A Collection of Healthy Living Articles

Several years ago, parents of a lovely nine-year-old girl brought her to see me because she had “poor memory”. They indicated that she had difficulty “thinking and focusing” and because of these issues she was falling further and further behind in her school work. Interestingly, they stated that at times she was “fine”, while clearly at other times her brain function seemed to be “different”. They indicated that she had difficulty keeping her thoughts together and that she became profoundly frustrated when this would occur.

Because of her significant issues with academic performance, her parents elected to home school her. Her academic testing revealed that she was functioning at or below a third grade level in a variety of areas, including math skills, reading fluency, story recall and overall academic skills. Fortunately, she had no significant medical problems in her past and her overall physical, as well as neurological examinations were entirely normal. Routine typical blood studies were unrevealing, so I was left to reconsider her history to see if there were any clues as to what might be causing this child’s problems.

What caught my attention was the interesting fact that her problems were not constant. Basically, this indicated that her brain was intact but something seemed to be detrimentally influencing her from time to time causing her to have these significant issues with how her brain functioned.

In considering what factors change day to day in terms of someone’s exposure, certainly diet is at the top of the list. Recognizing that gluten sensitivity (a protein found in wheat, barley and rye) is extremely common, I decided to perform a simple blood test to determine if this child was gluten sensitive.

When the laboratory studies were completed, we were surprised to learn that she was profoundly sensitive to gluten. At that point I instructed her parents to put her on a gluten free diet. While they considered this diet to be challenging, eliminating all wheat, barley and rye from her diet, they complied nevertheless.

Over the next two weeks, her parents observed a remarkable change in her cognitive function. She was able to focus much more readily on her school work and indicated to her parents that she suddenly noticed she was thinking much more clearly.

Her parents maintained her on a gluten free diet and over the next several months continued to notice further improvements in her school work. At the end of the school year, Karen was tested and her grade level equivalent for math calculation skills was 5.1, reading fluency 5.6, and story recall 8.4, which is to say, functioning at a level considered “normal” midway through the year for an eighth grader.

A brief note from her parents reported: “Karen is completing third grade this year. Prior to removing gluten from her diet, academics, especially math, were difficult. As you can see, she is now soaring in math. Based upon this test, entering the fourth grade next year, she would be at the top of her class. The teacher indicated that if she skipped fourth grade and went to fifth grade, she will be in the middle of her class. What
an accomplishment!”.

Louis Pasteur stated, “Chance favors the prepared mind.” I am certainly grateful that chance favored us several years ago when Karen came to be evaluated. Because of this experience, I became deeply involved in research exploring the effects of gluten sensitivity on the brain. I learned that gluten sensitivity, known as celiac disease, is actually an extremely common human affliction. In fact, it has been described as “the most common human disease”.

Current studies indicate that about one percent of Americans are gluten sensitive. This is an astounding statistic when you consider that at the time of this writing, there are approximately 297,000,000 Americans. That means, about 3 million Americans are gluten sensitive. When you consider the population from birth to age five years is 23 million children, that means that approximately 230,000 of these children are gluten sensitive.

It seems astounding that a disease that is so common, is nevertheless, fairly obscure. Despite the fact that it was originally described in 1888, we still don’t hear much about it. Standard medical textbooks typically describe celiac disease (gluten sensitivity) as being primarily a gastrointestinal problem. I recall in medical school being taught that celiac disease was characterized by abdominal pain, abdominal distention with bloating and gas, decreased appetite, diarrhea, nausea, unexplained weight loss and growth delay in children. Newer research indicates that celiac disease can have a profound effect on the nervous system.

Dr. Maios Hadjivassiliou of the United Kingdom, a recognized world authority on gluten sensitivity, has reported in the journal, The Lancet, that “gluten sensitivity can be primarily, and at times exclusively, a neurological disease”. That is, people can manifest gluten sensitivity by having issues with brain function without any gastrointestinal problems whatsoever. Dr. Hadjivassiliou indicates that the antibodies a person has when they are gluten sensitive can be directly and uniquely toxic to the brain.

Since his original investigations in 1996, the recognition that gluten sensitivity can lead to disorders of brain function has led to a virtual explosion of scientific papers describing this relationship. Researchers in Israel have noted neurological problems in 51% of children with gluten sensitivity and further, describe a link between gluten sensitivity and attention deficit /hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). As authors in a recent issue of the journal, Pediatrics, stated in their research, “This study suggests that with the variability of neurologic disorders that occur, celiac disease is broader than previously reported and includes “softer” and more common neurologic disorders including chronic headache, developmental delay, hypotonia and learning disorders or ADHD.”