Ron,
I have three questions about gluten and leaky gut.

1.  Once a person has leaky gut can it be healed?  If
it is healed then if that person consumes gluten will
they still have problems?

2.  Are there other foods besides gluten-containing
grains that contain multiple glutamine sequences?

3.  Besides avoidance of gluten are there any foods or
supplements shown to be beneficial in reestablishing
the epithelial junctions.
  
Mike

From:    R Hoggan <[log in to unmask]>

According to Martin Kagnoff, *all* humans lack the
necessary enzymes to fully digest gluten.
Specifically, we cannot break the multiple glutamine
sequences. That may be fine as long as we don't suffer
a serious burn,
chemotherapy, radiation, a serious intestinal
infection, one of several viral infections, etc. etc.
However, when one of these traumas occurs 
we produce excessive amounts of zonulin which relaxes
the epithelial junctions that usually act as a
protective barrier. This loss of protection 
allows these partly digested gluten-derived proteins
and peptides to leak into our circulation, at which
time the immune system would become sensitized to
gluten. When these same proteins and peptides are put
in a petrie dish 
with
many (but not all) of a wide range of human tissues,
the tissue cells 
are
damaged. 

Hence, gliadins are cytotoxic and under any of the
many conditions that
cause a leaky gut, gliadins can be leaked into the
bloodstream to 
damage any
susceptible human tissues they come in contact with.
Gliadins are
particularly toxic to neurological cells. 

Further, waiting until you are diagnosed with gluten
sensitivity or 
celiac
disease would be a little like beginning to practice
birth control 
after
conception. Once your immune system is sensitized to
gluten, you 
already
have a problem. If you are not gluten sensitive, why
not stop it before 
it
starts? It is also worthwhile pointing out that about
95$ of American
celiacs go undiagnosed. The number of gluten sensitive
Americans is at 
least
12 times the number of celiacs, and I suspect that an
even even smaller
percentage of  gluten sensitive Americans are
diagnosed. We are talking
about a minimum of about 40 million Americans. 

Also, the absolute claim you quoted about wheatgrass
being gluten free 
is
not quite accurate. Gluten is a group of several
families of storage
proteins. These proteins provide nutrients to
facilitate germination 
and
growth of the plant. In theory, there should be an
identifiable point 
at
which one stem is free from gluten, just it finishes
the germination
process. However, even adjacent grasses do not
germinate at absolutely
identical rates. There is no absolute cut-off point
where all glutens 
are
absent from all stems in even a very small a batch of
grass. The gluten
content is dramatically reduced but it is not
completely absent. I know
several celiacs who tried wheatgrass and are fairly
sensitive to 
gluten.
Each of them had a gluten reaction. 

If you are interested in a deeper understanding of the
hazards of 
eating
grain-derived foods (sprouted or otherwise) I would
suggest reading
_Dangerous Grains_. Of course I have a wee bias there
too. I make a 
small
amount of money from every copy that sells. :-) 

 
Best Wishes, 
Ron Hoggan, Ed. D.
co-author Dangerous Grains ISBN: 978158333-129-3 
www.dangerousgrains.com 
editor: Scott-Free Newsletter www.celiac.com

"Objectivity is the prerogative of objects."


 
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