Low Cholesterol is a sign of celiac/gluten sensitivity, and is DANGEROUS

Low cholesterol, when found by blood work, should trigger a high degree of suspicion on the part of the physician that the person has celiac disease or gluten sensitivity.

Low cholesterol is any level of total cholesterol below 4.14 mmol/L or 160 mg/dL.

Low cholesterol is dangerous because it is linked by numerous studies to depression, suicide, violent behaviour, and increased death rate from a violent episode such as accident or homicide!!!

The following studies have linked low cholesterol levels to an increased risk of developing depression:

1. A 1993 paper in Lancet reported, “Among men aged seventy years and older, depression was three times more common in the group with low total plasma cholesterol…than in those with higher concentrations.”

2. A 2000 paper in Psychosomatic Medicine, reported men with long-term, low total cholesterol levels “have a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms” compared to those with higher cholesterol levels.

3. In 1998, a Swedish research paper showed women with the lowest cholesterol group (the bottom tenth percentile) suffered from significantly more depressive symptoms than did the other healthy women.

4. A 2001 study in Psychiatry Research also found that low levels of cholesterol were linked to higher ratings on depression rating scales.

5. A 2008 meta-analyses found higher total cholesterol was associated with lower levels of depression.

6. Low levels of HDL were linked to “long-term depressive symptomatology”.

Numerous studies link the sad, fatal condition of suicide to low level of cholesterol.

And suicide is not the only type of violence associated with lower cholesterol levels.

Swedish researchers reported that “low cholesterol is associated with increased subsequent victimization by criminal violence.”

And low cholesterol is linked to higher risk of cancer.

A recent study published in Curr Med Res Opin. 2011 Sep 7. Epub 2011 Sep 7. PMID: 21899411confirmed the significant association between low cholesterol and cancer mortality in the general population. A Japanese study showed an inverse relationship between cholesterol and cancer Int J Cancer. 2009 Dec 1;125(11):2679-86. PMID: 19544528

And another 2009 Japanese study showed there is an inverse association between serum total cholesterol and cancer mortality, especially for liver cancer. Int J Cancer. 2009 Dec 1;125(11):2679-86. PMID: 19544528

How does low cholesterol cause so much brain dysfunction?

 As is the case with so much of psychiatry, we don’t know exactly why a low cholesterol level is linked to depression or cancer. Canadian researchers were the first to examine this question in their 2007 study published in the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology. Low cholesterol seems to affect the frontal cortex, a part of the brain that handles planning including inhibiting inappropriate actions and making good decisions.

Chronic low grade inflammation is theorized as the basis of many mental illnesses, cancer and chronic illness of the modern world.

Cholesterol, the mother of our hormones.

Cholesterol is a precursor to all steroid and sex hormones like progesterone, DHEA, estriol, testosterone, and cortisol ALL important for our functioning but ALL also anti-inflammatory.

Cholesterol is also theorized to be a part of the activation of many neurochemical, so without enough cholesterol some neurochemical can’t do their job for example serotonin.

Vitamin D is synthesized with the help of cholesterol and ultraviolet light.

What if you are on a cholesterol lowering drug and it is below 4.14?

I would recommend that you get celiac testing and talk to your doctor about the dose of the lipid lowering drug and adjusting the dose to allow the cholesterol levels to rise naturally to above 4.14mmol/L.

To Your Health

Wheat Lectin (WGA) is Cytotoxic, Neurotoxic, Cardiotoxic and Immunotoxic

Lectins, components of grains act to protect the grain plant and act like anti-nutrients. If you are struggling with celiac disease or other gastrointestinal issues, you need to read about chitin-binding Lectins to understand what is going on and their danger.

Start by linking to this incredibly well researched article called "Opening Pandora's Bread Box: The critical role of wheat lectin in Human Disease" by Sayer Ji. 

I learned that sprouted wheat has MORE lectins than regular wheat!

Dr. Mercola writes a wellness newsletter and he shares cutting edge information.

He recently wrote on gluten and lectins:

"Gluten" comes from the Latin word for glue, so named because its adhesive properties hold bread and other baked goods together. Gluten is present in grains such as wheat, rye, and barley. The glue-like properties interfere with the breakdown and absorption of nutrients, including the nutrients from other foods in the same meal. The result is a sticky, constipating lump in your gut, rather than a nutritious, easily digested meal.

This undigested glutinous gut-bomb may trigger your immune system to attack the lining of your small intestine, causing diarrhea or constipation, nausea, and/or abdominal pain. Severe reactions are classified as "celiac disease," and milder reactions fall under the category of "gluten intolerance." Over time, your small intestine can become increasingly damaged and less able to absorb nutrients, such as iron and calcium. This in turn can lead to anemia, osteoporosis and other health problems.

