Just a decade ago conventional medicine believed that non-celiac gluten sensitivity was a bunch of nonsense. A doctor could be laughed out of the room for even bringing it up! Now a quick search of PubMed.gov shows that there are hundreds of scholarly papers and studies from prestigious medical journals on the topic. As we have started to understand the interplay between the gut and the immune system we have discovered that sensitivity to gluten exists on a spectrum. Whenever we see a patient with any kind of chronic health concerns eliminating gluten is one of our first recommendations. One of my favorite health crusaders on the subject is neurologist Dr. David Perlmutter. He has written several excellent books summarizing the latest research on the impact of gluten on our health. As he says:
“Hardly a day goes by that I don’t see an article either in print or on the Internet indicating that the notion of going gluten-free is entirely overblown. Typically, the conclusions often sounds something like, “While only about 1.6% of Americans, those with confirmed celiac disease, need to be on a gluten-free diet, there is absolutely no reason for anyone else to adopt this diet.””
