It’s pretty common to hear about people going gluten free, and often these people report that they feel much better when they avoid gluten. So the question becomes…why is that? What does gluten do to our bodies, and why do some people feel better when they stay away from it?

Finding answers to these questions is important so that you can decide whether or not eating gluten is a wise decision for your own health. So here in part two of the Gluten Guide, I will explain what gluten actually does inside your body. (By the way, if you missed the first post in the Gluten Guide: What Is Gluten, you can read it here as it provides some basic background information for this article.)

As we are about to discover, gluten impacts some people’s bodies in two primary ways: through their gut health and through their immune system. Let’s start by examining the role it plays in our gut.

What Exactly Is Our Gut?

It’s difficult to discuss the impact of gluten on our bodies without laying a basic foundation first. To be clear, when I reference the gut, I am referring to a hollow tube that starts where our food is put into our mouth and ends where waste is eliminated.

One of the primary purposes of our gut is to act as a protective barrier so that only certain nutrients from the food we eat are allowed to pass through the lining of the gut and enter into our bloodstream, travel throughout our body, and nourish our cells. It also ensures that food particles are digested completely before entering our bodies.

A second purpose of our gut is to prevent certain substances that could cause us harm from passing through the gut lining. These substances are not allowed to pass through the lining of the gut, and instead they are simply eliminated as waste.

What types of things are prevented from passing into the bloodstream? Particles such as toxins, proteins, bacteria, and large, undigested particles are not allowed to pass through because our intelligent body knows they could cause us harm. Pretty smart, right?!?

Leaky Gut

In a perfect world, our gut will function just as I described. It will allow all of the health promoting nutrients to enter our bodies after they have been fully digested, and it will eliminate all toxins that may cause us harm.

Unfortunately, researchers have been finding out that for many people this process is not working as it is intended.

As Dr. Axe explains, the “tight junctions” that line the wall of our gut (these help determine which particles are allowed in and which have to stay out) have begun to malfunction for many people. As a result, many particles that are not supposed to enter our bodies are now being allowed through our gut wall and into our bloodstream. They then have the potential to cause damage [1].

This condition is commonly referred to as “leaky gut” or “intestinal permeability”, and it is receiving a lot of attention from the scientific community because of the huge role it plays in our health and in the onset of disease.

What Does Leaky Gut Have to Do With Gluten?

Ok, I know I started out talking about gluten, and it may seem like I have gotten side-tracked with this discussion of our guts. So, let’s tie it all together now. What does gluten have to do with our gut health?

Several factors in our modern world can damage the lining of our gut wall, thereby leading to leaky gut.  I’m guessing that you won’t be surprised to learn that one common contributing factor to leaky gut is eating gluten. Here’s why…

Zonulin is a protein in our bodies that when improperly activated can break apart the tight junctions in the lining of your gut, leading to leaky gut.

Chris Kresser explains that when people who are sensitive to gluten eat gluten, the gluten causes zonulin to be released, which can then contribute to making your gut leaky so that toxins and large, undigested proteins (like gluten!) can now enter into your bloodstream [2].

As I mentioned earlier, I don’t want to paint the picture that gluten is the only cause of leaky gut because that is simply not the case. Many other factors can play a role, such as stress, medications and antibiotic exposure, alcohol in excess, a diet high in sugar, and environmental toxins. However, research shows us that gluten does play an active role in this process.

Is Leaky Gut That Big of A Deal?

Now that we recognize how gluten can be a contributing factor to increasing the probability of developing a leaky gut, you may be wondering if a leaky gut is really that big of a deal.

Over two thousand years ago, Hippocrates wisely stated: “All disease begins in the gut.” And Hippocrates was not wrong. Science continually confirms the importance of gut health for optimal health overall. This topic is actually one I’d like to explore more in another blog post, but for now, just know that around 70-80% of our immune system is actually located within our digestive system. Without a healthy gut, you are much more at risk for a variety of health conditions and diseases.

As an example, some researchers now believe that you can only develop an autoimmune disease (such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Crohns’ disease, ulcerative colitis, and type 1 diabetes) if you have a leaky gut [3]. Additionally, reversing the symptoms of autoimmune diseases usually relies on healing the lining of the gut [3].

So, yes, a leaky really is that big of a deal!

Gluten And Inflammation

Let’s look at another one of the problems caused by eating gluten: inflammation.

When toxins and large particles are allowed to pass through the gut wall, they are identified as invaders in the body. This causes our immune system to launch an attack (through the process of inflammation) in order to get rid of them. This is a natural process designed to keep us healthy.

But, if we are constantly being bombarded with toxins (because of a leaky gut) and our immune system is constantly having to create inflammation in order to protect us, we will soon have chronic inflammation, which can lead to several health consequences.

Additionally, when gluten proteins slip through a leaky gut and enter into our body, our immune system recognizes that they should not be there either and once again launches an attack to destroy the gluten particles.

As Dr. Myers explains, our immune system memorizes the structure of invaders (such as gluten) so that it can be prepared to successfully attack the invader again if it is introduced into the body at a later time. Unfortunately, the structure of gluten is similar to the structure of several of our body’s own tissues, such as our thyroid. So when we eat gluten, our immune system produces antibodies to attack the gluten, but because gluten looks similar to our thyroid, it can also begin to attack our own tissues, like the thyroid [4].

Let’s Put It All Together!

This has been a lengthy and somewhat in-depth look into what gluten does in our bodies, so I’d like to sum it all up for you here.

For individuals who are sensitive to gluten, the following chain reaction can literally be set off every time they eat gluten:

• The problems begin when gluten activates zonulin and contribute to the formation of a leaky gut.
• A leaky gut then allows toxins and undigested particles (like gluten) to enter into the bloodstream and travel throughout the body.
• These toxic substances (including large particles of gluten) then trigger our immune system to create inflammation in order to destroy these foreign invaders.
• Continuing to eat gluten on a regular basis leads to a state of chronic inflammation as our body tries to continually fight off these foreign invaders.
• And, finally, our body may begin to attack its own tissues that just happen to be similar in structure to gluten, such as our thyroid.

Yikes! This chain of events is definitely not something any of us want going on in our bodies because it truly can have a dramatic impact on our health.

So What Do You Do?

So how do you know if you your body is reacting negatively to gluten? In the third part of the Gluten Guide, I will list some of the many symptoms you may be experiencing if you are sensitive to gluten. I will also provide you with two methods (and tell you which one is my favorite) for determining exactly whether or not gluten is negatively affecting your health so that you know if it is setting you up for future (or current) health problems.

After reading this next post, you will feel informed and empowered to make a wise decision for your health and for your future.

Sources

[1] Axe, Josh. (n.d.) 7 Signs and Symptoms You Have Leaky Gut. Retrieved from http://draxe.com/7-signs-symptoms-you-have-leaky-gut/.

[2] Kresser, Chris. (2013). The Paleo Cure. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company.

[3] Carnahan, Jill. (July 2014). Leaky Gut: The Syndrome Linked to Many Autoimmune Diseases. Retrieved from http://www.jillcarnahan.com/2014/07/07/leaky-gut-syndrome-linked-many-autoimmune-diseases/.

[4] Myers, Amy. (September 2015). 3 Important Reasons to Give Up Gluten If You Have an Autoimmune Disease. Retrieved from http://www.amymyersmd.com/2015/09/3-important-reasons-to-give-up-gluten-if-you-have-an-autoimmune-disease/.