A Brief History on the Gluten Disaster

By: Trish Pearce, Metabolic Care Coordinator- Beyer Natural Health Solutions

Are you familiar with The Simpson’s? Most people are. Each episode follows the same general template: the opening scene, a plot full of unexpected (and hilarious) twists and turns, and an ending that (unless you saw the first few minutes of the show,) seemingly makes no sense at all! Think about it…you have never turned on the TV and caught the last few minutes of an episode that you’ve never seen before without thinking, “Huh?!” Why do the writers do that? Are they just quirky? Well, yes, obviously. But it’s a good strategy, isn’t it? How could you ever truly understand the plot of ANY story without knowing the beginning?

It is impossible to understand the impact gluten has had on our health (and the health of our pets!) without understanding the history behind it and the series of events that lead to new research showing that EVERYONE is gluten sensitive, with 1/3 of the population being symptomatic at any given time. Not to mention the endangerment and possible EXTINCTION of a once well-known and common dog breed. To understand the enemy, we must look into our not-so-distant past and decide what choices were made by our ancestors that allowed such a silently spreading epidemic that is virtually IGNORED by our medical community.  We must ask the following questions: Where did gluten come from? What is gluten, exactly? How does gluten affect our health?  Who is affected by it? And last, but not least, where the heck DID all the Irish Setters go? (Have you noticed you don’t see many around anymore?)

Humanity has been around, in our current flattering form, for approximately two million years (wow, good for us!) The earliest humans were “hunter-gatherers,” which consumed, for the most part, freshly killed game meat and whatever fruits and vegetables were found lying around. Depending on your beliefs: God, Mother Nature, or Evolution designed our bodies to consume this rather plain fare in the belief that we would adhere strictly to our diets. But, alas, ancient humans, like modern ones, have a hard time sticking to one diet for too long. The ancient peoples of Mesopotamia were able to last until about 10,000-15,000 years ago when agriculture of the DISTANT ancestor of our current wheat grain was developed. His name was Einkorn, and he was a simple guy. So simple, in fact, that it’s postulated that our modern day celiacs could snack on him with absolutely no adverse affects! Uh, come again? It’s true! Modern humans have genetically altered and processed the original wheat grain to the point where it went from a seemingly innocuous, average food source to AN ABSOLUTE MONSTER THAT IS DESTROYING OUR HEALTH!

Geez, Einkorn, what did they do to you? Well, humanity is not known for it’s ability to leave well-enough alone, and instead of leaving wheat to remain in its intended design, we decided to tamper with its genetics (some higher power must be FED UP with us.) Early Germanic tribes began a process called cross-pollenization (early genetic modification), which basically means they created hybrids by reproducing different, although closely related, species of wheat. Why? Well, who likes crumbly, crumby bread? Our ancestors certainly didn’t, so they bred different varieties of wheat in order to create a perfect, delicious loaf of bread. Mission accomplished! But what they didn’t know WOULD end up hurting them, and all the generations that came after them! What didn’t they know?

THE TRAIT THEY WERE BREEDING FOR WAS GLUTEN. Gluten is the protein in wheat that gives bread its sticky quality, its lovely ability to rise into a distinct shape, not tear when we scrape a butter knife full of mayonnaise across it, and its delicious consistency. Unfortunately, those wonderful aspects of bread require BOATLOADS of gluten. We’re talking toxic levels, here. In fact, do you know what most industrial adhesives are made out of? Gluten protein. No, seriously. (Casein, or cow’s milk protein, is used as well. That’s why there is a picture of a cow on Elmer’s glue. But we’ll save casein’s story for another day.)

So…what does a protein that is often used for industrial strength, water proof adhesives do to our fragile insides which were meant for a simple diet of meat, vegetables, and the occasional fruits and nuts? It does exactly what you would think. It sticks. Specifically, it liberally coats the first thing it encounters after leaving your stomach, your duodenum, and then makes its oozing way into your small intestine, where your body absorbs all the nutrients from the foods you eat. (Wait a second…my stomach is loaded with acid! There’s no way this stuff can escape a hydrochloric acid bath! Actually, yes, it does. Gluten, along with other proteins like casein, doesn’t dissolve in acid. They only dissolve in alkaline and alcohol based solutions. Phew, good thing you had that glass of wine with dinner, right?) The body absorbs all of its nutrients, that is, vitamins and minerals, fats, proteins, and sugars, through tiny, finger-like projections lining the inside of your intestine called villi. Each villus has a special job, like little villagers. One villager harvests calcium, another, protein, another, vitamin D. Aw, how cute! They are extremely efficient at their jobs until, WHAM. They are coated in sticky protein. Could you do your job covered in glue? I couldn’t.

