I accumulated seemingly unrelated and increasingly debilitating symptoms over the years and despite seeking medical help had to finally figure out on my own that I was gluten sensitive at age 45. Testing confirmed that my children and mother were as well, and this explained much of the ill health going back several generations on our family tree. We've been on gluten-free diets (and also avoid dairy and other things each of us is sensitive to) for nearly five years. Many symptoms improved or went away quickly and others, seen in our culture as just "what happens when we grow older," are improving as well.

The symptom list is long and very diverse—not all gluten-sensitive individuals have GI symptoms, and the ingestion of gluten by undiagnosed/sensitive individuals can result in symptoms in nearly any organ or system in the body. I would encourage anyone with mysterious and chronic health complaints to look into it and to ask for a blood test called a celiac panel, which looks for three antibodies that react to gluten.

NOTE: You do NOT have to have Celiac Disease to be gluten sensitive. Gluten sensitivity or intolerance affects a large segment of the population and true celiacs, who have the more serious version and symptoms, are only a small percentage of that group.

Also know that most doctors are not familiar enough with this very common problem* to spot it in the first place, and that many will misinterpret test results and then offer not only prescriptions that mask (and sometimes exacerbate) symptoms but also give unhelpful or actually dangerous advice. I say this from actual/numerous experiences with a variety of doctors that different family members and I have seen. (We're now getting great help from a local naturopath.)

*Identified by a Greek physician nearly 2000 years ago, Celiac Disease was long thought to be a very rare condition. Studies show that 1 on 120 people have CD and more like ! in 7 are gluten sensitive.

Many doctors insist on a positive gut biopsy (all of ours were negative), or ignore a result of reactivity in one or another of the antibodies and will tell a patient they don't need to worry about cutting out grains because they are not satisfied to the standard they were taught. THE GOLD STANDARD for whether or not someone should be on a gluten free diet is if symptoms go away when grain is avoided and if symptoms return if grains are again ingested.

There's not enough room in the comment section to explain this properly, but when just one of my symptoms — I'd had migraines for 20 years and was up to two that lasted 2-3 days per week — went away within 48 of being on a gluten free diet, and stayed away, I was convinced.

There's a lot of information out there, people. Find out what ails you and do something about it.

my guess is that kseagle tried to get a job there but was rejected, or something like that.

This is a great idea for a program, and a great bit of reporting. This is positive exposure of a positive program which allows people one more resource for self-betterment.

I have benefitted from dietary changes too- eating actual food, and trying to eliminate mass produced, processed food from my diet has done wonders for me mentally and physically.

No, 5 Guys beats Local Burger any day.

btw introversion, you are so far off.

Oy! I have such mixed feelings when I read articles like this. There is no denying that what we eat DOES impact our health. But I have to ask a few questions, and I do not mean them sarcastically. 1) If we eliminate dairy from our diets, how do we get the calcium we need? Esp. premenopausal women? What about Vit. D? 2) If we eliminate all grains, how do we get the B vitamins we need? 3) I sincerely hope Ms. IIardi does not intend to imply that patients taking antidepressants should forsake taking them in favor of these other "six steps"? I believe these are excellent suggestions that should be used as adjunct therapies, NOT to replace medication. That would not be responsible practice. What would the psychiatrists at Bert Nash think of this approach? 4) Omega-3's-absolutely.

I have a precious 10 yr. old son who is profoundly autistic. I have had countless persons, all who mean well, come up to me and say, "If you just take away wheat and milk, he'll be cured." Didn't work. Others say, "If you just give him these supplements, (which are nothing but sugar) he'll be cured." Wrong again. It's got to the point where it's hurtful. Everyone seems to have a different opinion( and of course, they're each right) on how to "fix" an autstic child. In my son's case, I believe it is mostly hereditary, as my now deceased sister also had an autistic son. They never used any of these "wonder" diets on him, and he's progressed out of needing special ed. My boy-not so.

The same thing just is not going to be "the answer" for every person!! Btw, I also used to have horrible migraines. They went away when I divorced my first husband.

Misplacedcheesehead, I must respectfully disagree with you on a number of points:

1) Lactose tolerance is actually a very unusual and very recent trait in terms of human evolution. In many people of non-European ancestry, the body ceases to produce lactase into adulthood. People with Scandinavian ancestry usually have the highest percentage of lactose tolerance, and people with Thai ancestry have almost zero lactose tolerance. People 40,000 years ago and the larger portion of humans on Earth at this moment get along fine without consuming dairy products.

2) One can apply this same analytical tool to human consumption of grains. Grains were not cultivated and consumed as a staple until relatively late in human history. For 80,000 or so years, we did just fine on a diet in which grains of any kind were either nonexistent or gathered and eaten in very small quantities. Also, if you are from Western Europe, your likelihood of developing celiac's disease (caused by wheat/spelt/barley/rye/etc.) increases, especially if you are Irish. Coincidentally, far western Europe was one of the last places that grain agriculture reached.

3) Dr. Ilardi is both an excellent professor and a very compassionate human being in general. Bert Nash is fine with this treatment in outpatient cases, as far as I know. Bert Nash offers cognitive-behavioral therapy, medication therapy, or both in conjunction. Ilardi's program would most likely fall into the category of cognitive-behavioral therapy with some nutrition and lifestyle changes thrown into the mix. Besides, some people opt out of the medication option completely.

Personally, I have a gluten sensitivity. Also, I can't eat much dairy without it putting me into a psychological funk. It is the casein in dairy products, not the lactose, that bothers me.

I'll close this post by saying that I am of the opinion that many chronic medical symptoms have nutritional causes/influences, whether it be from gluten, lactose, casein, eggs, monosodium glutamate, etc. I was amazed when I stopped eating wheat products. Every now and then, I'll accidentally consume soy sauce or beer with wheat in it. Usually, I know within the first couple swallows that I've just ingested some wheat gluten. I get irritable, my jaw clenches up, thinking clearly becomes extremely difficult, and I just start feeling like hell. For some reason, soy sauce seems to be the worst.

kseagle (Anonymous) says… "btw introversion, you are so far off."

Ok, did someone put wasabi in your neti pot?

My 8 year old daughter is allergic to wheat. We found this out when she was 6. There are other types of grains which can be used in place of wheat. One just has to have the patience to try them out to see which works best for them.

Also on the dairy note, there are plenty of alternatives available to choose from, rice, soy, etc. One just has to think outside of what we have all been brought up to believe to be the only choices we have.

Redwoodcoast--soy sauce has wheat in it. read the ingredients.

Its amazing what you find in our foods when you just read the labels. Sometimes scary too.