Gluten and the Brain

Celiac disease may present as a vague illness, even a mental illness. Patients complain of dysphoria with fatigue, difficulty in concentration, loss of recent memory, irritability, loss of pleasure and interests, often with sleep disturbances. Sleep and dreaming are influenced by food problems. Most people eat their major meal in the evening and snack at night. This food is digested and absorbed during the night and symptoms often emerge as you sleep. Some allergenic effects tend to peak at night - asthma, migraine, body pains, and itching are often at their worst. Sleep disturbances include difficulty falling asleep, frequent waking and nightmares Coeliac disease in adolescents has been associated with an increased prevalence of depressive and disruptive behavioural disorders. A significant decrease in psychiatric symptoms was found at 3 months on a gluten-free diet.

Dohan    advocated a gluten-schizophrenia link Among Dohan's interesting recommendations is the "gluten tolerance test". A gluten tolerance test could be initiated with evaluations before and after ingestion of cereal grain foods. Some patients report changes in their level of psychic energy, cognitive abilities, and emotional states. Arousal disturbances in schizophrenics may be similar to the disturbances we see in food allergic children and adults with mood swings, episodes of irritability, hyperactivity and attention-memory deficits. Food control should alleviate these disturbances within the schizophrenia complex even if an underlying disease process remains intact. Dohan’s theory that gluten-derived peptides cause schizophrenia has been advanced by several researchers. Reichelt et al isolated bovine casomorphin 1-8 immunoreactive peptides from the urine and dialysis fluid of schizophrenics and autistics.

The problem of adverse brain effects of molecules derived from food is under-recognized. These and other clues to mysterious and threatening neurological diseases suggest that any prudent person suffering early brain-dysfunction symptoms would be wise to pursue vigorous, thorough diet revision at the earliest opportunity.

Gluten and Cerebellar Ataxia

One example of specific brain injury from eating gluten is cerebellar ataxia. The cerebellum looks after the coordination and smoothing of movements so that problems here show up as movement disorders. Gluten sensitivity, with or without classical celiac disease symptoms and intestinal pathology, is a treatable cause of cerebellar ataxia. Bushara et al   reported: “We investigated the prevalence of abnormally high serum immunoglobulin A (IgA) and IgG anti-gliadin antibody titers and typical human lymphocyte antigen (HLA) genotypes in 50 patients presenting with cerebellar ataxia who were tested for molecularly characterized hereditary ataxias. A high prevalence of gluten sensitivity was found in patients with sporadic (7/26; 27%) and autosomal dominant (9/24; 37%) ataxias, including patients with known ataxia. Patients with hereditary ataxia (including asymptomatic patients with known ataxia genotype) should be considered for screening for gluten sensitivity and gluten-free diet trials.”

Hadjivassiliou  et al    reported that patients with gluten ataxia have antibodies against Purkinje cells. Antigliadin antibodies cross-react with epitopes on Purkinje cells. Burk et al reported the symptoms of gluten ataxia: “The clinical syndrome was dominated by progressive cerebellar ataxia with ataxia of stance and gait (100%), dysarthria (100%) and limb ataxia (97%). Oculomotor abnormalities were gaze-evoked nystagmus (66.7%), spontaneous nystagmus (33.3%), saccade slowing (25%) and upward gaze palsy (16.7%). Extracerebellar features also included deep sensory loss (58.3%), bladder dysfunction (33.3%) and reduced ankle reflexes (33.3%).”

Luostarinen  et al   suggested: “ It is well known that coeliac disease may be associated with various neurological manifestations. We have had a high index of suspicion of coeliac disease during recent years in our neurological clinic. As a result 10 (7%) out of 144 of our new coeliac patients were detected because of neurological symptoms. The most common neurological manifestations were neuropathy, memory impairment and cerebellar ataxia. In these patient groups screening for coeliac disease with serological antibody tests helps to find patients who may suffer from this disease.”

Wills suggested  : “A number of neurological syndromes have been described in association with celiac disease. These include disorders of the central nervous system encompassing epilepsy, myoclonus, ataxia, internuclear opthalmoplegia, multifocal leukoencephalopathy and dementia. Most of these associated conditions show a poor response to gluten restriction. Peripheral neuropathies, of axonal and demyelinating types, have also been reported and may respond to elimination of gluten from the diet. The mechanism underlying these processes remains obscure but may be immunological or related to trace vitamin deficiencies. Controversially, it has also been claimed that occult celiac disease accounts for a substantial proportion of patients with neurological dysfunction of unknown cause. Some authorities recommend that cryptogenic ataxias and neuropathies should be routinely screened for the presence of gluten-sensitivity but this remains contentious and has not been universally accepted. “

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Human Brain in Health and Disease

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The Human Brain in Health and Disease, 2010, is a Persona Digital Book. We encourage readers to quote and paraphrase topics from Human Brain in Health and Disease published online and expect proper citations to accompany all derivative writings. The author is Stephen Gislason and the publisher is Persona Digital Publications. The date of publication is 2010. The URL to the book description is Human Brain