The fact that you seem to be intolerant to many foods is indicative of a leaky gut. While a leaky gut is frequently secondary to a gluten sensitivity (note: you can be gluten sensitive without having celiac disease), eliminating gluten alone is often not adequate to healing the leaky gut.

The factors that we address in order to restore intestinal health are:

food sensitivities - gluten is common but there are others

intestinal infections - testing for the presence of pathogenic organisms such as parasites, bacteria, amoeba, etc is critical

balance of probiotics or the good bacteria

absorption of nutrients, and more.

Healing a leaky gut isn't difficult and it doesn't involve any scary drugs or surgery; one just needs to know what to do and how to monitor progress with the correct tests.

We would be happy to help you.

Your practitioner has already diagnosed you and I cannot since you are not a patient. But let's go forward based on the supposition that you have celiac disease, as your practitioner stated.

I can answer this question: How many positive reactions does one need on a lab test to have a positive diagnosis? One is all you need. The one could be in the celiac area or the gluten sensitive area. But only one is needed.

It is unfortunate but all too often patients show a positive celiac blood test but are then told, erroneously, that they must ALSO have a positive biopsy to confirm the diagnosis. This is not true and is a dated perspective. The intestinal biopsy is not a very sensitive test and it requires very severe damage of the small intestine to occur before it shows positive. Newer lab tests for celiac disease (and gluten sensitivity) are more sensitive making an earlier diagnosis possible. This is desperately needed because the average celiac waits over a decade to get diagnosed.

I do want to make sure that your clinician is "up to speed" on treating the secondary effects of gluten.  While getting a proper diagnosis is the first hurdle, addressing the secondary effects of gluten is critical to ensure that you regain your health.  Unfortunately for most people, even though they are diligent about avoiding gluten, if they don't receive help to heal their intestines, optimal health will continue to elude them.

I write a lot on this topic and am happy to assist you further if needed. Please let me know.

Thank you for the excellent question:

Probiotics don't have the ability to "digest" gluten but there is research to support that without a healthy probiotic population, you are more likely to develop celiac disease (and likely gluten sensitivity) as well.

When probiotics are at a healthy level, they can actually keep bad genes turned off. Dr Alessio Fasano from the University of Maryland's Celiac Research Center has stated that a healthy intestine with a strong probiotic population can effectively keep a celiac from expressing their 'gluten intolerance'. This is relatively new data and certainly a breakthrough.

Up to this point we believed that someone either had celiac disease or gluten sensitivity or they did not. The concept that they could "develop" it over time was completely dismissed due to the genetic aspect of the disease.

When patients stated vehemently that they were perfectly fine consuming gluten until some event occurred such as a severe illness, food poisoning, a pregnancy, drug or antibiotic usage and the like, we really didn't have any data to support what the patient in fact knew was true. And they were totally correct!

Whether one who was gluten sensitive or celiac could then "turn off" a gene that had already been turned on by restoring healthy to the intestine and probiotic population is another excellent question and one that I am pursuing by hosting myself as the guinea pig! I am about 1 year into doing everything I possibly can to optimize healing the gut and restoring probiotic balance.  I'll keep you informed!

Hopefully some research will come out on this topic.

It is definitely true, however, that restoring a healthy probiotic balance is critical for good health. This is why we have these critical levels evaluated in a lab test that most patients receive who have any digestive related problems.

Please let us know if we can help you further.

To your good health,

Dr Vikki Petersen

p.s. If you search my blog on this site you will likely find more information on this topic.

In my practice we utilize a sensitive gluten sensitivity and celiac panel if a patient is still consuming gluten, and a genetic test for those whom have already started a gluten-free diet or who strongly suspect celiac or gluten sensitivity despite negative tests.

We are firm believers in an elimination diet as well. If after 30 days of a strict gluten-free diet a person notices improvement in their symptoms, we consider that a positive test in itself.

Anyone with any autoimmune disease, in themselves or in their family tree, is flagged as likely gluten intolerant as well. And, while I am a huge fan of Dr Fasano's, based on my clinical experience, a person can be gluten sensitive (as opposed to solely celiac disease) and suffer from an autoimmune disease that does improve as a result of eliminating gluten.

