Is there a TCM remedy for gluten sensitivity?

[Bindi]

Does anyone know if there is a TCM remedy for dealing with gluten sensitivity (I do get that Chinese diet would be more rice based, but wheat is surely more common there now), or any other methods that might reduce gluten sensitivity apart from a gluten free diet? Thanks.

[Aetherous]

What are your symptoms from eating gluten?

[Bindi]

I get very itchy in my hands, no other symptoms that I know of.

[Andrei]

Paleo diet

[SecretGrotto]

You wouldn't believe this, but I am definitely allergic to the following:

 

1) Milk protein

2) Gluten

3) Nuts (Peanuts and all tree nuts)

4) Eggs

5) Coffee beans

 

 

When I eat any of the above, in some degree or another my lips thicken and become hard as nails, my Eustachian tube skin begins to perforate and my nasal passages dry out. I also developed a nodule right on the large intenstine acupuncture point left of my nostril, which itches like a motherf*cker if I eat gluten.

 

With eggs especially my lips crack and bleed.

 

I've had this extensive allergy all my life, not knowing what it was. I often used nail clippers to trip my lips, because I could not tear off the dead skin fused to my lips without tearing off flesh.

 

I wanted to go Keto, but the exclusion of milk protein and nuts makes it incredibly hard to get a sustainable Keto diet.

 

Also, I'm a programmer and I can't drink coffee or my lips crack and bleed.

 

I wish it is just an energetic imbalance or something similar that TCM can fix, but I fear this is genetic as my mother and mother's mother have similar issues. The only remedy will be an esoteric DNA upgrade or something.

Edited June 27, 2015 by SecretGrotto

[vonkrankenhaus]

Gluten sensitivity may be related to these:

 

1. The gluten people are eating is refined wheat gluten. Refined wheat isn't even a food.

 

2. Immunizations may be making the immune-system functions in people's intestines malfunction.

 

I note that I have never seen a non-immunized person with gluten issues. Immunizations seem to be producing many allergies and sensitivities in people that were fairly uncommon before - peanuts, for example. I never saw anyone who was allergic to peanuts when I was young, but now I see this all the time.

 

Immunization is supposed to alter our immune functions. It apparently does. And one way it does is to cause the immune system to attack our own bodies.

 

I also note that I have seen people who were diagnosed with gluten sensitivity actually eat large amounts of Seitan - which is 100% wheat gluten made from whole wheat - and have no problems with it.

 

 

 

-VonKrankenhaus

Edited June 27, 2015 by vonkrankenhaus

[Orion]

I've unfortunately (fortunatley?) been learning a lot about this in recent months, very intensively, as I developed the most severe form of ulcerative colitis and almost died. I've been stuck in bed for months and researching all areas of the health world, communicating with experts all over the map, and cultivating my own healing process.

 

First of all, most modern allergies are due to the food itself. People used to ferment things a lot more than they do now, including wheat products. The tradition of letting kneaded dough sit out for half a day in the open air -- that no longer happens in factories. At the turn of the 20th century most people in the west were eating bread that had gluten content of about 5%, now it's 60% or more. A lifetime of exposure leads to sensitivity.

 

It's also how the food is grown. In most parts of the developed world now, wheat is GMO, sprayed with glysophate. The GMO wheat survives this process and then those chemicals make it to market. Corn has a similar fate, as does soy. Sugar does as well, unless it's organic sugar. Sometimes gluten free products still cause a gut reaction because they were made using GMO sugar, from sugar beets or cane sprayed with glysophate.

 

The other problem is that people eat like crap in general. If you've eaten a lifetime of bad food, you may have corrosion in the gut, which leads to leaky gut. With leaky gut, food particles pass the epthielial barrier causing immune reactions, and then bam, one day you can't eat that food anymore. Not everyone has this susceptibility, otherwise we would all be having problems. There seems to be some combo of genetic disposition, food, lifestyle, and where we hold our stress that contributes. For instance, I hold a lot of my stress in my gut (liver / spleen dynamic), so I've probably had this coming for years.

 

I'm a TCM practitioner, and I can tell you that straight up classical TCM does fuck all for things like IBD. I've been to 5 different herbalists, and it doesn't work, neither does the shi liao diet. Most people I've connected with who have UC say the same thing. China never had IBD until about 20 years ago, now people there are developing it as China adopts the same farming practices and modern eating culture of the west. The old models just haven't adapted to the understanding of what has happened to our modern food systems. Practitioners that incorporate other modalities into the work are more successful. Acupuncture doesn't do much either. My energy body is doing well, for the most part, but my bowels are still sorting themselves out.

 

So before you consider herbs and acupuncture, consider a diet that restores gut lining. No one single diet protocol has fixed this for me, I've had to make a lot of personal modifications... but you should look into the GAPS diet, the SCD diet, and perhaps the Low FODMAP diet. If you heal the gut, food sensitivities tend to go away, unless you were born with them, then it's a kidney essence issue from your parents and that's hard to fix.

 

You also have to include home made ferments in your diet regularly, something most westerners no longer do. Home made sauerkraut, water or milk kefir, kombucha, kimchi, yogurt, etc. Store bought stuff is mostly dead on arrival. You need to find the cultures and make it yourself. From that list, milk kefir is the most superior. I have not found kombucha to be very useful for repairing my gut, but it makes a nice tasty drink for the summer time. I was lactose intolerant until I started taking 48 hour milk kefir, and now I can handle some dairy again. Probiotic bacteria and yeast help form the gut barrier which protects you from allergic contamination, as they exist in our gut in the trillions. Taking kefir and sauerkraut has put my IBD into remission, along with diet modification.

Edited June 27, 2015 by Orion

[SecretGrotto]

Good advice Orion, hope you are recovering well from your brush with death.

 

My (gut) feeling about gluten is that it is, well, a glue.

 

In my body, when I eat gluten, it feels like my skin and lips are thickening and 'glueing' up from the allergic reaction of gluten. The overall feeling when I get a reaction is that I'm glueing up.

[vonkrankenhaus]

Re:

-----

"In most parts of the developed world now, wheat is GMO, sprayed with glysophate. The GMO wheat survives this process and then those chemicals make it to market. Corn has a similar fate, as does soy. Sugar does as well, unless it's organic sugar. Sometimes gluten free products still cause a gut reaction because they were made using GMO sugar, from sugar beets or cane sprayed with glysophate."

-----

 

Right. But this is chemical sensitivity, or "poisoning", and manifests in a range of symptoms and syndromes in addition to, or instead of, IBS.

 

Another thing to consider is that, at least in my experience, every case of IBS I have seen in young women, those women had a background of extreme dieting and especially laxative abuse. Another contributing factor.

 

 

-VonKrankenhaus

[Orion]

Right. But this is chemical sensitivity, or "poisoning", and manifests in a range of symptoms and syndromes in addition to, or instead of, IBS.

 

Another thing to consider is that, at least in my experience, every case of IBS I have seen in young women, those women had a background of extreme dieting and especially laxative abuse. Another contributing factor.

 

 

-VonKrankenhaus

 

I'd call it poisoning, personally. In North America, the incidence of IBD has increased by 300% in the past 12 years. That's crazy. Clearly the food system has a problem that's being swept under the rug by cronyism and bunk science. Europe also has IBD but not at the levels we have it.

 

I've noticed the same thing about women. Also, a history of sexual abuse, as there tends to be liver qi involvement.