When your body develops a sensitivity to gluten, a sticky protein in wheat and closely related grains, an immune response could attack the lining of your intestines and cause a serious illness called celiac disease. Celiac disease refers only to the intestinal form of the illness. Gluten sensitivity could cause skin rashes, exacerbate fungal infections or cause nerve and brain damage. Your symptoms of gluten sensitivity might not include the classic signs of celiac disease.
Gluten
Gluten's ability to trap gas bubbles makes this protein essential to the baking process. The sticky dough gluten forms captures the gases formed by yeast cultures or baking powders and expands like a sponge. Flour without gluten won't rise, since the gases simply vent through the batter. Wheat contains significant amounts of gluten, but other grains such as barley, rye and oats also contribute gluten. If you have gluten sensitivity, your immune system responds to gliadin, one of two proteins in gluten, as a viral attack. Your immune response to gluten could destroy your intestinal lining and your ability to absorb nourishment from food.
Allergy
If you're allergic to wheat, your immune system reacts to wheat immediately and you suffer many of the classic symptoms of hay fever including a running nose, swollen sinuses and itchy eyes. Swallowing wheat could cause gastric distress, pain and diarrhea. Severe reactions could include life-threatening anaphylaxis, a drop in blood pressure combined with respiratory problems. Gluten sensitivity involves the immune system but causes less obvious symptoms. As your system loses gluten tolerance, your immune system creates antibodies against gluten. If gluten proteins contaminate organ tissues such as your intestinal lining, the immune response inflames and erodes those tissues, gradually causing severe damage.
Symptoms
If you react mildly to gluten, you could experience frequent indigestion and diarrhea. If you respond strongly to gluten in your digestive tract, the cilia in your intestinal walls slowly die and lesions form in your gut. Intestinal damage marks the type of gluten sensitivity called celiac disease. An autoimmune response to gluten could trigger dermatitis herpetiformis, clusters of itchy blisters on your skin, states M. Hadjivassiliou in the "British Medical Journal." Gluten sensitivity could cause stunted growth in children. If the immune response attacks nerve cells or brain tissue, you could lose feeling in your fingers or have difficulty walking.
Treatment
The only known treatment for gluten sensitivity involves removing all gluten from your diet, says Dr. Scott Lewey in an article on Celiac.com. If you do eliminate gluten, you could completely recover. Ask your doctor for advice, since some complications of gluten sensitivity require other supportive treatments. Avoiding gluten means not just giving up bread and other baked goods, but eliminating all products containing wheat, rye, barley or other grains containing gluten. Wheat flour could hide in many commercial products including soy sauce, soup and hot dogs. Look for "gluten-free" products and read other product labels carefully.
References
- Colorado State University Extension; Gluten-free Diets; Stephanie Wallner, et al.
- Mayo Clinic; What's the Difference Between a Food Intolerance and Food Allergy?; James T.C. Li; June 2011
- "British Medical Journal"; Gluten Sensitivity -- A Many Headed Hydra; M. Hadjivassiliou; June 1999
- Celiac.com; Gluten Sensitivity -- A Gastroenterologist's Personal Journey Down the Gluten Rabbit Hole; Dr. Scot Lewey; 2007
