Non-Celiac Gluten

Non-Celiac gluten sensitivity describes people who cannot tolerate gluten and who experience symptoms similar to those with Celiac Disease but who lack the same intestinal damage as seen in Celiac Disease. Gluten is a protein found in the grains wheat, barley and rye. It gives elasticity to dough helping it rise and shape. The gluten protein when partially digested yields the peptide fractions GLIADIN (alcohol soluble), and GLUTENIN (alkaline soluble). When the body cannot digest these peptides from gluten, especially gliadin, into useable amino-acids a reaction occurs in the body starting in the digestive tract. There are many intestinal symptoms that cause people to realize they have gluten sensitivity. These symptoms include bloating, abdominal pain, pain, gas, and/or diarrhea. At the beginning stages most people just feel stomach discomfort after consuming foods with gluten. Many just pass off these symptoms until worse symptoms outside of the intestines arise. Usually, this is a HUGE mistake.

Even though over 18 million people suffer from symptoms stemming from the non-digestion of gluten, it is estimated that over 90% of people who experience these symptoms are never diagnosed. This is due to the fact that a lot of serious symptoms appear hours or days after gluten has been ingested. This is typical for innate immune conditions like Non-Celiac gluten sensitivity.

Scientists and leading researchers now point to the culprit of these problems. Original grains like wheat from the 1960’s and before, all contained its gluten proteins in a form that the human body could digest down to useable amino acids. These amino acids derived from the complete digestion of gluten protein are then used by the body to build muscle and other protein structures. When the body’s gastrointestinal tracts’ enzymes and flora doesn’t or can’t digest gluten protein down to usable amino acids, there are partially digested proteins called poly-peptides left. There are intestinal problems that stem from not absorbing these undigested peptides into the bloodstream as shown, but there are other symptoms and conditions when these peptides do get absorbed.

In the non-celiac gluten sensitivity, you can have issues like headaches, fatigue, attention deficit, hyperactivity, muscular pain, twitching, joint pain and auto-immune disease. The difference between these symptoms and those that have celiac disease is non-celiac sensitivity is not accompanied by the major intestinal damage done to the fingerlike villi whose job is to soak up digested nutrients form the food you ate. In celiac disease, the villi get wiped out allowing larger undigested protein peptides to be absorbed into the bloodstream in high amounts; this causes an elevation in antibodies (fighter cells). When specific immune fighter cells like TTG antibodies increase to a high level, celiac disease is diagnosed. When gluten and its partially digested peptides gliadin and glutenin don’t completely wipe out the gut villi, many of the same symptoms occur. Unfortunately most Doctors don’t recognize the importance of treating non-celiac gluten sensitivity. The villi are still slightly compromised and cause intestinal problems. The villi also allow enough undigested poly-peptides (not broken down to chains of 3 amino-acids or less) to be absorbed that causes the extra-intestinal problems mentioned that range from headaches, muscle and joint pain to auto-immune responses. All of this caused by not completely digesting gluten or casein proteins all the way down to individual amino acids. In the case of gluten, the majority of the problem stems from the crop manipulation of grains (wheat, barley and rye) that causes a mutation of the gluten protein gliadin rendering it non-digestible by your body’s normal protein digesting enzymes and flora (friendly digestive bacteria). This is where Lacto-Gluten-Zyme comes in to play because it is specially formulated to digest the genetically altered gluten proteins.

Gluten Proteins “New” Hard to Digest Structure

Gluten is mainly consumed through wheat products like bread, crackers, tortillas etc. The protein gluten structure within wheat changed little during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. If you consumed a wheat product during this time, chances are that your body’s digestive enzymes and probiotics (friendly flora) broke the gluten proteins gliadn and gluten down to poly-peptide chains of 4-99 amino acids. Then special peptide digesting enzymes in your body further digests the poly-peptides into single amino acids or Di or Tri (1 or 2) peptides that your body absorbs and uses for growth and maintenance. When completely digesting gluten proteins, there is no inflammation in your gut and no poly-peptides get into your bloodstream causing havoc throughout your body.

