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Gluten Free New Year’s Resolution 2013

Being gluten free means adapting a whole new relationship to food, something that shapes our every day lives, holidays and traditions. Considering how complicated and challenging being gluten free can be, it seems appropriate to make our New Year’s Resolutions at least related to improving our health and gluten free lifestyle.

gluten free new year resolutions

Last year I had a slue of NYRs all about improving my gluten free lifestyle. You can check out last year’s list here but in summary, I decided to:

1. Be (even more) gluten free – this means making smart, safe choices at restaurants like getting a salad instead of french fries due to risk of cross contamination.

2. Become informed — I vowed to start following GF blogs so that I can stay current on what other GF advocates are up to.

3. Get techy — there are many phone apps out there that make being gluten free much simpler. I decided to start

BioLineRx Announces Publication of Pre-clinical Results Demonstrating Efficacy of BL-7010, an Oral Treatment for Celiac Disease and Gluten Sensitivity

Kelly Clayton Gluten Free Works

Just last week BioLineRx, a biopharmaceutical development company announced successful pre-clinical testing of a potentially revolutionary treatment for celiac disease.  This new treatment may help celiac disease patients reduce their gluten toxins to create an overall healthy body for all celiac disease patients.

Jerusalem, Israel – February 21, 2012 – BioLineRx (NASDAQ: BLRX; TASE: BLRX), a biopharmaceutical development company, announced the publication of pre-clinical results demonstrating that BL-7010, an orally available treatment for celiac disease, reduces gluten toxicity (the negative effect of gluten on the patient’s body). The research was published in the February edition of Gastroenterology.

The findings indicate that BL-7010 (previously called P(HEMA-co-SS)) reduces digestion of wheat gluten, thereby decreasing its

Testing for Nutrient Deficiencies: My Results

christie bessinger gluten free works

There are a number of nutrient deficiencies associated with Celiac and other autoimmune disorders. These occur not only BEFORE diagnosis, due to flattened villi and malabsorption, but AFTER diagnosis as well.  It’s up to us to choose healthy, naturally gluten-free foods (like fruits, veggies, lean protein and brown rice) in order to feel the best we can. Even then, we may still have deficiencies.

I was diagnosed about 5 years ago. Although I have experienced dramatic improvements in my health, sleep quality, and energy level, I have still been dealing with some “weird” symptoms that I wasn’t sure were going to go away. These include eye floaters (which I’ve noticed for about 2 years now), shakiness and rapid pulse especially during the first half of the day, and carbohydrate intolerance. (Eating high carb meals have been giving me headaches). So…. I was VERY excited when I heard that Gluten Free Works was going to be offering . I couldn’t wait to try it out.

nutrition testing gluten free works

 

When I got my results back, I was AMAZED at how many nutrient deficiencies I still had after being Gluten-Free for this many years. I came up deficient in:

VITAMIN A (this explained the eye floaters)
CHROMIUM (I had never heard of chromium before now, but this explained my problem with carbs. I have since read that a deficiency in Chromium leads to DIABETES… so I’m glad I figured this out now, rather than later ;)
SELENIUM (had never heard of that one either)

Which Medications Do You No Longer Need Since Going Gluten-free?

John Libonati Gluten Free Works

On December 13, I posted a question on the Glutenfreeworks Facebook page to ask people who had adopted a gluten-free diet if they no longer needed medications they had been taking. The response was incredible. Dozens of people described how they no longer needed drugs, some of which they had been taking for years or decades.

Here is my post and their responses…

“I gave a presentation to a group and mentioned a friend who had been on Zantac for 20 years. I went on to say that once she went gluten-free the acid reflux disappeared. A woman in the audience stood up and said the same thing happened to her – she had been on it since she was 10 (I’m guessing she was in her mid to late 30s.).

My question for you is what medication (of any kind) were you on, before you went gluten-free, that you no longer need to take and how long did it take before you did not need it anymore?”

    •  

      Ashley Nikki Garcia Prilosec & zantec. ! 

      December 13 at 5:25pm · 
    •  

      Lauren Smith I also took OTC for heartburn on a near daily basis. No more! 

      December 13 at 5:27pm · 
    •  

      Surely Masquelier McMaster I’ve taken Neurontin for 10 years..GF since Sept. and realized in Nov. that I don’ t need it! 

