Gluten free diet blog

This post is a long time in the making. I am an internist whousually cares for the elderly. I have a six year old who hasresponded so well to the GFCF diet that I would be surpised ifanyone even knew he had the problems he did. He has gone fromecholailac, hand flapping isolation to friendly, confident child,and he is doing great in kindergarten.

Nonetheless, until recently, I never was satisfied with why the dietworked. I read about how milk and wheat have peptides (AKAexorphins) that act on opioid receptors in the nervous system, but Inever really pressed to find out which specific receptors and whatthe reactions were to the body’s own internal opioids, theendorphins.

There were two things that re-ignited my interest. The first was ona drug for dementia known as Namenda. What amazed me was that thedrug Namenda seemed to work for exactly the types of problems Kevinwas having: fussing when his hair was brushed, when clothes were puton, loud noises, and bright lights. It turns out that all thesensory issues can be pinned on one central receptor in the brain,the NMDA receptor, n-methly d-aspartate for you who like precision.This receptor is stimulated by the amino acid, glutamate, andNamenda blocks glutamate from stimulating it.

I learned that when the brain appropriately breaks down glutatmate,it actually causes the brain to swell. This detoxification processcan be hindered by mercury and other heavy metals. So the processfor glutamate toxicity can either be excessive glutamate productiondue to exorphins from gluten and casein (which causes swelling) orimproper breakdown due to heavy metals (which actually causes thebrain to shrink).

This was all information I had gleaned months ago save one otherfact: the body actually has a chemical within it that causes thesensory integration part of autism, a hormone called dynorphin.When injected into a rat’s spinal cord, this chemical actuallycauses the rat to wince from stimulation that should not be painful.Pain being caused by stimulation that should not be painful iscalled ALLODYNIA, and it affects some people who do not have autism,such as migraine patients who needs to be in a dark room becauselight hurts their eyes.

Dynorphin is one of the three types of endorphins produced by thebody. The other two are endorphin (or beta endorphin, which isliterally latin for morphine inside the body) and enkephalins (latinfor morphine in the head). Dynorphin actually means againstmorphine.

Could it possibly be that autism is not just due to excessiveexorphins from wheat and dairy? Do autistics have excessivedynorphin? Do they have reduced enkephalin and beta endorphin? Andmaybe some of you are wondering does this go beyond autism?

The answer is yes. The endorphins have to do with virtually everyneurological disease state, and some even beyond that, alcoholism,obesity, skin rashes, and bowel function.