In the latter part of the 21^st century there was a dramatic increase in hybridization methods with the wheat grain . It wasn’t an evolutionary or even an adaptation of the gluten protein in wheat that changed. It was through human intervention. Wheat has been hybridized, crossbred and otherwise genetically altered to increase “yield per acre”. To do this, the wheat had to become resistant to chemical pesticides and at the same time produce more grain per stock. Scientists succeeded and the average yield on a modern North American farm is tenfold greater than ½ a century ago. These enormous increases in yield per acre were only possible through drastic changes in wheat’s genetic code, specifically the protein fraction of wheat (gluten).

The small changes in wheat’s gluten protein structure are the difference between not having any immune or intestinal response versus a drastic one that triggers an all out fight to destroy it. Simply put, the wheat gluten protein of old provided health and vitality by providing single Di or Tri peptide amino acids to the blood. The wheat gluten of today causes inflammation pain and possible debilitating diseases because the partially digested altered gluten proteins (poly-peptides) are unrecognizable and indigestible by our body’s enzymes and Flora.

Wheat glutens structural changes are proven and evident. In a 2010 experiment, 14 new gluten protein structures were identified in hybrid wheat. The specific gluten peptide associated with Celiac Disease (Gliadin) was structured differently and was in a much higher quantity in modern wheat when compared to older (pre-hybridization) wheat grain gluten gliadins. When you couple the fact that there are over 25,000 genetically altered species of wheat created in the last half-century, the problem is evident.

Why Can’t the Body Digest the Altered Gluten Proteins of Today’s Grains?

To answer this question we must first learn about digestive enzymes. Enzymes are protein based molecules that breakdown food substrates into usable nutrients in the body that are used to support life. Enzymes are substrate specific. This means that different enzymes digest different foods. In addition, many times certain foods require multiple enzymes to digest the food completely (carb, protein, fat) into its usable form in the body. Carbohydrates need to be digested down to glucose by up to 4 different enzymes in order to be beneficial to the body. Fats must be broken down into fatty acids and proteins must be separated down to amino acids. If any macro-nutrient (carb, protein, fat) isn’t digested down to its usable form, all bodily hell breaks loose and that compound becomes toxic. We will focus on the protease digestive enzymes that breakdown the protein gluten.

This simplified illustration shows that the gluten protein takes an enzyme called protease (the body also uses pepsin) to start the digestive process. Protease breaks down the gluten gliadin protein to poly-peptides, usually down to a seven amino acid bound poly-peptide. Then peptidase located on the intestinal villi is used to break the gliadin (or gluten) poly-peptide down to amino-acids the body can use. (This is a simplistic explanation because there are different types of protease and peptidase enzymes that digest different types of proteins and poly-peptides.)

Enzymes work like a lock and key. The shape of the protein or peptide acts like a very specific high end lock. The enzymes (protease and peptidase) have to be the exact key configuration in order to fit into the proteins and peptides to then open them up and digest them. This lock and key analogy is critical to the understanding f why modern gluten proteins are not being digested down to amino-acids.

As mentioned, modern hybridized genetically altered wheat has created unique gluten proteins. These altered shaped protein and peptide locks cannot fit into the body’s standard pepsin, protease and peptidase enzymes (keys). This fact was proven at a remarkable landmark study performed in 2009 at Stanford University. Extremely specialized cultivated protease and peptidase enzymes had to be used to breakdown gluten. The study reported that the body’s protein digesting enzyme “pepsin exerts only minimal proteolyic (digestion) action on dietary gluten.”

The body’s probiotics or friendly bacteria that reside in the gut help to keep the villi healthy and also produce some digestive enzymes on their own. Research shows that a few specific flora bacteria can help break down glutens if supplemented.