The best case scenario is that your little villagers get coated in glue and can no longer work. The worst case scenario is that your body’s clean-up crew, your immune system, mounts an attack. On you. Or rather, your villagers.  See, your immune system sends guys called antibodies whose job is to target the sticky protein covering the villi and eliminate it. These guys are highly efficient but, the problem is, they can be a bit over-zealous. Rather than simply wash the glue off the villi (it’s not that easy, see) they might just annihilate the little guys entirely! Oh, no! Now you are not absorbing nutrients efficiently. But it gets worse. What if the unsuspecting person just KEEPS EATING GLUTEN? Again, the answer is intuitive. Eventually, the immune system will destroy every single villager in small intestine town. What’s the medical diagnosis for this condition? CELIAC DISEASE.  Actually, the immune system might just bomb the town for good measure, leaving actual holes in the intestinal lining. What’s the medical term for that one? LEAKY GUT SYNDROME.  By the end of the barrage, the entire body is in crisis mode. Once there are holes in your small intestine, and “enemy molecules” (yes, GLUTEN, in addition to lots of other bad stuff) start leaking out, your immune system has basically declared martial law. Antibodies will attack gluten and EVERYTHING IN YOUR BODY THAT LOOKS LIKE GLUTEN. Some of your cells look like gluten! RIP, cells. What does the medical community call this one? It’s a bit more general now that multiple organ systems of your body are involved. They call it auto-immune disease. Wait, why are we still eating gluten? Because donuts are worth it! Eh…maybe not.

Current research shows that one in thirty-three people in the general population have the genetics that predispose them to celiac disease. Remember, you are only considered celiac AFTER every single one of your villagers has died. This is termed “total villous atrophy.” But, what if your villagers are in the PROCESS of being obliterated? What if your body is making antibodies but hasn’t quite reached crisis mode? The line between general gluten sensitivity and celiac disease is rather blurry. Most people wouldn’t know the difference. Your body might be mounting an immune attack against gluten, but you haven’t had total villous atrophy. Are you still feeling the effects? Certainly. Should you stop eating gluten? OF COURSE. Do you call the fire department when you see the first whiff of smoke in your house, or do you wait until the entire thing has burned to the ground and the fire begins to spread to your neighbors’ houses?

So…what the heck DID happen to all the Irish Setters? First of all, consider the fact that the pet food companies have been making grain based food since their inception. It started with corn meal, which is an obvious choice. American farmers grow LOTS of corn and there’s often a surplus. Then, 10-15 years ago, China figured out how to grow its own wheat supply and stopped importing ours. Uh oh. Wheat glut. The pet food industry bought up wheat grain for pennies on the dollar and began making foods that were wheat grain based. What makes you think pets aren’t gluten sensitive? Moreover, what makes you think that animals that were designed to eat MEAT, and meat ALONE, should be eating kibble that’s made out of grain? Of course, that’s silly. Pets these days just don’t seem as hearty as they used to, do they? They experience all sorts of crazy health problems, from inexplicable allergies to cancer to chronic diarrhea (I would know, I was a vet tech for 5 years!) Have you made the connection? Or are you still doubtful?

Remember the Irish setter? Used to be a fairly common breed, you might see a handful for every 20 labrador retrievers, sure! Don’t see many of them anymore, do you? In the years I worked as a vet tech I never saw ONE, and I saw such rare specimens as hairless cats and Irish wolfhounds! The setter has even been added to the AKC’s list of “endangered breeds” which means they have fewer than 300 annual registrations. What the….? They’ve been on the list for a little over 10 years! What happened 10-15 years ago to the pet food industry, again? Get ready for it…here it comes…Irish Setters are celiacs.

That’s where they all went.

THE STORY BEHIND INSULIN THAT YOUR MEDICAL DOCTOR WON’T TELL YOU !!!

Everybody wants more energy and most of us want to shed unwanted fat. Today I want to share with you a metabolic condition, which–due to the Standard American Diet (SAD)–most Americans have to some degree. This condition is called:

INSULIN RESISTANCE

It saps us of energy, increases fat production (cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL), alters our metabolism, can lead to type 2 diabetes and essentially changes our entire physiology…especially our brains!

What is metabolism? Simply put, it is this: We eat food and food gets converted to energy. That’s metabolism!

