GFCF & Mental Health

[Guest guest]

Since the question often arises about the gfcf diet and whether it

helps non-ASD diagnosed kids, moms with CFS/FMS, etc., I thought I'd

post the following from Dr. Karl Reichelt. He has also written about

ADHD & gluten

" Date: 26 Feb 1996

What most people ignore is that both peptides and trace amounts but

biologically significant amounts of proteins are taken up across the

gut mucosa(1,2). Because one molecule of gluten contains at least 15

opioid sequences it is quite clear that this could cause a problem.

Increased peptide excretion is found in the urine of coeliacs before

treatment (3) (Reichelt et al in prep).

That this is so is confirmed by a series of papers that demonstrate

intact food proteins in mothers milk(4-7).

A Canadian group has confirmed that gluten does change a brain enzyme

and monoamine levels (8) in cats. They are not gluten eating animals.

There is increasing evidence that components from food do indeed

cause serious psychiatric(9-12) and neurological(13-16) disease. Even

rheumatoid arthritis as such may have a link to food proteins(17) and

it well established that stress (which such a disease is to a very

large extent) increases gut permeability. Nobody denies the

possibility of reactive depression, but there is little reason why

this could not be made worse by dietary factors. Because antibodies

are indeed induced by peptides it may even be so that dietary

peptides by mimicry to endogenous cell surface peptide sequences, may

be responsible for many autoimmune diseases(18).

References:

1: Gardner MLG (1994) Physiology of the gastrointestinal tract. Edit:

LR . Raven press 3rd edit. pp 1795-1820.

2: Husby S et al (1985) Scand J Immunol 22:83-92.

3: Klosse JA et al (1972) Clin Chim Acta 42:409-422.

4: Kilshaw PJ and Cant AJ (1984) Inter. Arch Allergy Appl Immunol

75:8-15.

5: Axelsson I et al (1986) Acta paed Scand 75:702-707.

6: Stuart CA et al (1984) Clin Allergy 14:533-535.

7: Troncone R et al (1987) Acta paed Scand 76:453-456.

8: Thibault L et al (1988) J Clin Biochem Nutr. 4:209-221.

9: Hallert C et al (1982) Psychic disturbances in adult coeliac

disease III.Reduced central monoamine metabolism and signs of

depression. Scand J Gastroenterol 17:25-28.

10: Singh MM and Kay SR (1976) Wheat gluten as a pthogenic factor in

schizophrenia. Science 191:401-402.

11: Dohan FC and Grasberger JC (1973) relapsed schizophrenics:

earlier discharge from the hospital after cereal-free, milk-free

diet. Amer J Psychiat 130:685-686.

12: Reichelt KL et al (1990) The effect of gluten free diet on

glycoprotein attached urinary peptidee excretion and behaviour in

schizophrenics. J Orthomol Med 5:223-239.

13: Gobbi G et al (1992) Coeliac disease, epilepsy and cerebral

califications. The Lancet 340:439-443.

14: K-D et al (1985) EEG-Befunde Zoeliakikranken Kindern in Abh

{ngigkkeit von der Ern{hrung. Z Klin Med 40:707-709.

15: Kahn A et al (1987) Difficulty of initiating sleep associated

with cow's milk allergy in infants. Sleep 10:116-121.

16: Hadjivassiliou M et al (1996) Does cryptic gluten sensitivity

play a part in neurological illness? The Lancet 347:369-371.

17: Kjeldsen-Kragh J et al (1991) Controlled trial of fasting and one-

year vegetarian diet in rheumatoid arthritis. The Lancet 338:899-902.

18: Karjalainen J et al (1992) Bovine albumin peptide as a possible

trigger of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. New Eng J Med 327:302-

307. "