I know the research isn't there yet but neither was it there when we wrote our book "The Gluten Effect" two years ago. We were convinced that gluten sensitivity existed and now leading researchers do agree!

I feel strongly about the fact that autoimmune diseases as a whole are the third leading cause of death and gluten is a known culprit. Too often a patient is only tested for celiac and if it's negative, gluten is dismissed as a causative agent. I think that's incorrect.

Hello,

You could certainly get tested for celiac disease or gluten sensitivity. If that's not possible you could try the 1-2 months of a gluten-free diet as you proposed.

Gluten is a very strong inflammatory agent to the nervous system and I have seen patients with symptoms such as yours respond very positively to a gluten-free diet.

Please let me know how you do and if I can assist you further.

To your good health,

Dr Vikki Petersen, DC, CCN

Our book "The Gluten Effect" speaks in depth of the secondary effects and so does my blog. You can go to my  blog page: http://www.healthnowmedical.com/category/gluten-intolerance-celiac/ and search for the secondary effects.  I write about them frequently.

Let me know if this helps.  It's a BIG missing link in the area of celiac disease and gluten sensitivity and a causative factor in why over 2/3 of those suffering don't improve despite going gluten-free.

Unfortunately there are too few clinicians doing this type of work in the US and the world. It is for this reason that we created our Destination Clinic where we have figured out a way to successfully treat those who live across the US as well as internationally.

While it does require an initial visit to beautiful northern California, we are then able to treat you long distance.

It is probably best to give us a call (408-733-0400) or contact us to decide what the best approach is to help you.

Thank you for your question.

A RAST food profile is the same as an IgE panel. IgE (or immunoglobulin E) is a reaction of the immune system that is initiated by what we call a true allergy.

Such foods that cause an IgE response are dramatic - think diarrhea, hives or trouble breathing - and they tend to come on within an hour after ingestion. Because of the speed of the response, individuals usually figure out that these foods are bothering them on their own.

As the mom, I'm sure you've worked hard to discover what is causing your daughter's IBS. If you haven't seen the type of correlation that I've mentioned above than it's unlikely that her IBS is being caused by an IgE reaction and it's probably unnecessary for her to do the test.

We do a lot of work with IBS patients and have excellent results in patients of all ages. What we typically find is more of an IgG or IgA reaction to a food, meaning that the reaction is delayed.

It is this delay that makes it so difficult to identify the problematic food(s). The top two offenders with IBS are definitely gluten and dairy products. I'm not sure how familiar you are with this site but the secondary effects of gluten are also a large contributor to IBS - this includes intestinal infections, imbalance probiotics, nutritional deficiencies, a leaky gut and more.

Please feel free to contact me (drvikki@healthnowmedical.com) to discuss your daughter further. I don't say this lightly, but IBS happens to be one of those conditions where our success rate is so high that I truly want to "tell the world".

The treatment is natural, doesn't involve drugs and truly handles the condition for good.  We'd certainly love to help your daughter so please do consider  contacting us. If that's not possible, I hope this information will prove helpful to you.

To your good health,

Dr Vikki Petersen

Hello Sheri,

Oats themselves are not a gluten containing grain. However, in this country the processing and growing of the grain ensures cross contamination with glutinous grains. Oats fields are frequently adjacent to fields growing wheat and as the birds fly over the fields they tend to drop seeds and it's quite usual to see wheat growing in an oat field.

Further, the trucks that deliver the oats from the field typically carry glutinous grains as well so this is another point of cross contamination.

The safe oats, and I do believe that we can trust them for the most part, are only available by buying them from a manufacturer that states the product is gluten free on the label. So you can buy oat flour or steel cut oats or oat flakes in a grocery store when the bag or box specifically states that it's gluten free.

