Reintroduce Gluten Into Your Diet at Your Own Risk!

Reintroduction of gluten into the diet of an individual with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity is a dangerous gamble. We have seen this clinically for many years and research supporting this statement will be cited below. For years I have felt a bit lonely as a seeming “voice of one” in this opinion.

All too often I would hear the horror stories from patients and readers of the terrible repercussions they experienced after reintroducing gluten on the advice of their doctor – typically as a preparation for an intestinal biopsy.

I am happy to say that I am no longer alone. Cyrex Laboratories, a new laboratory specializing in the area of gluten sensitivity and celiac testing, voices the same opinion.

New Laboratory Cautions Against Reintroducing Gluten Before Testing

Dr. Aristo Vodjani and Dr. Tom O’Bryan are two clinicians who have spearheaded the project. When they were recently questioned about whether they advised reintroducing gluten in order to get an accurate test, this is what they said: “If a person knows they are sensitive to gluten and have gone on a gluten-free diet, and want to know if they can have gluten again, then a challenge is in order (reintroduce gluten). THIS IS STRONGLY NOT RECOMMENDED. The gluten challenge has many cases of people who were damaged (some permanently) from the reaction to reintroducing gluten.”

Research Shows Support of This Theory

They go on to cite several studies: Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition 34:26-30 “Even Small Amounts of Gluten Cause Relapse in Children With Celiac Disease” – the title of the study says it all. This study states that it is no longer a requirement to reintroduce gluten when diagnosing celiac disease – American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1999;69:354-65.

Risk Increases for Autoimmune Disease

A paper in Gastroenterology 1999;117:297-303 focused on some of the repercussions of reintroduction as it related to developing an autoimmune disease. 374 children with celiac disease who were diagnosed before the age of 2, 5% developed an auto-immune disorder while on a gluten-free diet.

Of those who went gluten-free, had years of no symptoms, then reintroduced gluten, 3.65% developed systemic [throughout the body] auto-immune disease in less than 12 months of eating gluten. The prevalence jumped to 9.1 % after 13-36 months elapsed, and further skyrocketed to 26.3% after 36 months of eating a gluten-containing diet.

This means 1 out of 4 people who were sensitive to gluten, went gluten-free, and then later began eating gluten again developed auto-immune diseases within 3 years. Autoimmune diseases, taken as a whole, are the third leading cause of death in our country.

Help Me to Spread the Word

Do you see why I linked gluten reintroduction to Russian roulette?

Unfortunately, such reactions are not just something I’ve read about; I’ve seen it happen in patients and it’s very sad. I want to acknowledge these doctors and this lab for their strong (and correct) admonition. It’s not easy to take the road less traveled and break ranks with the crowd. But the dirt road of today will be the 5-lane highway of tomorrow and I truly believe that disseminating this information will save many from the onset of debilitating diseases such as celiac disease, cancer, and autoimmune disease.

Tell your friends and family and let me know how it goes. Remember that I’m always here to answer your questions!