Modern wheat (and other grains) differs greatly from the wheat our ancestors ate. The proportion of gluten protein in wheat has increased enormously as a result of hybridization. Legumes are also loaded with lectins, which is why most who follow a Paleo type diet avoid them.

Lectins: The Plant Kingdom's Weapon of Mass Destruction

Lectins are carbohydrate-binding proteins that are widespread in the plant kingdom. Plants produce lectins to ward off their natural enemies, such as fungi and insects. However, lectins are not just the nemesis of fungi and insects, but are also plaguing humans. Please refer to the excellent video above by Chris Meletis, ND, who discusses the many dangers posed by these glycoproteins.

There are many types of lectins.

And from the same article....................

 Wheat Lectin (WGA) is Cytotoxic, Neurotoxic, Cardiotoxic and ImmunotoxicWheat lectin, or "wheat germ agglutinin" (WGA), is largely responsible for many of wheat's pervasive ill effects. WGA is highest in whole wheat, especially sprouted whole wheat, but wheat isn't the only grain with significant lectin. All seeds of the grass family (rice, wheat, spelt, rye, etc.) are high in Lectins.

Read more here at Mercola.com.

Happy New Year, just don't raise a glass of barley based Gluten-free Beer.

All of us who are gluten sensitive just want to have a lifestyle similar to others with delicious food and drink, that is convenient and healthy. And having a glass of "cheer" can be part of that wish.
Those of you who enjoy gluten-free beers have to read this report of an independent lab that tested barley-based gluten-free beer.

Significantly, both barley -based low-gluten beers tested, in which the hordein concentration is reduced (by proprietary processing steps during brewing to reduce the amount of gluten in the final product) had substantial levels of one or more hordein proteins which are a source of gluten.

Barley-based gluten-free beer had 'substantial' hordein protein levels, study

Australian scientists say they have conducted tests revealing that two commercially available barley-based low gluten beers had substantial levels of one or more hordein proteins.

http://www.beveragedaily.com/Formulation/Barley-based-gluten-free-beer-had-substantial-hordein-protein-levels-study

The bottom line: if you like to drink gluten-free beer, stick to rice or sorghum based gluten-free beer to be safe.

The Surprising Cause of Melanoma incidence (And No, it's Not Too Much Sun) -British Journal of Dermatology

The rising rates of melanoma are very frightening. Researchers are trying to find the causes and one group recently published in the British Journal of Dermatology a finding that innocuous skin lesions have been classified as cancerous. This leads to an increased incidence where there may not be. 

So why am I talking about melanomas in a celiac/gluten sensitivity blog. People suffering from Celiac/gluten sensitivity have low levels of fat soluble vitamins like Vitamin D. And so depend on the skin to make enough  vitamin D. And vitamin D protects against melanoma.

Exposure to sunlight, particularly UVB light makes vitamin D3 which then circulates in the blood. There is however no guarantee that your skin makes enough vitamin D3, so a blood level is required to be sure!

Optimize your vitamin D levels through proper sun exposure which is described for you in Dr. Mercola's article. Noon day sun maximizes your vitamin D levels and minimizes your risk of skin damage.

Or take a good vitamin D3 supplement and get your blood levels done to ensure your digestive system has absorbed enough Vitamin D for you to have the right vitamin D level. In Canada that would be between 100 and 200. At this range you will be protected from as many as 16 different types of cancer.

Dr. Mercola writes:

Is Lack of Sunlight a More Likely Culprit?

Despite all the bad press linking sun exposure to skin cancer, there's almost no evidence at all to support it. There is, however, plenty of evidence to the contrary. Over the years, several studies have confirmed that appropriate sun exposure actually helps prevent skin cancer. In fact, melanoma occurrence has been found to decrease with greater sun exposure, and can be increased by sunscreens.
One of the most important facts you should know is that an epidemic of the disease has in fact broken out among indoor workers. These workers get three to nine times LESS solar UV exposure than outdoor workers get, yet only indoor workers have increasing rates of melanoma -- and the rates have been increasing since before 1940.
There are two major factors that help explain this, and the first has to do with the type of UV exposure.
There are two primary types of UV rays from sunlight, the vitamin-D-producing UVB rays and the skin-damaging UVA light. Both UVA and UVB can cause tanning and burning, although UVB does so far more rapidly. UVA, however, penetrates your skin more deeply than UVB, and may be a much more important factor in photoaging, wrinkles and skin cancers.
A study in Medical Hypotheses suggested that indoor workers may have increased rates of melanoma because they're exposed to sunlight through windows, and only UVA light, unlike UVB, can pass through window glass. At the same time, these indoor workers are missing out on exposure to the beneficial UVB rays, and have lower levels of vitamin D.
Researchers wrote:

"We hypothesize that one factor involves indoor exposures to UVA (321–400nm) passing through windows, which can cause mutations and can break down vitamin D3 formed after outdoor UVB (290–320nm) exposure, and the other factor involves low levels of cutaneous vitamin D3.
After vitamin D3 forms, melanoma cells can convert it to the hormone, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, or calcitriol, which causes growth inhibition and apoptotic cell death in vitro and in vivo. 
… We agree that intense, intermittent outdoor UV overexposures and sunburns initiate CMM [cutaneous malignant melanoma]; we now propose that increased UVA exposures and inadequately maintained cutaneous levels of vitamin D3 promotes CMM."