The body’s digestive enzymes along with normal food enzymes that digest proteins do not work on genetically altered glutens that are found in over 90% of all wheat products we consume. The body’s villi in the intestines are compromised due to these non-digested proteins and then leak gliadin and gluten peptides into the bloodstream instead of only allowing in single amino-acids.

Understanding the role of different proteins and how they are made by the body will show you why poly-peptides being absorbed into the bloodstream especially as the poly-peptide form gliadin can cause major disease that turns the body on its own tissues and then begins to self destruct (auto-immune).

Proteins to Amino-Acids to Proteins

To understand how devastating altered protein poly-peptides floating in the bloodstream are to the body, you must first understand how proteins are made and what functions they serve.

Most of the foods we eat have some protein in them. Some foods are mainly protein like animal meats. Soy, peanuts, beans, milk and other foods also contain a significant amount of protein. Wheat now days are about 15% protein, known as gluten protein.

Our body has many parts that are made of proteins like muscle, skin, hair, bones, hormones and enzymes. Proteins are also an integral part of cell membranes and help cells communicate with one another. Proteins in our blood help transport material throughout the body and regulate the distribution of water in the body. Protein peptides produced by our immune system help protect us from disease. Amino acids are also used to make non protein units of DNA, RNA and nuero-transmitters.

How food proteins become body proteins is the key. Food protein is consumed in the diet. Protein digestion begins in the stomach where hydrochloric acid and the body’s pepsin enzymes start to unfold the whole protein. In the intestine, protease enzymes work to break proteins into poly-peptides that can be chains of up to 99 amino acids. Then peptidase enzymes work to break the long polypeptide (“poly” means many) chains into tri-peptides and di-peptides. On the surface of the intestinal villi are specific peptidase enzymes (some made from your flora bacteria) that break these poly-peptide chains down to strands of 3 amino acids or less. There are over 20 different single amino acid configurations that have names like glutamine, arginine, and tryptophan etc… these single amino acids are then absorbed into the bloodstream.

Once the protein you ate is absorbed as amino acids into the bloodstream, they become available to make the proteins needed by the body. All body proteins are synthesized from the amino acids in the blood. Some proteins are a chain of 100 or so different amino acids while others can be made of 10’s of 1,000’s of individual amino acids strung together.

If a protein is needed by the body, the process of protein synthesis is turned on. Which proteins are made and when they are made is highly regulated by the body based on need to survive and thrive. When a specific protein is needed, chains of amino acids are linked together by peptide bonds. Two amino acids are linked to form di-peptides; three from a tri-peptide; many together constitute a poly-peptide. The final protein consists of one or more poly-peptide chains that fold over themselves to form a complex three-dimensional shape. Different polypeptides contain different amino acids in different proportions bound together in a specific order. Variations in the number, proportion, and order of amino acids allow for an infinite number of polypeptide and protein structures.

Protein is first digested and torn down to 20+ individual amino acids that float in the bloodstream (amino acid pool). The body then determines what type of protein is needed and re-assembles the amino acids into poly-peptides and then made into the proteins asked for by the body.

When proteins are only partially digested, they will lay on the intestinal “villi” hoping to be broken down to single amino acids and be absorbed. One specific gluten protein is called a gliadin and provokes an immune response that inflames the small intestinal “villi” causing abdominal cramps, diarrhea, gas bloating and major discomfort. If not digested down to 1-3 amino acid chains eventually the villi allow some of these undigested poly-peptides into the blood. If the villi completely breakdown while being attacked by the bodies own immune system and virtually die, you get Celiac Disease. If they still work but are inflamed and allow some poly-peptides into the blood you are non-celiac gluten sensitive. You may or may not get intestinal issues but you are getting some poly-peptides in the blood and that problem can be trouble.

Genetically Altered Gluten Peptides Getting Past the Villi

Once the partial digestion of gluten into poly-peptides disrupt the villa’s tight junction structures that keep poly-peptides and other toxins out of the deeper tissues of the bowel and bloodstream, bodily hell lets loose. Because the poly-peptide of gliadin is now making the villi act as a bi-pathway, water and toxins can get into the deep intestinal areas causing bowel urgency, diarrhea and constant watery bowel movements.

