Thursday, June 6, 2013

The growing epidemic in digestive health

There’s a growing interest in digestive health, and a lot of folks talking about conditions like Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Crohn’s Disease, Celiac Disease and food allergies like Gluten Insensitivity.

These are all distinct issues, but there’re all somewhat related. The upshot is that there is a lot of confusion and misinformation around digestive health. Sorbeo’s Digestive Health Blog aims to clarify some of the confusion. In this post, we’re going to talk about Gluten Insensitivity. 

Gluten comes from the Latin word for “glue”. It’s a protein that’s found in grains like wheat, barley and rye. There’s a lot of buzz today about Gluten Insensitivity; there are even a few tests available help determine whether someone has an allergy or insensitivity to gluten. 

The truth is that the technology in this space is moving fast. Not all of these tests are entirely accurate, and there’s still a lot of confusion over whether someone has a “wheat sensitivity” or is “Gluten Intolerant”. 

So let’s break this down step by step and start with the difference between an allergy and an sensitivity or intolerance. The difference is one of severity. 

A food allergy is what happens when someone has a reaction to consuming a food. Peanut allergies or shellfish allergies are great examples. Depending on the severity of the allergy, someone who consumes peanuts or shellfish can experience anything from a mild rash to difficulty breathing. The defining characteristic of a food allergy is that your body exhibits a reaction after consuming the food in question. 

A sensitivity or an intolerance is slightly different. It’s what happens when your body has a hard time breaking down or absorbing the food in question. Most folks who have a gluten-related issue are suffering from a sensitivity. That’s why we say people are “Gluten Intolerant”. Their bodies are not able to tolerate gluten. 

But what does that mean? 

Put simply, it means that their bodies have a hard time breaking down and absorbing gluten. This can range from short-term discomfort to chronic pain. Sometimes, this can lead to Irritable Bowel Syndrome. (We should stress that no one really understands exactly what causes IBS, and that it can have many sources of causation.)  In other cases, the long-term consumption of gluten can lead to a build-up of stuff the body can’t break down. When this happens, the digestive tract can get damaged, and this is what leads to Celiac Disease. 

In our next post, we’ll talk a bit more about gluten intolerance and discuss Celiac Disease. 

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