To put it simply, UVB appears to be protective against melanoma -- or rather, the vitamin D your body produces in response to UVB radiation is protective.
As written in The Lancet:

"Paradoxically, outdoor workers have a decreased risk of melanoma compared with indoor workers, suggesting that chronic sunlight exposure can have a protective effect."

Read the rest of Dr. Mercola's take on melanoma's, sun exposure, Canadian Cancer Society's recommendations and vitamin D advice by clicking here::


Don't forget, not enough omega-3 oil in the blood is also a link to cancers.
And there is significant evidence that high omega 6/ omega 3 ratio is also predisposing to higher cancer levels as the high ratio is very inflammatory.

A healthy ratio is 2-3/1 and an typical North American's ratio is about 10/1. 
How to remedy this? Eat less seed oils which are predominantly found in processed foods like crackers and eat oily fatty fish 3 times a week. Or supplement with a good quality fish oil. 

Shield Your Kidneys from Celiac Disease

Celiac disease and gluten sensitivity are the "great pretenders" and mimic hundreds of illnesses.That's because all organs can become the target organs for these diseases. Sometimes the small bowel is hardly affected and only 50% of celiacs ( Farrell, NEJM 2002) have diarrhea.

According to new research by the Swedish team which includes Dr. J. Ludvigsson, whom I've reported on before, the risk of kidney disease in celiacs is increased by 3.5 times compared to non-celiac patients.

That's a staggering number. Protect your kidneys, don't eat ANY gluten if you are celiac or suspect that gluten makes you ill. And take appropriate supplements.

Brian Dean RD reports over at the CeliAct blog:

Kidney Disease Basics

Your body’s kidneys are a pair or organs with a Swiss Army knife-like array of functions. In addition to filtering out blood, your kidneys regulate fluid balance, manage your electrolytes and even convert vitamin D to its functional form.
Sadly, America’s kidneys are in bad shape. More than 10 percent of all adults in the United States have chronic kidney disease – a severe form of kidney disease where functioning is severely impaired – the National Institutes of Health reports. What’s worrying is that things are getting worse: kidney disease is set to double by 2030.
Public health officials have set their crosshairs on obesity, hypertension and type 2 diabetes to try to stem the tide of kidney disease cases. However, it appears that celiac disease may be one silent cause that’s getting ignored.

Celiac and Your Kidneys: Evidence

A Swedish research team, presenting their results in a paper published in the August 2011 issue of Gut, investigated the link between celiac disease and kidney disease. To do this, the scientists followed a group of 20,000 adults with and without CD. They discovered that the risk of developing end stage renal disease – the most serious form of kidney disease – was 3.5 times higher in individuals with CD than those without.
But this study isn’t the first to note the connection between celiac disease and kidney disease: a paper published in the March 2006 issue of Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation found that CD upped kidney disease risk by about the same amount.

Celiac and Your Kidneys: Connection

Scientists aren’t sure how CD attacks your kidneys, but here’s what they have so far:

• Antibodies: The same antibodies that go haywire over gluten are also found in high amounts in damaged kidneys. These antibodies appear to attack glomerular cells that are important for blood filtration.
• Type 1 Diabetes: People with celiac disease have type 1 diabetes more often than the general population. Type 1 diabetes is an important risk factor for kidney disease.
• Nitric Oxide: This pro-inflammatory compound skyrockets in CD, and is well known to contribute to kidney damage.
  

References:

• Welander A, Prütz KG, Fored M, Ludvigsson JF. Increased risk of end-stage renal disease in individuals with coeliac disease. Gut. 2011 Aug 3. [Epub ahead of Print]
• National Institutes of Health: Kidney and Urologic Diseases Statistics for the United States. Available at: http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/KUDiseases/pubs/kustats/index.aspx. Accessed September 19th 2011.
• Ludvigsson,JF et al: Coeliac disease and risk of renal disease-a general population cohort study. Nephrol Dial Transplant. 2006 Jul;21(7):1809-15

For part two see this link.
It encourages 110% gluten-free diet, losing weight if you are overweight, exercise, and fish oils. All good advice.
Do it now before it's too late. 

Top 12 Reasons Gluten, if sensitive to it, Should Be ELIMINATED From Your Diet: Part 1

Here Charles Poliquin writes about the serious reasons one should avoid gluten/gliadin if one is sensitive to it.