When the poly-peptide of gliadin and other poly-peptides are in the bloodstream, the body reacts and the re-precautions on your health can be huge.

Auto-Immunity

It’s important to remember that the body can only utilize nutrients for life functions, maintenance, repair and growth if these food nutrients are digested down to useable glucose from carbohydrates, fatty acids from fats and amino acids from protein. In the case of protein, if anything (like poly-peptides) get into the bloodstream, they are treated as an invader. This especially holds true for genetically altered poly-peptides from gliadin grain gluten.

The body immediately detects this invader and sends out fighter cells called antibodies to destroy this unknown peptide in the blood. The body is use to fighting protein invaders in the body. Viruses are protein/peptide molecules as are other bacterial infections.

These foreign invaders (viruses, bacteria, altered gluten, peptides) each have a specific sequence of amino acids that make up their unique code-like pattern. You can think of these again as locks with intricate features. The body’s immune fighter cells (antibodies) recognize these proteins/peptides as dangerous by the amino acid sequence they have. Once they have been identified for sure as foreign, a whole army of antibodies goes out to bind with the intruders that have the specific amino acid sequence (lock mechanism) identified by the body. The human body is amazing and the majority of the time, the invader is quickly opened up and destroyed.

The problem with altered gluten like the poly-peptide gliadin is that the amino acid sequence mimics closely the structure of many human proteins/peptides. So, the body’s antibodies not only breakdown the truly foreign protein invader, your immune systems fighter cells also attack healthy protein tissues. These tissues can be joints (Rheumatoid Arthritis); they can be pancreatic cells (type 1 Diabetes), bowel cells (Chrons, IBS, and Celiac Disease), neuromuscular damage (MS, Guillain-Barre, and Myasthenia Gravis) and even skin issues (psoriasis). All of these diseases and around 80 others are called Auto-Immune Diseases. Instead of the antibodies only attacking foreign proteins, they now attack our own healthy tissues. These proteins’ amino acid sequence is called “molecular mimicry” because they so closely mimic human protein structures, triggering autoimmune responses.

Auto-Immune Epidemic

Up until 2005, no one really knew detailed statistics about how bad the auto-immune epidemic was, unless you were one of the 23.5 million Americans who suffer some effects of your immune system fighting itself (that’s 1 in 12 Americans). The National Institutes of Health (NIH) released a report called “Progress in Auto Immune Disease Research.” This report listed close to 100 Auto Immune disorders and stated that the rise in auto immune diseases is startling and it’s happening for reasons not fully known. This holds true for children as well. We now know that synthetic protein blood viruses purposely put into the body can cause this molecular mimicry as does some new virus’s like the bird flu and others. Environmental issues (chemicals) and especially toxic metals like mercury and arsenic can bind with proteins in the body causing the body to destroy the good tissues also.

There is no doubt that in non-celiac gluten sensitivity that the molecular mimicry of undigested glutens in the bloodstream causes inflammation, pain and many times an autoimmune response that can become devastating and life altering.

Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivities Diagnosis Frustration

Full blown auto-immune diseases themselves like Celiac Disease and others are not commonly diagnosed correctly until most patients seek out Doctor after Doctor. Even though you are more likely to suffer from an auto-immune disorder then get heart disease or cancer, the chances are you will get the run around sometimes for years before a true diagnosis is made.

The average patient with auto immune disease sees six Doctors before attaining a correct diagnosis. Recent surveys conducted by the American Auto Immune Related Diseases Association reveal that 45% of patients with auto immune disease have been labeled hypochondriacs in the early stages of diagnosis. In half of all cases involving women, they are told there is nothing wrong with them for an average of five years before receiving diagnosis and treatment.

With these staggering numbers regarding actual auto immune disease, what happens when someone feels something isn’t right after consuming an altered gluten protein but yet Celica Disease is ruled out? Many people are looked at and ridiculed as hypochondriacs and conspiracy theorists although the research and proof is undeniable.