With that said there are certain people who react negatively to gluten free oats due to cross reactivity. Cross reactivity is not cross contamination. Rather it's when the person's immune system is unable to distinguish between the protein gluten and the protein in oats. This is something we would help you to discover by performing a particular lab test that would not only evaluate oats but many other grains as well.

The ability to discover when cross reactivity is occurring is very helpful when a person suffers from a leaky gut or is having continuing problems despite being strict on a gluten free diet.

The theory is that after a few months away from the cross reactive foods while concurrently following a nutritional program to heal the gut and strengthen the immune system, that one should then be able to return to the cross reactive foods safely.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any further questions.

To your good health,
Dr Vikki Petersen

Goat cheese is considered a dairy product. The milk or cheese from any mammal would fit in this category.

Fortunately sweet potatoes and yams are a different breed altogether from white potatoes. So a sensitivity to potato means that you can still enjoy yams and sweet potatoes.

You may enjoy a recent blog I wrote on the subject of butter.

Please let me know if I can answer any further questions.

To your good health,

Dr Vikki

Hello,

This is a very good question. Eco-Dent is a company that provides fluoride free floss and mouthwash.

Whole Foods offers several lines of fluoride-free products so that might be an easy place to find everything. A cost-conscious alternative may be to order on-line.

Nature's Gate is a brand of toothpaste that I use that is fluoride-free. Please note that you should read the label carefully. I know that they offer fluoride-free because I personally use it. They may, like Tom's, offer a fluoride version as well, I don't know for sure.

Speaking of Tom's they never used to use fluoride and they began to without my awareness.  Unfortunately we can get into a habit of buying something without reading the label in a new unit of time - this is what happened to me with Tom's toothpaste. I was so angry with them for introducing fluoride that I switched to Nature's Gate. In their defense they do offer both, so just read the label with care.

Dr Mercola (Mercola.com) offers a dental care "kit" that's all fluoride-free. I don't know what the cost is but that's another option for you as well.

It's definitely worth the effort.

To your good health,

Dr Vikki

Thank you for your excellent question.

You have established from your positive test that you suffer from gluten intolerance. You should see improvement in your health from eliminating gluten, but whether you will notice it in your joints and/or somewhere else in your body is difficult to state.

It takes a minimum of 30 days for the cells to renew themselves in the intestines so that would be the shortest period of time to allow your body to communicate that it was benefiting from your new gluten-free status. Regardless of any other mitigating factors that might be creating health difficulties, you do not want to ever reintroduce gluten into your diet. You may not have identified ALL offending factors but you have identified that one and it's important that you remain gluten-free.

As you so correctly noted, an integral part of optimizing health is the healing of the gut. This is critical for autoimmune disease but truly is vital regardless of the disease process or symptoms present. Antibiotics weaken the immune system and compromise the probiotic population and prednisone creates a leaky gut. So the combination of those is definitely going to be a deterrent to your healing.

We do have good success in this area and our destination clinic allows us to see patients from across the country as well as internationally. Please let me know if you'd like our help. We would be happy to offer you a free consultation.

To your good health,

Dr Vikki Petersen

I have not personally worked with a patient with myasthenia gravis so I can only speak to the association of gluten intolerance causing not only autoimmune diseases in general, but also its strongly negative affect on the nervous system.

Myasthenia gravis is not only an autoimmune disease but its affect is on the nervous system of the body.

The research showing that autoimmune diseases are very negatively affected by not only gluten but the leaky gut that gluten is known to create is strong.

If I or someone I cared about suffered from an autoimmune disease, or there was a strong family leaning towards one, I would definitely consider getting screened for gluten intolerance, including both celiac disease and gluten sensitivity.  I would add to those tests, regardless of their outcome, a 30 day gluten free trial to see if symptoms improved during that time period.

There is so research being done, but similar to most autoimmune diseases, the association has not been definitely proven. Personally I and my fellow clinicians here at HealthNOW have seen wonderful changes in autoimmune diseases through finding a gluten intolerance and healing the digestive tract as two of our main tools.

Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

To your good health,

Dr Vikki Petersen

Metametrix offers the stool test that we use. It is quite comprehensive as regards evaluating for infectious agents of the amoeba, bacteria, parasite and worm variety, as well as probiotic health and absorption.

