Hello this is Dr Vikki Petersen.
Today’s question comes from a gentleman that has been off gluten for quite some time
but recently he developed a rash on his ankle, it won't go away and he is wondering if at
this late date after being off gluten after awhile he could be developing Dermatitis herpetiformis.
Dermatitis herpetiformis is a very sever skin condition.
It’s very associate with eating gluten and its unlikely that this is what this gentleman
is suffering from but the reason that this is a good question is because this sort of
thing happens a lot and I want to explain why.
The skin is our largest organ and what occurs with the skin whether it is functioning well
or poorly so in the poor category we have things like rashes, dry, itchy, acne any of
these things shows the skin is not functioning the way it should.
When this is occurring what we look for is an unhealthy digestive track.
So granted this person has Celiac disease he has been off gluten for quite some time
but does that mean his digestive tract has completely healed?
Often no and why would that be.
So when a patient such as this gentleman comes into the clinic we want to see why he still
has a leaky gut, meaning that things are passing through the intestine that shouldn't be and
then creating reactions and in this case in the skin.
The most common thing we find are secondary infections.
These are the presence of parasites, amebas, bacteria and yeast.
These kinds of organisms that over grow in the intestines and the immune system is not
able to take care of it on its own and skin conditions are one of the symptoms of these
infections.
There are many many more but it is one of them.
It is a nice little indicator.
It means that you need to look further into the integrity and health of the small intestine.
You have 23 feet of small intestine so its very very important that the integrity gets
healed.
Removing gluten is a wonderful way to distress the intestine but it’s not sufficient if
you have secondary infections.
So how do these infections come around?
Basically gluten has been a stressor to you if you are sensitive to it your whole life
because if you are gluten sensitive it is genetic and you were born that way.
So gluten has been a stressor it has been weakening the immune system of the intestine
your whole life and thereby infectious organisms which are normal constants of the gut meaning
that they pass through normally.
Every 10 mins it’s estimated that a pathogenic organism comes in contact with our intestine.
However we are suppose to have a very healthy immune system in the intestine that deals
successfully with the organism.
So they come in the immune system destroys them and everything is good.
But if you are gluten sensitive these organisms can come into to the intestines and get a
foot hold and start surviving there.
So that is when we need to diagnose them.
There is a stool test, there is different stool test.
WE have one in particular that we have that we like that is very successful at detecting
these things and we find whether there is pathogenic organisms present and then use
antibiotics to treat them.
So this is a very common reason why someone can have skin issues.
If its not that we look for liver health, we also want to make sure there is nothing
else in the diet that the person might be sensitive to.
But that is where we start is looking for the secondary infections.
I hope this helps and until next time I wish you very good health.