Gluten sensitivity can look like depression and ADD, that's what I'm
going to talk about in this video. I'm Dr. Tracey Marks a psychiatrist and this
channel is about mental health education and self-improvement. I publish videos
weekly on Wednesdays so if you don't want to miss one just click Subscribe.
Gluten sensitivity can look like depression and ADHD and in this case the
gluten sensitivity is the non-celiac form. So if you don't have celiac disease
you can have a sensitivity to gluten that may or may not affect your
gastrointestinal system but can also produce mental symptoms and other
physical symptoms. So what's gluten? Gluten is a protein
that's naturally found in grains such as wheat barley and rye. Those are the three
main sources. Oats are gluten free provided that they're grown and
processed in a gluten free environment. Sometimes they're processed with other
grains and so you can get cross-contamination. But in general as
far as their makeup is concerned, they are gluten free. Some other gluten free
examples would be amaranth, millet and quinoa. Gluten is like a glue that helps,
it's a protein but like a glue that helps keep helps the grain keep its
shape. And sometimes bakers will add gluten to a recipe to enhance the shape
and texture of a bread. So first let me tell you what celiac disease is about
and then I'll tell you what non-celiac gluten sensitivity is. Celiac disease is
a form of gluten intolerance where people who are affected have an
autoimmune reaction to the gluten protein. So this means that you form
antibodies to the gluten protein and in general antibodies are your body's army
to fight off bacteria and virus. So antibodies are good except if they're
attacking your body and that's what we call autoimmunity.
So with celiac disease antibodies form against the gluten and these antibodies
attack similar proteins in the small intestines. And when this happens, you
have trouble absorbing the nutrients from your food. So celiac disease is, it's
not that common it's about happens about one in a hundred and forty people
in the US have full-blown celiac disease. And if you have it, it's the kind of
thing that it's disruptive enough to your life that you'd know it
starting in childhood. But then there's this whole group of people who don't
have full-blown celiac disease but they do have a gluten sensitivity whereby
they could have symptoms that may or may not affect their intestines but and
they'll they may have abdominal pain, joint pain, fatigue, headaches and even
skin rashes, And in addition to all of that they can also get symptoms that
look like depression and thinking problems that people will describe as a
brain fog. So how can you tell the difference between a regular depression
and a depression that will come from gluten sensitivity? It's not always that
straightforward, but one clue may be that along with your depression symptoms that
you've got other physical symptoms such as joint pain and headaches and you find
yourself having multiple doctors addressing all these different problems.
Unfortunately we don't have a straight forward way to diagnose non-celiac
gluten sensitivity. Some - there is some gluten sensitivity testing, but you can
get false negatives with these and then more sophisticated testing is expensive.
But if you suspect that you have gluten sensitivity because you have some of the
problems that I have mentioned and the standard treatments for these problems
don't seem to take care of all of the different problems, you can try a gluten
elimination diet where you remove gluten from your diet and see how you feel. Now
you would have to be gluten free for four to six weeks and then what is
normally done is then you reintroduce gluten back into your diet to see if
your body how your body reacts. So here's a tricky part: going gluten free is not
that easy and it's not something you want to do just because. Gluten free is
trendy now so there's lots of options to get gluten free foods but many of these
are processed with hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup and so they're
pretty unhealthy and low in nutrients. The real way to go gluten-free is to
avoid the the foods that are made with these grains and because grain-based
foods are so abundant, you've really got to do some work to figure out how to
change your die. So you can try eating other grain free foods such as quinoa,
oats and rice. Another reason you don't want to whimsically go gluten free is
that the whole grains contain B vitamins, folic acid, fiber and other nutrients and
some diets like the Mediterranean diet have shown to lower the risk of heart
disease, diabetes and cancer. And this diet includes whole grains. So if you're
gonna do this, you need to weigh the risks the benefits, the pros, the cons.
Also you need to be all in on the gluten-free thing which means paying
close attention to hidden sources of gluten like in soups that use wheat
starch or barley containing foods. I have seen it make a big difference for some
people if you're gonna do it though, you do need to give the trial of good four
to six weeks. In the studies talking about non-celiac gluten sensitivity, that
was a timeframe that they used for the gluten free elimination diet. And it's
not a good idea to fill up on those gluten free prepackaged snacks. They may
be gluten free, but they're full of other stuff. I hope this was helpful for you.
Thanks for watching