Metametrix also offers a urine test (Organix profile) that evaluates for accumulation of metabolites that can indicate SIBO (small intestine bowel overgrowth).

Doctors Data / Genova offers tests specifically for SIBO.

I hope that answers your question. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Best,

Dr Vikki

Thank you for your question. Lichen planus is an inflammatory condition of the skin that tends to develop in middle age. Whenever I am confronted by an inflammatory skin condition, my first thought is to evaluate the health of the digestive tract. The skin is typically considered a reflection of the health of the gut, and I have rarely encountered a skin condition that did not go hand in hand with a weakened digestive tract.

Lichen planus is considered to be a reaction of the immune system. Seventy to eighty percent of the immune system is housed in the gut, so once again we become suspicious of digestive health as a potential root cause.

I did not find any information that lichen planus was an autoimmune disease but that doesn't mean it cannot be related to a gluten intolerance. The condition is of unknown cause and treatment is purely topical, typically the use of steroids. I dislike steroids because they tend to create a leaky gut, which is often the underlying root cause of the condition.

I would encourage you to work with a clinician who can correctly determine if gluten is playing a role in your digestive health and then take steps to completely restore health to the digestive tract. By the way, the digestive tract can be unhealthy even if you have no obvious symptoms - counterintuitive I know, but still true.

I you need any assistance taking these steps, please let me know. Our destination clinic sees patients from across the country and internationally. We are here to help!
To your good health,

Dr Vikki Petersen

Best,

Dr Preeti Kulkarnia, ND
Doctor of Naturopathy

Hello Joyce,

We will be selling our book at the event, as long as supplies hold out.

We look forward to meeting you as well.

To your good health,

Dr Vikki

It is very important that you strictly follow the Modified Elimination Diet (MED). The recipes on our site are mostly MED compliant, but not all.

It seems like a long time to stay on it now, but you'll be done before you know it and believe me, it's worth it to do it right!

To your good health,

Dr Vikki Petersen

Dear Dolores,

Thank you for your excellent questions:

1. Oats that are labeled gluten-free are grown, processed and manufactured in a gluten-free fashion and are therefore 'safe' for celiacs and those suffering with gluten sensitivity.

HOWEVER - there is a potential situation whereby oats is acting as a cross-reactive substance with gluten, despite the oats having a gluten-free status. I speak about this on my blog on this site as well as on my you tube station - HealthNOW Medical. There is a test to determine if your body is cross reacting with oats or not and we find this test (it also tests for almost 20 other foods) extremely helpful in getting our patients to the next level of health.

2. As a diagnosed celiac who has no symptoms, I appreciate why you would occasionally 'cheat'. It is difficult to know that you have a serious autoimmune disease when your body gives you no symptoms that bother you.

HOWEVER - please don't cheat! Even though you cannot feel it, each and every time you cheat is like playing Russian roulette with your health. You increase your chance of illness, not to mention developing another autoimmune disease.

I hope this was helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Best,

Dr Vikki

Hello Maryjo,

Your reply does get to me, so no problem there.

We cannot 'diagnose' over the internet. I do understand that you live in Pennsylvania, but we see patients from across the country and internationally at our Destination Clinic. While it does require a trip here, after that we can work with you via phone consultations. Most patients find it very worthwhile.

If you'd like to set up an initial phone consultation then we can speak further and I can get a better idea of your health history - a must when making an accurate diagnosis.

I look forward to hearing from you. Please call 408-733-0400.

To your good health,

Dr Vikki Petersen

Hello Pam,

The deamidated test is for celiac disease. Research has moved forward since I taped the video you are referring to and I'm seeing less references using it. Predominantly, current research focuses on the tTG2 and anti-gliadin antibody.

Fortunately much is coming out about how insensitive these tests are. There is finally the realization that the tTG2 test is only accurate when the patient has digestive complaints and, especially with neurological problems, digestive symptoms are typically absent, despite gluten intolerance being present.

