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Gluten and Anxiety: is there a connection?

Are you or someone you love  struggling with anxiety?

Have you tried different counselling or a combination of different medications to get on top of the anxiety?

It’s important for you to know there is a connection between gluten and anxiety. Gluten could actually be the root cause of your anxiety, even when you’re not celiac.

The first connection between gluten and anxiety comes from understanding the gut brain connection.

Firstly, many studies have shown that our gut and our brain are connected. There’s actually a third nervous system called the enteric nervous system that shows the direct link between what’s going on in our gut and the brain.

This means if there’s inflammation in your gut, it’s going to create brain inflammation. Research studies have shown that patients who have anxiety may also have gastrointestinal complaints. When our gut is out of balance, it can create anxiety.

The research done by Dr. Alessio Fasano, a pediatric gastroenterologist, has shown that gluten increases intestinal permeability and creates inflammation in all humans. Some people have the ability to heal the inflammation quicker than others.
Consuming gluten creates inflammation in the gut. This inflammation causes dysregulation in brain chemicals.

Brain chemicals like GABA are used to manage and regulate anxiety. When you have inflammation in your gut, your ability to make GABA decreases and your anxiety gets worse and worse, no matter what you do.

The second connection between gluten and anxiety are nutritional deficiencies.

When you consume gluten containing food, you create inflammation in your gut and you also create intestinal permeability. Unfortunately, the gut is where you absorb all your vitamins and minerals.

Therefore, when we have inflammation and intestinal permeabilities, we could also have nutrient deficiencies. In order for our brain chemicals that regulate our mood and anxiety to be made, we need certain vitamins and minerals. Gut inflammation means we can’t absorb enough of the proper nutrients because we can’t absorb them through our gut.

When we have less ability to make those neurochemicals, our anxiety again gets worse and worse. Most people are shocked to find out that when you’re eating a whole foods diet and supplementing but also eating gluten, it could be causing nutrient deficiencies. The inflammation and intestinal permeability caused by gluten could be making it difficult for you to actually absorb the nutrients you need.

The third connection between gluten and anxiety is your diagnosis.

Celiac disease is known to be linked to anxiety and depression. However gluten could be the root cause of your anxiety, even if you test negative for celiac disease.

Research estimates that approximately 18 million Americans have non-celiac gluten sensitivity, a number that’s six times higher than celiac disease.

The only way to know if you have non celiac gluten sensitivity is to cut out gluten, for four weeks. If your anxiety changes, then you know that gluten is the root cause of your anxiety.

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

When Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Doesn’t Cut It

By any chance, have you already tried going gluten free, dairy free, and you’re still having chronic symptoms?

First of all, dietary changes will radically shift your health. However, there are many instances when patients have tried a gluten free dairy free diet without any results. It is time that we took a deep dive into when gluten-free, dairy-free doesn’t cut it.

Are you suffering from symptoms of chronic constipation, diarrhea, irritable bowel?

Do you have skin conditions like eczema and rashes?

Do you have a child with a nervous tummy or anxiety?

Then I strongly recommend you follow a gluten free, dairy free diet.

These conditions are signs that your body has inflammation, and the top inflammatory foods out there are gluten and dairy.

The first reason why going gluten free, dairy free doesn’t cut it is because you’re not going 100%

When most patients say they have tried gluten-free, dairy-free, they tell me what they’ve only cut down. Maybe as little as only having it once a week. Even once a week, a small amount of any inflammatory thing in your body will trigger your immune system. It is the the same as having a whole block of cheese or a whole baguette.

If you’re only doing it 85 to 90%, your immune system still sees that little tiny amount as inflammatory and it will keep your immune system on high alert. This may prevent you from actually getting the results that you could achieve if you had gone all in.

So if you’ve cut down and you actually haven’t gone 100%, you’ve done all the hard work. Now do it 100%!

The second reason why gluten free, dairy free isn’t cutting it is because you haven’t done it for long enough. 

Often when patients present to my office saying they’ve tried a gluten-free, dairy-free diet, they have only done it for a week or two.

