Menopause, the time in a woman’s life between about ages 45 and 55 marking the completion of her childbearing years and the end of her menstrual cycles, is often a time of marked hormonal changes. Depression, anxiety, headaches, leg cramps, varicose veins, irritability, and the famous “hot flashes” that occur are some of the more common symptoms.
But many doctors believe that lifestyle changes can minimize these symptoms, and one of those lifestyle changes is diet. Although there is some debate over wheat’s role in these lifestyle changes, many experts, including Christiane Northrup, MD, author of The Wisdom of Menopause, believe that eliminating wheat from the diet – especially refined wheat – can help relieve menopausal symptoms.
Millions of people are allergic to wheat – so many, in fact, that it has made it onto the top-eight allergen list. Keep in mind that an allergy to wheat is different from celiac disease or other forms of gluten sensitivity – we talk more on that later in this chapter.
Allergic reactions to wheat can include gastrointestinal distress (stomach upset), eczema, hay fever, hives, asthma, and even anaphylaxis (a severe, whole-body allergic reaction), which is life-threatening.
Other than the anaphylaxis, these symptoms sound a lot like gluten sensitivity or celiac disease, don’t they? That’s why sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference. That’s also why sometimes people get allergy testing and find out they’re not allergic to wheat – so they’re told to go back to a normal diet of pizza, bread, and bagels. Not necessarily good advice, because they could actually have gluten sensitivity or celiac disease. So it’s important to be properly tested.
Some foods cause your blood sugar levels to spike, which causes your body to produce insulin. That, in turn, causes your blood sugar to fall dramatically. Basically, your blood sugar levels go from the even keel they should be on, to being the best roller coaster ride in the park. Easy, Evil Knievel. That’s not a good thing in this case.
Our bodies are designed to work with stable blood sugar levels. When they’re up, then down, and all around, it causes a domino effect of not-so-healthy things to occur. Lots of people talk about hypoglycemia – a weak, shaky feeling that usually goes away after eating, especially after eating sweet foods. Although most people don’t have “true” hypoglycemia, they may feel hypoglycemic when their blood sugar drops too much. The problem with the idea of “fixing” this feeling with sugary foods is that it just continues this roller coaster of blood sugar levels that are too high, and then too low. One of the most serious conditions that can result from blood sugar whiplash is insulin resistance and diabetes.
You know the kind of fat that sneaks up on you when you think you’re doing everything right, but those getting-tighter-every-day jeans say otherwise?
It could just be the wheat – especially refined wheat. That’s because of what it does to your blood sugar – yeah, you can cheat and look back at the section before this one if you didn’t read it well enough the first time – but again, it’s not that complicated. Refined wheat is a high–glycemic index food that causes your blood sugar to spike. That makes your body produce insulin, which, by the way, is often referred to as the “fat-storing hormone.”
Yikes. Just when you thought you were being so good by leaving the cream cheese off the bagel – you should probably ditch the bagel altogether.
Maybe you’ve heard (or even said) things like, “I think I’m allergic to dairy because the cheese on my pizza makes me bloat.” Oh, really? What makes you think it’s the cheese? Because more people have heard of lactose intolerance than gluten intolerance, they figure that must be what’s making them feel icky.
Most people have no idea that they have a gluten sensitivity or celiac disease, so they usually start pointing to all the wrong culprits: cheese (dairy), tomato sauce (acids), or soy. But they’re blaming the wrong foods. These people have no idea that the typical American diet comprised of bagels, pasta, pizza, cakes, cookies, and pretzels could be wreaking havoc on nearly every system in their bodies, so they continue to eat them and wonder why they don’t feel good.
So how many people fall into this category? No one knows for sure. We do know that 1 in 100 people has celiac disease – but most don’t know it. No one knows how many people have gluten sensitivity, but estimates are that it may be as high as 50 percent, or even 70 percent, of the population. Top that with those who have a wheat allergy, and – here, let us get our calculator out – tons of people + gobs more = an astoundingly high percentage of the population!
Recognizing Different Types of Gluten-Related Problems
Lots of people – maybe even most people – have some form of gluten sensitivity. But is it sensitivity, allergy, or celiac disease? Sometimes it’s tough to tell. These sections delve deeper into the types of gluten-related issues.
There’s really no such thing as an allergy to gluten. If you happen to be allergic to all three gluten-containing grains (wheat, rye, and barley), then you might have reason to say that you were allergic to gluten – even though you’re really allergic to the three grains that fall under the gluten umbrella. But most people misuse the term and say they’re allergic to gluten when what they really mean to say is that they have an intolerance or sensitivity to gluten, or they have full-blown celiac disease.
Allergies to gluten-containing foods are just like other food allergies. They’re all responses to a food allergen, and the reaction that someone has to those foods varies from person to person and from one food to another.
Allergic symptoms can be respiratory, causing coughing, nasal congestion, sneezing, throat tightness, and even asthma. Acute allergic reactions to food usually start in the mouth, with tingling, itching, a metallic taste, and swelling of the tongue and throat. Sometimes symptoms are farther down the intestinal tract, causing abdominal pain, muscle spasms, vomiting, and diarrhea.
Any severe and acute allergic reaction also has the potential to cause anaphylaxis, or anaphylactic shock. This life-threatening condition affects different organs, and symptoms can include a feeling of agitation, hives, breathing problems, a drop in blood pressure, and fainting. In some cases, an anaphylactic response to an allergen can be fatal unless the person having the allergic reaction receives an epinephrine (adrenaline) injection.
Gluten sensitivity can mean a lot of different things, and that label is often misused; it’s a very fuzzy term. Basically, it’s a sensitivity to gluten – hence the clever term. Often used interchangeably, the terms sensitivity and intolerance mean that your body doesn’t react well to a particular food and you should avoid it. Symptoms of gluten sensitivity are usually the same as those of celiac disease, and as with celiac disease, they usually go away on a gluten-free diet.
Unlike gluten sensitivity, celiac disease is well-defined. It’s a common, yet often misdiagnosed, genetic intolerance to gluten that can develop at any age, in people of any ethnicity. When people with celiac disease eat gluten, their immune systems respond by attacking the gluten molecule, and in so doing, the immune system also attacks the body itself. This is called an autoimmune response, and it results in damage to the small intestine, which can cause poor absorption of nutrients.
Although the damage occurs in the gastrointestinal tract (specifically in the small intestine), not all symptoms are gastrointestinal in nature. That’s because celiac disease is multisystemic – the symptoms show up in many different ways and can occur in just about every organ of the body. In fact, symptoms are vast and varied, and they sometimes come and go, which makes diagnosis difficult.
Does someone who has gluten sensitivity also have celiac disease? Not necessarily.