Enjoy part one........

Gluten is a protein found in most grains eaten in America and all over Europe. Most of your customers gluten intake will come from wheat products, but as well from barley, triticale, rye, oats, spelt. Oats are supposed by nature to be gluten free, however, they get cross-contaminated by being carried in trucks that also carry wheat. You should also know that American strands of wheat have the highest content of gluten in the World.

Gluten has been isolated as a risk factor is so many diseases, that is almost impossible to count them all. At the time of writing this blog, the functional medicine circle has isolated at least 55 diseases linked to it.

 

I have to pick 12 main reasons to eliminate gluten from your diet:

 

1. Gluten inflames the brain. The auto-immune response to ingesting inflames the brain. It deposits a type of plaque that interferes with proper communication between cells. Gluten is so bad for brain function that I know of at least one Formula One stable who bans their pilots from eating it.

2. The glutamate content in gluten kills brain cells. Glutamate is an excitotoxin, which means it overexcites brain cells, which either damages or kills them. Its docking station in the brain is called the NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor). Excessive excitation of this receptor is linked to many psychiatric disorders.

3. Gluten has been linked to autism. EVERY single client who came in for a consult to help their autistic child, have seen that the removal of gluten that the most influential factor to heal their child. They can also how reintroducing by accident, such as birthday cake consumption at a friend’s place immediately flares up all behavioral changes associated with autism.

 

If this is intriguing to you, read more here...... 

Gluten-Free Friendly Travel in Venice

 

I would like to share how easy it is to eat out, if you are gluten free,  in other countries. Today I am highlighting Italy, in particular Venice.

Since 1999, in Italy, all children are tested for gluten sensitivity and celiac disease and as a consequence the general culture of Italy is very knowledgeable about the serious consequences of undiagnosed celiac disease, including the high rates of complications and death.They appreciate celiacs need good gluten free food and need to be treated like every one else.

And so the GF food is wonderful in Italy. 

Well, thanks to Maria Roglieri, author of The Gluten-Free Guide To New York and The Gluten-Free Guide To Italy we can all relax and enjoy the gondola ride. Maria is going to share with us today some extremely helpful tips about how to fearlessly eat gluten-free in Italy.

Italy is gluten-free heaven (although some Italians beg to differ since you can't get a gluten-free hamburger bun at McDonald's) in large part because everyone in Italy knows about celiac disease.  When you ask restaurant staff about gluten-free food (il cibo senza glutine), they automatically respond with the question "Do you have celiac disease?"
All Italians are tested for celiac disease at an early age.  The many who test positive receive great services:  a monthly stipend from the government for gluten-free food plus extra vacation time to shop for and prepare gluten-free food!  Also, the companies that sell gluten-free products have all worked to promote awareness and understanding of celiac disease.  It is a law that gluten-free food must be made available in schools, hospitals, and public places and that all pharmacy products and food labels must indicate the presence of gluten if present.  In Italy, you can even study for a Master's degree in "Celiac Disease:  From Diagnosis to Management."
When I ask restaurant owners, managers, and chefs if they can provide a gluten-free meal, sometimes they say "no" but much more often they respond positively with comments such as,
- "Come no?" (effectively, "Why not?  Why do you even ask?"),

To read all of the article follow it at Celiac chicks....

To find more listings of restaurants and food stores in Venice, read another blog written by Anna...

Venice      -Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Venice can be a lonely place for anyone GF.  I have been on a GF diet for close to ten years and have been pretty successful at it (or so I say), however, for me personally, Venice served as a cold reminder of how much I miss freshly baked non-GF bread.  With all the advances in GFF cuisine, the bread has come miles from where we started, how ever it is one of the items that still has a way to go.  So, walking through the beautiful little streets of Venice I could not escape the smells coming out of the little pizza joints, stores and restaurants, but the most difficult for me was the smell of freshly baked bread (pastries and croissants as well).  With that said, I was very lucky to stumble upon a small store (MEA LIBERA TUTTI) that caters to us GF divas.  The owner was not only very friendly and approachable, but she is a wealth of knowledge of anything GF.  She deals with non-GFF Venice every day and is more than willing to share the lessons that she has learned.  She became my guide to GFF Venice - for which I am eternally grateful. 

MEA LIBERA TUTTI (check out the store on Facebook)

CANNAREGIO 3803 (but when looking for it, ask for Calle Racchetta / Priuli street to find it since Cannaregio is the area the store is located in, not the actual street name)
TEL. 041 5210454
mealiberatutti@gmail.com 

The places below are not the only places that are supposedly GFF in Venice.  I came across some that have a limited GFF menu (such as Osteria Anticopolo on Ruga Realto 778), but such places are not necessarily 100% GF, because of the possibility of cross-contamination.  However, all the places below are guaranteed GF and are constantly inspected to make sure that they stay that way.

Read the list here.