What is Gluten Sensitivity?

First up, gluten is the name of a group of proteins found in common grains such as wheat, barley and rye. And if you’ve grown up in a Western country, chances are you’ve chowed down on a lot of it (maybe you even grew up on the gluten trifecta: cereal for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, pasta for dinner?). Unfortunately gluten is a very inflammatory protein that can slowly and insidiously wreak havoc on the intestinal lining which can cause widespread inflammation that can then affect various body systems not necessarily related to the gut (hence seeing people with a variety of different conditions improve on a gluten free diet).

As mentioned earlier, coeliac disease is an auto-immune disease triggered by severe gluten intolerance and can be picked up in blood tests. But non-coeliac gluten sensitivity is a milder form of the condition that isn’t easy to pick up with standard medical testing which is why doctors have been so skeptical about it. (I’ll explain how to check for it further down).

The Connection Between Gluten And Mental Health

It’s been recognised for a long time that there’s a higher prevalence of anxiety and depression among coeliac patients. But for those with non-coeliac gluten sensitivity, as well as experiencing the common symptoms of gut problems, headaches, fatigue and muscle pain when gluten is consumed, many report anxiety and depression as well. (1)

There’s also a growing body of evidence of a correlation between schizophrenia and gluten intolerance, with schizophrenic patients being 2.13 times more likely to test positive for anti-gliadin (one of the protein fractions in gluten) anti-bodies. (2, 3, 4)

Other neurological symptoms associated with gluten sensitivity include insomnia, brain fog, migraines, ADHD, epilepsy, peripheral neuropathy, vertigo and a rare but controversial condition known as gluten ataxia.

Gluten ataxia may irreversibly damage a part of the brain called the cerebellum, according to practitioners who first identified the condition about a decade ago, and this damage can potentially cause problems with gait and motor skills, resulting in loss of coordination and sometimes even disability. However, because gluten ataxia is relatively new, and there’s no standardised way to test for it, some doctors also debate whether it even exists. But many of the symptoms improve when gluten is removed from the diet, and return when gluten is reintroduced.

How to Find Out if You Have a Gluten Intolerance

As mentioned earlier, there are blood tests that will definitively diagnose coeliac disease, the more severe form of gluten intolerance. But for milder forms it gets a little trickier. Integrative and functional doctors as well as naturopaths can run specialised tests to check for zonulin, a marker of intestinal permeability which can be an indicator that the intestinal lining has indeed been damaged by gluten consumption. Unfortunately these tests are not covered by Medicare or insurance and can be expensive.

The best way to find out if gluten is worsening your anxiety or depression (or any other symptoms for that matter) is the old-school way: doing an elimination and re-challenge test. This is where you cut out gluten completely (including trace amounts in things like soy sauce, stocks and packaged foods etc) for 28 days and keep a food and symptom diary. Then you reintroduce a lot of it by eating gluten with each meal and tracking your symptoms over the next few days. If you see a correlation between your symptoms and gluten, it’s safe to say you likely have non-coeliac gluten sensitivity.

It is important to understand that if you have issues with gluten, you likely have some damage to the gut lining and microbiota which can worsen your mental health symptoms by increasing inflammation as well as altering your neurotransmitter production, as most neurotransmitters are produced in the gut. (See my blog post on hidden gut problems and mental health for more.) I strongly recommend working with a naturopath or integrative practitioner to heal the intestinal lining and restore a healthy gut microbiome.

If you’d like a complimentary 30 min naturopathic consultation and assessment to get to the bottom of your symptoms, you can book one here.

And in the comments below, I’d LOVE to hear from you – have you wondered if gluten is affecting your wellbeing? Have you tried a gluten-free diet and noticed a difference in your mood or energy?