This is not long enough because our body and our immune system recognizes the proteins in gluten and dairy, gliadin and casein. When these proteins are inflammatory to our body, our body will see these two proteins as dangerous strangers and create inflammation. Hence, we have these symptoms.

How long does it take? I highly recommend doing a minimum of four weeks. If you have severe chronic conditions, my recommendation is 100 days elimination. This allows your immune system to decrease the antibodies to these two proteins and you will see a radical shift in your health.

The third reason why gluten free, dairy free isn’t cutting it is because there are other factors. 

If you’ve already done a gluten-free, dairy-free diet at 100% and you’ve done it for a minimum of four weeks, there are other factors that may be involved.

A healthy person will have an entirely new intestinal lining in two to three weeks. This means if you’re doing a gut healing protocol for six months or more and you’re still having the chronic symptoms, there’s are other factors. These factors include genetics, the health of the microbiome, environmental toxins, stress, and a whole list of other things that impact the body.

A gluten-free, dairy-free is still the first step, because gluten and dairy are some of the most inflammatory foods known to humans. Stick to it, while still addressing those other factors I spoke about through functional medicine testing. You will see that decreasing the amount of inflammatory foods in your diet will help you heal faster.

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

The two functional tests that will change your life

Are you experiencing symptoms that keep getting worse and worse?

Do your traditional test results always come back ‘within normal’ ranges?

Do you keep going from doctor to doctor looking for functional tests after being told ‘everything looks normal’… but the symptoms aren’t going away?

That’s normal for me to hear from my patients. It is vital to do these two functional tests when you are experiencing mysterious symptoms because they will change the trajectory of your life.

Traditional medicine tends to look at the symptoms then reacts to treat them. There’s nothing wrong with this approach. However, if you’re continuing to have symptoms and your bloodwork is within normal ranges, you hit a dead end. There’s nothing else you can do.

Firstly, traditional lab testing can actually give functional medicine practitioners a lot of information. Instead of looking at ‘normal ranges’, we look at ‘functional ranges’. These ranges are much smaller and start to give us indication as to the root cause. 

Secondly, in functional medicine we strive to look at the whole body as a system. Treatment depends on understanding what is at the root cause of those symptoms. When traditional lab work doesn’t show the root cause, functional medicine goes deeper. The focus of functional testing is to uncover the root cause of symptoms.

Most importantly, for anyone continuing to experience mysterious symptoms, these are the two functional tests I recommend that will change your life. 

The first functional test that will change your life is the GIMAP by diagnostic solutions lab.

It is my favourite comprehensive stool analysis. This test looks at so many different markers. It gives an underlying view of what is going on in the large intestine. Most testing traditionally looks for one or two things. A specific pathogen, maybe a parasite. The GI map has a load of information. It gives us information on parasites. It also gives us a good view into the overall micro flora and your microbiome.

What GI Map testing does that most testing doesn’t do, is look at intestinal health. The GI MAP can show how you’re detoxifying your estrogens and environmental toxins. It will also reveal if you have intestinal permeability or inflammation in your gut and even how your overall digestive tract is working.

Understanding these results can uncover the root cause(s) of those symptoms. These results aren’t being picked up on traditional testing, which is why it’s such a fantastic test.

The second functional test that will change your life is the Organic Acids Test by Great Plains Laboratory

This test has 70+ markers on it to help us uncover the root cause of your symptoms. It looks at fungal overgrowth and even nutritional markers. It can also give us an indication if you’re being exposed to mold toxins and/or environmental toxins. This testing will look at neurotransmitter metabolites, different bacterial overgrowth and uncover information about different nutrient and vitamin levels. The other exceptional thing it shows us is mitochondrial function, how your body’s making energy. This information is crucial for so many people that have chronic health conditions.

In our practice we use both the OAT test and the GI map to get a comprehensive overview of the small intestine and the large intestine. This really gives us an opportunity to look at a broader scale. Now we can make a plan that’s tailored directly to what’s actually going on inside of you.

If your lab testing looks normal and your symptoms keep getting . It’s time to do different lab testing, functional lab testing. 

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.