It is an area in flux but we are moving in the right direction.

This year, 2011, brought us new testing for other aspects of the gluten protein which has yielded a gluten sensitivity/celiac blood test that is much better than any we have had before. We have used it here at HealthNOW and are pleased with the results.

Please let me know if we can provide any help for you, your friends or family. We are here to help!

Best,

Dr Vikki

What the gastroenterologist is recommending, a reintroduction of gluten, in my opinion is a very dangerous idea. Reintroducing gluten could initiate an autoimmune disease or other serious issues that you may not be able to reverse. I have seen such things occur clinically, as have other experts in this field.

You removed gluten from your diet three years and your digestive symptoms disappeared, plus you have the genes for celiac disease. I don't think you need any further corroboration.

The 'recommendation' is 6 weeks of consuming gluten before a biopsy or retest is performed. Most patients feel so horrible that they barely make it to 3 weeks.  I caution you strongly against such a challenge.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

To your good health,

Dr Vikki

Hello,

Thank you for asking. We can treat Medicare-aged patients in two areas of our clinic: Clinical Nutrition and Chiropractic. The patient would need to pay themselves for the care as Medicare cannot be billed for these services, but the good news is that you can receive care.

I hope that clears it up. If not feel free to write back or call us at 408-733-0400.

Hello Jerry,

I haven't seen definite studies linking celiac disease and gastroparesis (delayed bowel emptying for those reading this) but it is seen to occur together based on many reports from patients.

It makes sense when you consider the inflammation that occurs in the digestive tract that they could be related.

Like many celiacs, your daughter sounds as if she needs some further assistance healing her intestine. Unfortunately removing gluten is only one step of many that need to be taken to restore health. The steps are not difficult but they must be done in order to achieve the good health she deserves.

Secondary infections such as Candida, parasites, and bacteria are common secondary effects of gluten intolerance.

If you'd like to speak further about this and get some specifics on how we might be able to help, I encourage you to call us for a free health analysis - 408-733-0400.

All the best,

Dr Vikki

Hello,

This is a great question. If you carefully grow you own and utilize the grass when it is less than 10 to 14 days old, research says that you should be fine. The protein begins to form in the grass after about 10 to 14 days so therefore it would be a gluten-containing product at that point.

If the grass is young you should be fine.

I hope that helps!

Best,

Dr Vikki

Hello and thank you for your question.

I am unaware of what other condition would cause anti-gliadin antibodies to be high in the stool other than gluten intolerance. I know there is some disagreement with the testing procedure, but we here at HealthNOW have seen a good correlation with positive tests and patients improving on a gluten free diet.

Have you already eliminated from your child's diet? Is he or she feeling better?

There is a blood test from Cyrex Labs that is excellent and very comprehensive, but if you have already eliminated gluten for more than two weeks then it would no longer be accurate and you definitely do not want to reintroduce gluten as that could be dangerous.

There is also genetic testing as an option and that doesn't require any gluten exposure so it could be done at any time.

I hope this information helps. Please feel free to contact me at the clinic at 408-733-0400 for any further clarification.

Best,

Dr Vikki Petersen

This is not an area we work with here at HealthNOW. HCG is a hormone that is used for fertility and sometimes for weight loss, but it is not used here. There appears to be some data suggesting blood clots as a possible side effect, but I would recommend contacting a physician who works extensively with this particular hormone.

Our Doctor of Physical Therapy is highly trained in this area. Please feel free to contact us for a free initial health analysis to ensure that we can assist. You can call 408-733-0400.

Thank you for the question.

What you need to know is that once you have removed gluten from your diet you cannot test for it without reintroducing it, which I would not recommend.

Similarly, if you've been staying off cross-reactive foods you will likely not get an accurate test result.

You can definitely test for pathogenic organisms - Metametrix Labs is the one we use and they are quite comprehensive.

And as regards testing cross-reactive foods or for gluten intolerance, we prefer Cyrex Labs.

With that said, it very much depends on what type of clinician you are going to see and if they are familiar with these types of tests. Unfortunately many are not.

