[reverett123]

Original post on my blog:

Once more I have stumbled into the breech and come to regret it. Over the last six months I have been increasingly lulled into complacency by the siren of the field. Little by little, I increased my consumption of wheat once more. Over the last few days the bill came due.

Things culminated yesterday in an episode identical to those that I reported back in February of this year and in August of last. Barely able to walk, loss of bladder control, brain fog, etc. I could copy the earlier text verbatim.

So, I seem to have built up a tolerance for wheat over the past months. Then I gradually lost it over the last couple as I increasingly fell into the old patterns of pasta and pizza. Finally, over the last few days things went all to pieces.

This is something that we all need to think about for at least two reasons. One, the neurological troubles caused by our immune systems reacting to wheat are imminently treatable. Two, if the condition is ignored, however, the brain damage is permanent.

There is as yet no good test to tell us if we have the problem. All we can do is to eliminate wheat from our diets and see if things improve. If we take it up again, we then watch for symptoms.

It is estimated that three-fourths of the people who have serious problems with wheat don't even know it. And all the while, the fact that wheat proteins are similar enough to some found in our brains to trigger our immune response leads to loss of brain cells.

Those with interest can use the search box for "wheat" to read the earlier material, but I will quote one particularly important passage:

"We showed that, in contrast with any other food proteins, wheat gliadin and its peptic fragments activate mouse macrophages and human monocytes to produce proinflammatory cytokines through the nuclear factor-kappaB signaling pathway. Activation of innate immunity cells by food proteins or components from gut microbiota thus could participate in the impairment of intestinal mucosa and the development of intestinal and/or systemic inflammation."

[soccertese]

wouldn't you think pd would be more widespread and would occur at a younger age if wheat was a cause??

is pd more prevelant in areas of china where they eat more wheat vs rice?

i'm not denying wheat may aggravate your pd symptoms but couldn't it just be reducing your l-dopa absorption in your small intestine or amino acids competition for active transporters could be reducing l-dopa transport thru the bbb? i sure get a brain fog when my sinemet wears off.

but you do recover back to "normal" ?

[mrsD]

Acquired gluten intolerance is very very common now.

Acquired is different from Celiac's which involves genes that do not work right in the GI tract.

After reading some studies done in 1999 which revealed that suppressing Cox-2 levels (which NSAIDs and aspirin do), lead to increased GI permeability to peptides and bacteria in the gut, I have come to think that ACQUIRED gluten intolerance may be becoming more common now, and later in life based on how much a person uses NSAIDs for pain and arthritis.

Cox-2 was shown in the studies to be the family of cytokines active in the GI intestinal walls that act as a barrier to large molecules which normally DO NOT PASS into the bloodstream from things we eat and drink. When suppressed, then that protective barrier is weakened, and opens up to things like the
gliadin protein from wheat and some other grains.(barley and rye also have it, not just wheat).

This is a very good collection of data, that has been published about gluten, by one of our members here, jccgf.

http://sites.google.com/site/jccglutenfree/

There is a section there on neurological damage, and in fact ataxia and neuropathies have been shown in papers to be connected to gluten. (and over the years I have seen some diagnosed with MS get better going GF too).

So basically timing is out the window. It would vary from person to person, just like the BBB varies. (Zonulin channels in the BBB and GI tract allow things to cross--and I've posted in the past about that and won't go on with it here).

Previous ratios of incidence concerning Celiac used to be 1:3000 or so. Now estimates have come down to 1:150 and even lower, 1:65 in some studies. This is an epidemic of great proportions, and anyone with a neuro condition would be a candidate for the GF diet, IMO.

There are people now succeeding on GF who show no blood antibodies in the Ig testing. They may have no GI symptoms, and still improve on the GF diet. Some of them do show positive results however on the stool testing that is available. So some doctors still pooh pooh the whole thing.

Reverett, I find your posts on this very helpful, and I hope some here try the diet as well.

[soccertese]

http://www.celiac.com/articles/22040...ase/Page1.html

obviously best to read the original article but there seems to be some controversy here.

[reverett123]

Thank you, MrsD. Compliments from one of your caliber are doubly appreciated.

A coupleof thoughts-
A sensitivity (as opposed to an allergy) is a slippery devil, but it appears that if your genome is so inclined that the more exposure one has to the food the greater the chances of tipping over into a true state.