In the Journal BMC Medicine, research shows that gluten non-digestion can set off a distinct inflammatory reaction in the intestinal and/or the extra-intestinal body invading the immune system turning on itself, even in people who don’t have Celiac Disease markers.

The lead study Author at the University of Maryland’s Center for Celiac Research stated that, “For the first time, we have scientific evidence that indeed, gluten sensitivity not only exists, but is different from Celiac Disease.”

Cynthia Kooper is the Executive Director for the Non-profit Gluten Intolerance Group of North America. She stated, “Patients have been told if it wasn’t Celiac Disease, it wasn’t anything. It was all in their heads.”

To finally know what altered gluten proteins can do to your body helps you address and conquer this issue. In early 2012 gluten sensitivities was classified by an international group of recognized celiac experts as a distinct condition.

Options for Treatment

1). Most health professionals recommend eliminating all gluten in the diet. A plethora of books and online articles can help with this approach.

2). “Our recommendation”:

A) Stay away from genetically altered wheat glutens. To do this, you need to find bread, pasta and other grain products from wheat that have not been altered. These wheat’s are commonly known as Emmer or Einkorn. A list of some reputable companies are listed.

B) Take the product “Lacto-Gluten Zyme when you consume any known altered gluten or products that might contain gluten. Lacto-Gluten Zyme is the most highly researched commercially available formula that focuses on the complete digestion of genetically altered gluten, casein and dairy lactose. Lacto-Gluten-Zyme takes the Stanford and other research studies and has specially cultivated peptidase enzymes that can digest genetically altered grains, dairy and protein. It also contains patented probiotics and patented minerals to eliminate toxins that build up from the non-digestion of glutens and other altered foods. Details about Lacto-Gluten Zyme are available under “What makes Lacto-Gluten Zyme Unique” at the home page at www.lactoglutenzyme.com .

Wheat including its protein gluten when digested supplies great nutrients and energy to the body. Just because a group of greedy scientists at chemical companies altered one of this worlds best foods isn’t a reason (for most people) to give it up completely. We just have to be more vigilant and responsible. Do this by finding non-genetically altered grains and ensure the complete digestion of any altered glutens you might consume by taking Lacto-Gluten Zyme.

If you choose to cut out gluten containing grains completely, then only take the gluten digestive formula with foods that might have hidden gluten (see list)

Foods Containing Gluten

Grains

· Barley, including barley malt

· Bran

· Bulgur

· Farina

· Kamut

· Orzo

· Semolina

· Spelt

· Wheat

Pastas

Any pasta, whether elbow macaroni, bowtie, spaghetti, rigatoni, or any other shape, that is made of:

· Wheat

· Semolina

· Farina

Baked Goods

Most processed baked goods are made from wheat, so these contain gluten. Look for gluten free alternatives.

· Cake

· Bread

· Bread crumbs

· Cupcakes

· Tortillas

· Bagels

· Muffins

· Pastries

· Sandwich buns

· Hotdog buns

· Pizza crust

· Pie crust

Cereal

Cereal made from rye, wheat, bran, and barley always contain gluten, but ones containing oats, corn, and rice are often processed on the same equipment as their gluteny counterparts. It is imperative that you look for the "gluten free" label on cereal.

Meat and Poultry

In its natural state, meat and poultry is gluten free. However, the processing and cooking of the meat often adds gluten. Be wary of any meat or poultry that is precooked or prepared, especially these types:

· Breaded meat or chicken

· Oven- or deep-fried meats

· Hot dogs and other meats processed with "natural flavors"

· Lunch meat

Other Items

· Beer

· Dressings

· Couscous

· Tabbouli

· Gravies

· Sauces

· Candy

· Potato chips

· Tortilla chips

· Canned soup and broth

· Bouillon cubes

· Frozen or canned vegetables in sauce

· Restaurant or fast food French fries

List provided by the “what contains gluten website”