What is gluten?
Gluten is a protein found in wheat and other grains such as oats, rye, spelt, kamut, barely and triticale.
Why is gluten so bad for so many of us?
There are numerous reasons. For starters, we have not genetically adapted to the grasses, mainly gluten, that were introduced to our diets in the Middle Ages.
Thirty percent of people of European descent carry the gene for celiac disease. This greatly increases their likelihood of having health problems from eating gluten.
In what ways can gluten negatively affect the brain?
First, gluten can inflame the brain by causing an autoimmune response. Autoimmunity is an abnormal response to the body’s own tissues.
In other words, something comes into the body and the body goes on alert but somehow mistakes its own tissues as a foreign invader and declares war mistakenly upon itself.
Allergies are a prime example. In this case, antibodies meant to fight gluten also attack your body.
Secondly, during the digestion process, gluten can be broken down into into strange proteins that are a lot like psychedelic drugs. These are opium-like proteins called gluteomorophins.
The third way gluten can affect the brain is due to its high content of glutamate (think MSG), a molecule that accelerates, activates, irritates and damages brain cells through a special “docking station” called the NMDA receptor.
Excessive activity in this receptor due to glutamate has been linked to many psychiatric disorders. Glutamate is an excitotoxin (a substance that agitates and kills or damages brain cells).
These are the ways gluten can harm the brain:
Through inflammation
As psychedelic, opiate-like proteins – which become addicting
As an excitotoxin – destoying neurons
It can also cause arthritis and other autoimmune and inflammatory diseases/conditions. The brain has no pain receptors, what that means is your brain could be on fire and you don’t even know it, thus burning your brain cells leading to neurological disorders like Dementia, Alzheimer’s , ADHD ect…