Also, the term 'allergy' is really not the correct one to use if you wish to get information on food sensitivities. They are completely different as are the tests that measure for them.

I don't want you to spend money getting tested for true allergies when that's not what you really want to know, nor is it likely the main problem that's occurring, if at all.

I think sorting this out likely requires a phone conversation. If you're interested consider setting up a free health analysis where we can better decide what needs to be done to truly help you with the symptoms from which you suffer.

I'd be delighted to help and we certainly have excellent success treating the symptoms that are bothering you.  Call 408-733-0400.

All the best,

Dr Vikki Petersen

Hello Victoria,

Autoimmune disease is dramatically on the rise and we now understand that environmental factors have much to do with it. The immune system attacks the body due to a miscommunication or misunderstanding, if you will. The immune system is designed to attack hostile organisms, not the body itself. Yet in autoimmune disease that is exactly what the immune system is doing - attacking the body itself.

The doesn't occur because the immune system is 'stupid' but rather because it 'sees' a body part (be it the person's pancreas as in Diabetes, the joints as in Rheumatoid arthritis, or the thyroid as in Hashimoto's thyroiditis, etc, etc) as the foreign invader.

Why? In good part because the person's digestive system is not functioning correctly and partially digested food or organisms themselves 'escape' out into the bloodstream. Once in the bloodstream, the immune system attacks these things and, due to a structural similarity, also begins to attack organs of the body that have a protein structure similar to the organism or partially digested food.  This is called molecular mimicry - the part of the body being attacked is mimicking the true foreign invader and thereby confusing the immune system. ( I hope this all makes sense...)

The 'attack' of the body part can cease once the particles/organisms are no longer in the system. This is done through dietary change and healing of the small intestine - to name some key steps - there are more.

It is amazing that an organ that was thought to be all but destroyed often has some functioning ability left, and the body's ability to heal itself is rather amazing.

I'm assuming since you are asking about GAD antibodies (a substance found in the blood that is a good predictor of type 1 diabetes) that you have type 1 diabetes. Did you develop it in childhood or when you were older? Antibody levels can decrease when the true root cause driving them to be produced is properly addressed. We have seen this in many autoimmune diseases, including diabetes.

I hope this answers your questions, if not please let me know.

All the best,

Dr Vikki

Thank you for the question.

Yes, I have heard of this study and I recently wrote a blog about it. I feel that the data was perhaps a bit misleading on Dr Osborn's site and I take that up in the post.

I hope that you find it informative. You can read it here.

Best,

Dr Vikki

That would be fine to send your list of questions Haley.

That is an excellent question.

Celiac disease, in its 'classic' (and somewhat outdated) description, would be studied in medical school. It's doubtful that textbooks are up to date on the non-classical variety that would include an absence of digestive complaints and a negative intestinal biopsy.

Not that it is particularly surprising, a textbook couldn't be written as fast as changes are occurring in this field!

Gluten sensitivity is quite likely not discussed in medical textbook. Once again, not much of a surprise since its very existence has only recently been accepted by leaders in the field.

This is only speculation on my part, but I think it's likely to be a few years before an 'accurate' picture of celiac disease and gluten sensitivity will be found in medical curriculum.

I hope that helps!

Best,

Dr Vikki

Hello Wendy,

Thank you for your question.  We have definitely seen vasculitis associated with a gluten intolerance. Vasculitis is an autoimmune disease and it is known that celiac disease, as an autoimmune disease in its own right, tends to occur with other autoimmune diseases.

Research points to the damage that gluten can create in the gut as a major potential causative agent of autoimmune diseases.

Here at the clinic we see excellent improvement in many autoimmune diseases as they relate to gluten intolerance and, as I mentioned above, specifically vasculitis.

Dairy elimination is always a good idea, in our opinion, as there are so many negative issues associated with dairy that we barely consider it a 'food' any more.

If you would like assistance with your daughter please don't hesitate to ask. We can offer you a free health analysis. We are here to help! Call 408-733-0400.

Best,

Dr Vikki