Avaxia Biologics Awarded Patent for Celiac Disease Treatment Pill

John Libonati Gluten Free Works

LEXINGTON,  Mass., Dec. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Avaxia Biologics, Inc., a privately-held biotech company developing oral antibody drugs that act locally within the gastrointestinal tract, announced today that the company was awarded U.S. Patent 8,071,101, “Antibody Therapy for Treatment of Diseases Associated With Gluten Intolerance.”

This patent, which expires on May 27, 2029, provides broad coverage for treating celiac disease using

A Gluten Free Diet Helped My Kidney Disease Go Into Full Remission

In the summer of 2008 when the term “gluten” first entered my realm of awareness, I was enjoying a lifetime of excellent health except for the occasional cold or flu.  In the summer of 2009 I was devastated to be diagnosed with a chronic and progressive kidney disease called Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (or simply, FSGS) w/nephrotic syndrome.  Like celiac disease, FSGS is an inflammatory disease, enflaming and scarring the glomeruli, or filtering system, of the kidneys.  It was also that summer that I discovered that eliminating gluten from my diet put my disease into spontaneous, full remission, an extremely rare occurrence.  I am on no medication, and have better health than ever before.  Because of my fortune of getting my life back in short order, I want to share my experience with others so that others can be aware that eating gluten free does not only benefit those with celiac disease. 

How did I get so lucky to go from health to serious illness back to health in a short period of time?

Toxic Trio Identified as the Basis of Celiac Disease

ScienceDaily (July 22, 2010) — Walter and Eliza Hall Institute scientists have identified the three protein fragments that make gluten — the main protein in wheat, rye and barley — toxic to people with coeliac disease.

Professor Bob Anderson from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, Australia, has identified the three protein fragments that make gluten -- the main protein in wheat, rye and barley -- toxic to people with celiac disease. (Credit: Czesia Markiewicz, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute)

Their discovery opens the way for a new generation of diagnostics, treatments, prevention strategies and food tests for the millions of people worldwide with coeliac disease.

When people with coeliac disease eat products containing gluten their body’s immune response is switched on and the lining of the small intestine is damaged, hampering their ability to absorb nutrients. The disease is currently treated by permanently removing gluten from the patient’s diet.

Dr Bob Anderson, head of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute’s coeliac disease research laboratory, said it had been 60 years since gluten was discovered to be the environmental cause of coeliac disease.

“In the years since, the holy grail in coeliac disease research has been to identify the toxic peptide components of gluten; and that’s what we’ve done,” Dr Anderson said.

The research, done in collaboration with Dr Jason Tye-Din, Dr James Dromey, Dr Stuart Mannering, Dr Jessica Stewart and Dr Tim Beissbarth from the institute as well as Professor Jamie Rossjohn at Monash University and Professor Jim McCluskey at the University of Melbourne, is published in the journalScience Translational Medicine.

Dr. Bob Anderson & John Libonati at an NFCA-sponsored event April 30, 2009 in Philadelphia, USA where Dr. Anderson described his research and vaccine.

The study was started by Professor Anderson nine years ago and has involved researchers in Australia and the UK as well as more than 200 coeliac disease patients.

The patients, recruited through the Coeliac Society of Victoria and the Coeliac Clinic at John Radcliffe Hospital, UK, ate bread, rye muffins or boiled barley. Six days later, blood samples were taken to measure the strength of the patients’ immune responses to 2700 different gluten fragments. The responses identified 90 fragments as causing some level of immune reaction, but three gluten fragments (peptides) were revealed as being particularly toxic.

“These three components account for the majority of the immune response to gluten that is observed in people with coeliac disease,” Dr Anderson said.

Chronically-ill? Could Your Problem Be as Simple as Untreated Celiac Disease?

 Identifying celiac disease may seem simple enough. After all, there are tests your doctor can perform to determine if your body is reacting to gluten, the grain protein that those with celiac disease cannot tolerate. However, it is becoming more and more accepted that celiac disease may not always present as classic gut symptoms. Instead, celiac disease can cause and contribute to other diseases, deficiencies, ailments, and conditions. Because of this, some people with celiac disease may be diagnosed with diseases that could have been prevented or can be eliminated by a simple gluten-free diet. In other words, celiac is often considered the “root cause” of other conditions, even though it is seldom tested for in chronically-ill people.