What's the Big Deal About Gluten?

You may not be aiming for an Olympic gold medal, but if you have chronic symptoms that doctors can’t explain, bay area Olympian Dana Vollmer’s experience could offer clues to help you finally find relief.

Vollmer suffered for years with symptoms including stomach aches and joint and muscle pain that baffled her doctors, landed her in the hospital three times and almost ended her athletic career.

"I always thought it was nerves or stress or 'my stomach'," she said in an interview on the Sports Illustrated site, SI.com.  “Last fall,” the article continues, “she started suffering unexplained fatigue as well. "I could make it through the first hour of practice and then I fell off a cliff," she said. "I didn't have any endurance and we didn't understand why. I had so many blood tests and saw so many doctors and nobody really knew."

A holistic nutritionist finally diagnosed Vollmer’s sensitivity to gluten and a few other foods.  After eliminating gluten and the other foods that she reacts to from her diet, Vollmer’s swimming career took off and she landed three gold medals and a world record that had eluded her for years.  Just after her first gold medal event, she tweeted about the gluten-free meal that won her the race.

If you are wondering whether gluten, a protein found in wheat and other grains, could be at the root of your symptoms, you can learn more at a presentation by internationally-recognized clinical nutritionist Tom O’Bryan, on September 27th at the The Mill Valley Hotel (160 Shoreline Highway just off the 101).  The event starts at 6 pm with tastings from restaurants with gluten free menus.  O’Bryan’s talk begins at 7 pm.  Tickets are $10 and available at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/265547  .

O’Bryan is a board-certified nutritionist with a passion for educating people about the many manifestations of gluten sensitivity.  

“The most common system of the body that’s affected by gluten is the brain, not the gut,” says O’Bryan.  “Plus for those with gluten sensitivity, autoimmune diseases are ten times more common.  Gluten can be the gasoline on the fire of chronic disease.”

Gluten’s negative impact on the digestive system, called celiac disease, is gaining more recognition, but it has a low rate of diagnosis.  Even with digestive symptoms as intense as those that landed swimmer Dana Vollmer’s in the hospital—three times— doctors sometimes have difficulty making a diagnosis and many people suffer for years before they learn that simply removing gluten from their diet will alleviate their symptoms.  

“For every person that has symptoms related to gluten in their intestine, there are eight that don’t,” says O’Bryan.  “Instead they’ve got brain symptoms, or joint symptoms, or skin symptoms, they’ve got psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, recurrent ear infection, or migraines, or attention deficit, or kidney disease, or muscle cramps, or anemia, or asthma, or miscarriages. The list goes on and on and on. Gluten can affect any tissue in the body.”

Doctors typically treat these conditions with medications, not recognizing that the condition is actually a symptom of gluten sensitivity.  Although the New England Journal of Medicine identifies 55 different conditions that can be caused by gluten, most doctors do not know how to test for any manifestation of gluten sensitivity other than celiac disease.

In addition to the unnecessary suffering and expense people with chronic conditions endure, undetected gluten sensitivity can cause extensive tissue damage and lead to more serious conditions like multiple sclerosis or cancer.

Known for his ability to clarify the confusion around diagnosing gluten sensitivity, O’Bryan has led workshops for the Royal College of Medicine in London, and the American College for the Advancement of Medicine.  He was selected as one of 5 nationally recognized presenters on Endocrinology by the International Symposium on Functional Medicine.

O’Bryan ‘s presentation is sponsored by The Gluten Intolerance Group of Marin.  For tickets go to Brown Paper Tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/265547  For more information, contact The GIG of Marin http://gigofmarin.wordpress.com or at 415-924-1700