Second, I am pig-headed and don't accept PD as an ancient disease. Were it so there would be descriptions of "men turned to stone", not just tremor. I think it came with th Industrial Revolution which began circa 1750. One of the changes was in the type of wheat grown in England in order to take advantage of the new processing machinery. The change was not minor as prior to this time there tended to be localized varieties.

[mrsD]

You know, I am reminded of the Nightshade veggies.

There is a toxin in potatoes (and less so in other nightshades) called Solanine.

This toxin accumulates (as I have read some places) in the body over time, and affects the nervous system among other things. So one may not have it at one point, and if the solanine accumulates to a "certain" level, then symptoms may occur.

I had a hard to pin down burning neuropathy in my legs which was very puzzling. And when I did an elimination for nightshades...the burning stopped. If I stay away from potatoes in any form, the burning is almost non-existant. Eat potatoes and that night and the next couple the burning will return. Some tomato sauces will also trigger me, but others not. Concentrated types tend to be the culprits.

So there can be other foods that can be problematic in neuro diseases, I suspect. It only took me 60 yrs to find my connection to the Nightshades!

[lurkingforacure]

Originally Posted by mrsD

You know, I am reminded of the Nightshade veggies.

There is a toxin in potatoes (and less so in other nightshades) called Solanine.

This toxin accumulates (as I have read some places) in the body over time, and affects the nervous system among other things. So one may not have it at one point, and if the solanine accumulates to a "certain" level, then symptoms may occur.

I had a hard to pin down burning neuropathy in my legs which was very puzzling. And when I did an elimination for nightshades...the burning stopped. If I stay away from potatoes in any form, the burning is almost non-existant. Eat potatoes and that night and the next couple the burning will return. Some tomato sauces will also trigger me, but others not. Concentrated types tend to be the culprits.

So there can be other foods that can be problematic in neuro diseases, I suspect. It only took me 60 yrs to find my connection to the Nightshades!

The elimination diet is recommended by the author of Minding My Mitochondria...best to find out what makes things worse, so that once you remove them, you can better see what helps. Worked for her, she had MS.

Also, I have found that by reducing wheat and other starches, but mainly wheat products, I am less bloaty and clearer in my thinking (just not clear enough to solve this PD puzzle, though!). Could just be the additional veggies I am substituting in, but I wonder.

[reverett123]

This is a little dated but worth looking at:

"the link between gluten sensitivity and problems with brain function, including learning disabilities, and even memory problems, is not that difficult to understand. Gluten sensitivity is caused by elevated levels of antibodies against a component of gluten called gliadin. This antibody (the antigliadin antibody) combines with gliadin when a person is exposed to any gluten-containing food like wheat, barley or rye.

When this happens, protein-specific genes are turned on in a special type of immune cell in the body. When these genes are turned on, inflammatory chemicals called cytokines are created. Cytokines, which are the chemical mediators of inflammation, are directly detrimental to brain function. In fact, elevated levels of cytokines are seen in such devastating conditions as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and even autism. Essentially, the brain does not like inflammation and responds quite negatively to the presence of cytokines."
(More)

You may recall Ron Hutton's experience with that abscessed tooth a couple of years back and how the cytokines from it knocked him for such a loop. Essentially, those of us with this facet of PD are maintaining a chronic state that is very similar so long as we eat wheat and the related grains.

[reverett123]

From an excellent resource about far more than just our topic, http://www.health-spy.com/foodallergy.html


If one has an non-IgE-mediated immune system sensitivity or response to certain food types, e.g. Gliadin or Dairy, and one eliminates these food sources from one's diet, i.e. one goes on a Gluten-free or Milk-free diet (and does not consume any hidden sources of Gliadin), then the production of the IgA antibodies corresponding to these food types does not go down immediately to lower levels. Of course, without these particular food sources in the GI tract, they have nothing to attack (often besides the digestive tract itself), but the body still produces them as it is 'expecting' them. Research shows that these antibodies continue to be produced in the digestive tract (and possibly elsewhere) for up to 1-2 years after a person has ceased consuming the corresponding food items. The levels of the corresponding antibodies in the blood tend to drop off more rapidly, in 3-6 months typically. Controlled reintroduction may be one method of adjusting to these proteins without the production of these corresponding antibodies, as may low dose immunotherapy. However, if one starts to eat these food sources in copious quantities in a non-systematic and uncontrolled manner, then the levels of the antibodies are likely to increase to their former levels very rapidly. It may vary according to the individual of course, and a 'Gluten challenge' may not necessarily guarantee immediate increase in relevant antibody levels for detection if Gluten is reintroduced heavily for 1-2 weeks.