Once in the body our food gets broken down into mainly glucose. Glucose is the major energy source for all of our cells and is the ONLY energy source for our brains. Our brains consume about 30% of our entire glucose intake. It is by far the most metabolically active organ in our body. So if we have a problem with glucose metabolism, guess which organ feels it the most? That’s right…THE BRAIN!!!

Is it any wonder then, that brain-based conditions like DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, MEMORY LOSS, ALZHEIMER’S and so on are so much on the rise and so heavily marketed to by the big pharmaceutical companies? One just needs to watch TV at night to see all the dozens of commercials for anti-depressants and anxiety medications.

Okay; here’s how it works:

We eat our food and drink what we drink and hopefully we absorb it (yes, proper absorption is essential for good metabolism) and it gets broken down into glucose and sent into the bloodstream. Glucose in the blood is USELESS. Let me repeat that …glucose in the blood is USELESS! It must get into the cells where it’s converted to ATP, which is the ultimate energy source for our bodies. This conversion only takes place IN THE CELLS. Glucose outside of our cells (in the blood) is like gasoline NOT in the tank of our car or coal NOT in the steam engine.

As we eat and drink the levels of glucose in the blood will rise . There is a part of our brain that senses this and signals the pancreas to secrete the hormone INSULIN. WHY? Because insulin’s job is to push glucose into the cells where it can be converted to energy (ATP) and everybody is happy!

Now:  here’s where things go wrong. THE AVERAGE AMERICAN HAS GLUCOSE LEVELS THAT ARE WAY TOO HIGH! (I’ll explain the reason later. There’s more to it than you think…)

Why is this a problem, you ask?  (Now, pay attention—it is crucial for your health that you understand this part!)

CHRONICALLY HIGH LEVELS OF GLUCOSE =

CHRONICALLY HIGH LEVELS OF INSULIN.

Chronically high levels of insulin are bad, bad, bad for your body and especially bad for your BRAIN. Why? Great question–here are the answers your MD will not tell you!

High levels of insulin do the following:

1. Eventually your cells will stop listening to insulin! It’s like this…. Pretend that you work for me. Everyday you come into work I scream and yell at you and scream and yell (you can’t quit because you need the job). Eventually, what would you do? You would TUNE ME OUT or STOP LISTENING TO ME ALTOGETHER, right? Well, that’s what your body does to insulin (or any hormone, for that matter) when it is chronically high. It stops listening to it!

THIS IS INSULIN RESISTANCE!

So, what happens then? Well, Glucose continues to build up in the blood and it’s not getting into the cells. What happens to the energy levels of the cells? It DROPS. Your cells fatigue–especially brain cells!  Why?  Because they require a LOT of glucose, and when they don’t get enough, you get conditions such as brain fog, depression, anxiety, memory loss, lack of sleep—sound like anyone you know?

And…what is the medical approach to this problem? First, they are going to wait until your fasting blood glucose creeps up to about 126 or higher and then GIVE YOU MORE INSULIN or some other drug like metformin. Think about that…I mean really think about that. THAT’S LIKE ME SHOUTING AT YOU HARDER. It may work for awhile but then you get used to that and I have to shout EVEN LOUDER…I hope you get the point.

Listen to me… the day you go on insulin, get out a big red Sharpie and circle that day on the calendar–

BECAUSE YOU WILL NEVER BE THE SAME!

Unless…unless…stay with me now….you get to the root cause of WHY your blood glucose is so high (to be explained later).

So now you have the extra glucose in the blood and your body has to do something with it…well, guess what it does? It makes that glucose into fat. Yep. It’s called lipogenesis.

Cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDLs start forming in the blood. Again, what is the ‘modern medicine’ answer to this? ANOTHER DRUG! Yep, usually a cholesterol–lowering drug known as a statin drug. You know it as Crestor or Lipitor etc. (just watch TV for the others). I’m not even going to tell you the side-effects of these drugs (well, if you get muscle cramps or your hands/feet are tingling/burning, I might…that’s a hint).

Now get this… guess what your body requires when it is forming these bad fats?

A LOT OF ENERGY!

When you get fatigued after meals or crave sugar or coffee—COULD THIS BE WHY?

So not only are you not getting glucose into the cells (which causes fatigue of the cells) you are also tired from this process of lipogenesis. A double-whammy energy-theft!

Wait…it gets even better…during lipogenesis a hormone called leptin stops working. What does leptin do? It tells your brain when you are full!!!  Ever wonder why so many of us over-eat?!

