How Gluten Can Affect Autoimmune Conditions (and What to Do About It)
There is a lot of debate in the world of nutrition about eating gluten. Unless you’ve been diagnosed with celiac disease, conventionally trained nutritionists and dietitians often advise that there is no evidence supporting the elimination of gluten from your diet.
My biggest problem with this train of thought: it discounts thousands of people who report that their symptoms resolve when they stop eating gluten and return when they reintroduce it.
Properly diagnosing or ruling out celiac disease is a difficult process that takes time and money, which are two resources that not everyone has at their disposal.
The gold standard for diagnosing celiac disease is a biopsy of the small intestine that shows damage to the intestinal lining. Most gastroenterologists will not order a biopsy without blood tests that show the need for additional diagnostic procedures.
To make matters more complicated, people who have celiac disease often stop eating gluten altogether before they have the chance to get tested due to the extreme discomfort they may feel. Without consistently consuming gluten, these blood tests can appear negative. Many integrative healthcare providers will suggest regularly consuming gluten for up to six weeks before testing. If you’re gluten intolerant, or have celiac disease you can probably understand how six weeks of symptoms can put people off from getting tested.
I always encourage people to get tested for celiac disease if it's suspected, but even when the test comes back negative, I don’t dismiss the potential benefits of a gluten-free diet. I’ve worked with hundreds of patients who experienced partial or even complete relief from symptoms just by going gluten-free. Beyond that, I’ve heard from thousands of people—through social media, colleagues, friends, and family—who’ve noticed improvements in things like digestive issues, skin conditions, and even mood disorders after removing gluten from their diet.
Recent studies have shown a positive impact on other types of autoimmune diseases by adhering to a gluten-free diet. Conditions that may see improvement on a gluten-free diet include:
- Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis
- A study on a group of women where half followed an AIP (autoimmune protocol) diet for 6 months revealed decreased thyroid antibodies in the group that adhered to an AIP diet.
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Subjects who followed a gluten-free diet saw reduced activity on follow up MRIs and significantly lower impacts MS induced disabilities
- Psoriasis
- A Swedish researcher found that 73% of subjects with plaque psoriasis saw improvements in their symptoms after going gluten-free for just 3 months
- Type 1 Diabetes
- A study of children who began a gluten-free diet within 2-3 weeks of having been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes resulted in lower Hemoglobin A1c levels and decreased doses of insulin compared to the control group
- Several animal studies have also garnered results that support gluten’s role in the development and progression of Type 1 Diabetes
- Dermatitis, eczema, rashes
- Participants’ symptoms resolved in as soon as one month after starting a gluten-free diet
- Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis
- Participants with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that followed an elimination diet for 6 weeks and maintenance for 5 weeks saw decreased fecal calprotectin and improvements on follow up endoscopies compared to their baseline results
There is still so much research to be done in this area, and I’m hopeful that we will continue to see additional studies conducted on how avoiding gluten can improve autoimmune disease outcomes and symptoms.
Never forget that the other side of the coin in medicine is clinical experience! We may not always have the perfect peer-reviewed study to back up our unique experiences, and we shouldn’t discount that.
If you suffer from an autoimmune disease, I would challenge you to try eliminating gluten from your diet for 4-6 weeks to see if there is a change in symptoms. Whether or not you have celiac disease, there is convincing evidence that avoiding gluten can be beneficial for other autoimmune diseases.
If you need help getting creative in the kitchen while avoiding gluten, check out my Meal Plan Membership. Creating gluten-free recipes is a cornerstone of what I share! Doors open again in June, so add yourself to the waitlist here and snag a free sample menu here while you wait.
Sources
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/mid/NIHMS889275/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34338776/
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