syndrome diet and protocol. These low-fermentable, poorly-absorbed, short-chain carbohydrates do more than give GI symptoms, but also inhibit healing of the bowel, proper growth of microbiota and without a both in good condition, people don't thrive.

If you are gluten sensitive, you need more than a gluten free diet to heal: gluten free, and free of specific carbohydrates (grain and sugar free, and no dairy) for as long as it takes to correct the microbiota of the gut.

Here is the abstract of the review:
Non Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS) was originally described in the 1980s and recently a “re-discovered” disorder characterized by intestinal and extra-intestinal symptoms related to the ingestion of gluten-containing food, in subjects that are not affected with either celiac disease (CD) or wheat allergy (WA). Although NCGS frequency is still unclear, epidemiological data have been generated that can help establishing the magnitude of the problem. Clinical studies further defined the identity of NCGS and its implications in human disease. An overlap between the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and NCGS has been detected, requiring even more stringent diagnostic criteria. Several studies suggested a relationship between NCGS and neuropsychiatric disorders, particularly autism and schizophrenia. The first case reports of NCGS in children have been described. Lack of biomarkers is still a major limitation of clinical studies, making it difficult to differentiate NCGS from other gluten related disorders. Recent studies raised the possibility that, beside gluten, wheat amylase-trypsin inhibitors and low-fermentable, poorly-absorbed, short-chain carbohydrates can contribute to symptoms (at least those related to IBS) experienced by NCGS patients. In this paper we report the major advances and current trends on NCGS.

Download the full article from this link.


To Your Health

Dr. Barbara

CENTER FOR CELIAC RESEARCH AND DR. FASANO ON DOMINO’S PIZZA

There has been a lot of press lately about Domino's Gluten free pizza. According to the company's statement, Domino's found that while the crust is certified as gluten free, current store operations at Domino's

can not guarantee that each hand crafted pizza is gluten free.

The Center for Celiac Research at the University of Maryland, lead by Dr. Fasano MD, has issued a paper on this subject on May 11, 2012. Read below or click here. 

CENTER FOR CELIAC RESEARCH STATEMENT ON DOMINO’S PIZZA


Friday, May 11, 2012
On May 7th, Domino’s Pizza began selling a new product the company describes as: “Domino’s pizza made with a gluten-free crust.” The launch of this new product into the U.S. market has generated some confusion, particularly in the celiac disease community, about the safety of this product for people with gluten-related disorders. According to the company’s statement, Domino’s found that while the crust is certified as gluten-free, current store operations at Domino’s cannot guarantee that each handcrafted pizza will be completely free from gluten. The Center for Celiac Research has been asked its position on the matter, and hopes to alleviate some confusion with this statement.

While the development of safe gluten-free products and safe dining establishments is always a welcome advance, we do not have the confidence that this product meets the safety standards we recommend for our patients. The introduction of cross contamination from a large chain like Domino’s represents a threat to our patients affected by gluten-related disorders, including celiac disease, gluten sensitivity, dermatitis herpetiformis (a skin condition), wheat allergy and gluten ataxia. As an international celiac research center with expertise in gluten-related disorders, we believe that individuals who have been diagnosed with a gluten-related disorder should NOT consume this product.
In many restaurant and dining establishments with a high risk of cross-contamination, it simply becomes too risky for patients with gluten-related disorders to remain gluten-free. Cross-contamination occurs when gluten-free foods come into contact with utensils, surfaces or foods that contain gluten. It’s a very real concern for many of our patients, including some who suffer from gluten sensitivity.

Additionally, we are still waiting for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to resolve the issue of safe threshold levels of gluten to be used in food labeling. Based on this threshold definition, we will be able to classify products as either safe or not safe, and, therefore, not suitable for consumption by people affected by gluten-related disorders. Based on Domino's statement, we can assume that their pizza is not safe and, therefore, should not be consumed by patients affected by gluten-related disorders. For more information please visit our websitewww.celiaccenter.org.


Alessio Fasano, M.D.
Director
Center for Celiac Research
University of Maryland
Baltimore, MD