Seriously, is your medical doctor telling you this stuff as he’s writing your prescription?

1. High levels of insulin create inflammation throughout the body. That’s right.

On a blood test, inflammatory markers such as C-Reactive Protein, homocysteine and fibrinogen are going to be high (that’s if your MD is even checking these…).

So you wonder why your spine, knees, hips, shoulders etc. are achy all the time? You can take all the meds you want or get PT or adjusted by your chiropractor but until you remove inflammation from high insulin, relief will be temporary.

1. High insulin is bad, bad, bad for your brain. Among other things, it causes the pituitary gland (in your brain) to excite your adrenal glands too much. Your adrenal glands are your stress glands–they release a very important hormone called cortisol. What does cortisol do? You’re not going to believe this…it INCREASES BLOOD GLUCOSE! Yep. Which then causes higher levels of insulin, which causes more insulin resistance, which causes higher levels of cortisol, which increases blood glucose, which causes higher levels of insulin, which causes…well you get the picture, right?

Here’s where it gets complicated, but trust me when I tell you: you do NOT want high levels of cortisol. Why? Well, beyond what I just told you, it suppresses your thyroid function (just when you thought you couldn’t get any more fatigued). This leads to weight gain, suppresses your immune system, makes you more susceptible to colds/flu, gut infections…and a lot of other bad stuff.

So, let’s talk about what’s causing all this high blood glucose. Wouldn’t that be nice to know so we could remove the cause, instead of just dealing with the consequences?

1. Poor Diet Duh! We all know this one–but do we really? Are you sure? I have Five Specific Rules which, if every patient follows, will dramatically reduce their blood sugar levels. I will share these with you when we talk.
2. Over-Stimulation Of The Adrenal Glands Remember these guys? They secrete the dreaded cortisol which increases blood glucose. What stimulates these glands?

-         Stress: Emotional, Chemical, Physical. Things like:

-         Poor Diet: Hmmm…there it is again. What are those Five Specific Rules?

-         Alcohol, Nicotine, Caffeine: Need I say more?

-         Food Sensitivities: This is when your immune system mistakenly attacks foods that you eat. The most common culprits are Gluten, Dairy, Soy, Yeast, and Egg. In fact– if you have a food sensitivity and continue to consume that food YOU WILL NEVER EVER EVER get your blood glucose under control. Period.

-         Hidden Gut Infections. If you have a chronic bacterial, parasitic, yeast/fungal or viral infection, this will stress your adrenal glands so hard that you will NEVER get cortisol/glucose/insulin under control. Ever.

-         Anemia. Your cells aren’t getting enough oxygen.  We gotta fix that.

-         Heavy metal toxicity. I don’t mean music. Lead, Mercury, Iron, Copper.

-         Too Much Exercise. Hernh?!…but I thought I was supposed to exercise? How much is too much? The answer is very simple and I have it!

The list could go on and on, but those are the common ones.

1. Improperly-functioning thyroid gland
2. Poorly-functioning liver
3. Reduced gut function

Does your medical doctor check all this?

How will you know if you have these problems? PROPER TESTING!!! Have you been told your lab work is ‘normal’ and ‘you’re OK’? I don’t go by lab ranges because they are t o o  w i d e, and they’re determined by the average patient that came to that lab in the last year. Let me ask you–what types of people generally go to labs: sick or well? Hmmm…so I go by tighter functional ranges that catch illness before they are out of control. For example, the functional range for fasting blood glucose is 85-100.

I will leave no stone unturned to get to the root cause of your insulin resistance.

I order a complete (and I mean complete) blood-chemistry test and determine problems based on functional ranges. I’ll test your adrenal glands: I’ll thoroughly test your gut for infections and food sensitivities. First and foremost, I’ll remove the causes. I will take you by the hand (only if you allow me!) and teach you what you need to do. Then, to change your metabolism back to normal (or as close as possible) I will provide specific scientifically-proven and state-of-the-art nutrients for a period of time (based on your lab findings, not guesswork!) until we achieve the necessary corrective metabolic shifts.

When it comes to your health, you have a choice. To follow an insurance-driven medical system and take no responsibility for your health except taking your drugs…OR…you can choose to learn the underlying reasons for your health issues and be accountable and responsible to do everything you can do to take care of yourself.

It is my goal and mission in life to teach and empower as many people as I can how to take care of our beautifully-designed and amazingly resilient bodies.

Dr. Ed Beyer