Acid Reflux and Reflux Oesophagitis
Millions of people are plagued by the discomfort of acid reflux and oesophageal inflammation and are prescribed acid-suppressing medications such as Prilosec, Prevacid, Pepcid and Protonix, which they take every day for years. Treatment for acid reflux and reflux oesophagitis has proven to be enormously profitable. Annual revenues for these drugs for one company alone, AstraZeneca, exceeded £15 billion in 2011.1 More than one billion people – one out of every seven people on the planet – have been prescribed these drugs since their appearance on the market 35 years ago.
These drugs are not without health consequences. They have been associated with vitamin B12 and magnesium deficiency; impaired calcium absorption, osteoporosis and increased bone fracture risk; and increased risk of pneumonia.2 Use of such prescription drugs has been associated with changes in bowel flora resulting in dysbiosis (disrupted bowel flora) and increased potential for intestinal infection with Clostridium difficile.3 The dysbiosis provoked by such drugs is believed by some to explain the deterioration of multiple sclerosis symptoms that often develops with their use.4 Because the drugs are often ineffective and result in their own collection of health problems, doctors increasingly advise patients to undergo surgical procedures, such as fundoplication (surgically wrapping the stomach around the oesophagus) to avoid using the drugs. But for the majority of people taking these drugs for acid reflux and reflux oesophagitis, the real solution is as simple as saying ‘no’ to all grains.
Bowel Urgency and Irritable Bowel Syndrome
I am astounded by the number of people who relate tales of explosive bowel urgency, often with just seconds of warning, that cause their lives to be filled with anxiety during social situations, travel or a simple trip to the shops. While grains are commonly painted as good for bowel health because of the fibre they contain, the other components of grains create feelings of urgency, the symptoms of which are often labelled irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Gliadin and related prolamins, glutenins, wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), alpha amylase and trypsin inhibitors are bowel toxins, and bowel urgency is your body’s way of telling you that it is trying to get rid of some toxin causing irritation. It is wise to listen to your bowels, and they are saying, ‘stop the grains’.
IBS, particularly if diarrhoea is present, is also proving to be more coeliac disease-like than previously suspected in that it is associated with increased intestinal permeability and a high likelihood of dysbiosis.5 IBS and/or ‘gluten sensitivity’ are therefore not as benign as previously advertised, given that increased intestinal permeability has the potential to initiate autoimmune processes, among other issues.
Dysbiosis
Grains and other factors cause changes in bowel flora, allowing unhealthy species of bacteria to proliferate while suppressing or entirely knocking off healthy species, a condition called dysbiosis or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). Abnormal bacteria can also migrate into the upper small intestine and stomach, where they don’t belong, rather than being confined to the lowest end of the small intestine and the large intestine. In its most severe form, dysbiosis is experienced as nausea, abdominal distress, diarrhoea or constipation (typically diagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome), fatigue and low energy, inflammation of the skin and joints, diffuse muscle pain (often called fibromyalgia), nutrient deficiencies and autoimmune diseases.
One of the ways grains can trigger dysbiosis involves your gallbladder and pancreas, which are normally part of a wonderfully orchestrated system. When oils or fats are sensed in the duodenum, the hormone cholecystokinin (CCK) is released, stimulating the gallbladder to release bile and the pancreas to release a mix of digestive enzymes, all of which work to digest food. Funny thing, though: CCK receptors in the gallbladder and pancreas are glycoproteins, the kind of protein that WGA loves to bind.6 This blocks the CCK signal received by the gallbladder to release bile and the pancreas to release digestive enzymes. The result is inefficient, incomplete digestion. Undigested food ferments and decays in the presence of bacteria, effects you experience as bloating, gas and changes in stool character, including lighter colour and floating (due to undigested oils and fats). Over time, dysbiosis sets in, as the rotting food encourages growth of decay-causing bacteria. To top it all off, the failed release of bile by the gallbladder leads to bile stasis, which allows formation of gallstones.
Dysbiosis can also exacerbate existing conditions. Some people, genetically predisposed, develop inflammatory bowel diseases, ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease after exposure to the bowel toxins of grains. Should dysbiosis develop, these conditions are made even worse, as sufferers may experience diarrhoea, bleeding in the stool, poor nutrient absorption, pain and a long-term risk for complications, such as colon cancer for those with ulcerative colitis or small intestinal lymphoma and fissures for those with Crohn’s disease.
Constipation
A condition as pedestrian as constipation serves to perfectly illustrate many of the ways in which grains mess with normal body functions, as well as just how wrong conventional ‘solutions’ can be. Constipation remedies are like the Keystone Kops of health: they stumble, fumble and bump into each other, but never quite put out the fire.
Drop a rock from the top of a building and it predictably hits the ground – not sometimes, not half the time, but every time. That’s how the bowels are programmed to work, as well: Put food in your mouth, and it should come out the other end, preferably that same day and certainly no later than the following day. People living primitive lives without grains, sugars and soft drinks enjoy such predictable bowel behaviour: eat some turtle, fish, clams, mushrooms, coconut or mongongo nuts for breakfast, and out it all comes that afternoon or evening – large, steamy, filled with undigested remains and prolific quantities of bacteria, no straining, laxatives or stack of magazines required. Live a modern life and have pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast, instead. You’ll be lucky to pass that out by tomorrow or the next day. Or perhaps you will be constipated, not passing out your pancakes and syrup for days or passing it incompletely in hard, painful bits and pieces. In constipation’s most extreme forms, the remains of pancakes can stay in your colon for weeks. The combined effects of impaired CCK signalling, reduced bile release, insufficient pancreatic enzymes and changes in bowel flora disrupt the orderly passage of digested foods.
We are given advice to include more fibre, especially insoluble cellulose (wood) fibres from grains, in our diets. We then eat breakfast cereals or other grain-based foods rich in cellulose fibres and, lo and behold, it does work for some, as indigestible cellulose fibres, undigested by our own digestive apparatus as well as undigested by bowel flora, yield bulk that people mistake for a healthy bowel movement. Never mind that all of the other disruptions of digestion, from your mouth on down, are not addressed by loading up your diet with wood fibres. What if sluggish bowel movements prove unresponsive to such fibres? That’s when health care comes to the rescue with laxatives in a variety of forms, some irritative (phenolphthalein and senna), some lubricating (dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate), some osmotic (polyethylene glycol), some no different than spraying you down with a hose (enemas).
The methods of modern health care build on the problem. Perhaps you develop iron deficiency from grain phytates, necessitating prescription iron tablets that cause constipation. You also develop high blood pressure and are prescribed thiazide diuretics and beta-blockers, both of which increase constipation. Autoimmune thyroid disruption that can develop from prolamin proteins of grains also slows bowel function. When joints hurt from grain consumption, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents are taken, resulting in slowed stool passage. If you’re emotionally depressed due to grain consumption, antidepressants are prescribed that slow normal bowel reflexes that maintain motility. The constant message is to get more fibre, drink more fluids, take a laxative.
The longer stool-in-progress stays in the lower